No 144/74, Eskay building, 3rd floor,
Greams Road, Thousand Lights
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
India,
Mobile: +91-9444100081,+91-9840689781
seshu.gopal@jewelrydesignacademy.com
A piece of jewellery begins as a figment of the imagination.
It takes years of training for a designer to translate this thought onto a
design platform. He has to learn the intricacies of jewelry design and
drawing and have an understanding of all of the various precious metals and
stones that are included in the product. A designer also requires an
understanding of how to balance various metals with gemstones to create a
viable product. Also, creating trendy or value-driven designs requires
extensive industry and market knowledge.
A skilled
craftsman with many years of experience transforms a two-dimensional
drawing into a three-dimensional wax model. Many varieties of wax
exist, each developed for a particular application. Some wax is
designed for carving, while others are cut from sheets, and are heated
and fashioned by numerous methods to define shapes and details in the
wax.
Lost-wax investment casting was established in the early
1900s in the dental industry. It soon became the leading method of
creating reproductions because of its increased accuracy over existing
methods. It soon evolved into a process for jewelry, where it has grown
to be the dominant form of mass production. The goal of lost-wax
investment casting is to create wax copies that allow mass production
of items identical to a handmade original.
It begins with a piece of metal jewelry called the
model. In order to make a rubber mold, one must cover the metal model
with a solid layer of unvulcanized rubber and subject it to pressure
and heat. Then, using a very sharp knife the rubber mold is dissected
and the original model is removed.
Molten wax is then injected into the resulting rubber
mold – a process that can be repeated to produce mass numbers of the
original model.
Next, the wax models are placed on a sprue. The term
"sprue" generally refers to a wax rod, or series of rods,
that secure a wax model to a specifically configured rubber or plastic
base. Once the waxes have been securely attached to the sprue base
using sprue rods, a stainless steel flask is carefully inserted inside
the outer lip of the sprue base, so as to surround the waxes while
still leaving, minimally, a quarter inch space between the wax and the
inside of the flask.
Investment, a material that resembles plaster of Paris,
is poured around the wax models to completely fill the open spaces.
After the investment has set, the sprue base is
removed and the object is placed inside of a kiln. This process is
called the burn out. The temperature of the kiln is slowly raised to
an excess of one thousand degrees Fahrenheit, completely “burning
out” the wax to leave a mold.
Once the investment is thoroughly cured, the temperature
is brought down to a specific temperature and allowed to settle before
pouring in the liquidized metal. As a general rule, the greater the
detail and the finer the areas the metal must fill, the hotter the flask
needs to be in order to allow the metal to completely fill the voids
where the wax was before the metal freezes. Once the flask has cooled,
the investment is removed, leaving a rough version of the original
design.
Although lost wax casting is still the dominant form of mass
production, new technologies, such as rapid prototyping, offer future
promise to reduce manufacturing time and costs associated with the lost
wax method.
Now that a raw piece of jewelry has been removed from
the kiln, there are various processes required to give the piece a
finished look. The goal of the final steps of finishing is to achieve
a bright, mirror-like polish that is free of any visible abrasions,
dents or irregularities. The polishing stage requires many different
types of wheels that are used for particular applications, such as
corners, flat surfaces, and difficult to reach areas. Polishing is
the final abrasion or smoothing of karat gold before buffing. It
leaves a dull finish and removes visible traces of sanding or other
abrasive procedures. Next, lapping is a step in the polishing process
for karat gold jewelry that has sharp corners or flat surfaces.
Lastly, buffing creates the mirror-like finish and causes
little-to-no metal to be removed. It is the final step in the
professional finishing process.
Adding
gemstones and diamonds to the finished casting is a very delicate
process. The art of setting requires years of training. An
accomplished setter is adept at protecting the gemstone while
securing it tightly into the ring. There are multiple types of
settings that secure the stone in the finished casting. Diamonds, for
instance, may be set in seven different types of settings, each
displaying the diamond(s) in different ways.
Bar: Metal bars hold the loose
diamonds in a channel-like setting.
Bezel: The metal is formed tofit
around the diamond, cupping it into place.
Channel: A row of smalldiamond
stones are set in a groove in the diamond rings.
Chevron: V-shaped prongs
thatusually hold a marquise or princess-cut diamond for solitaire
style rings.
Invisible: Diamond set in agroove
without visible prongs.
Pave: Tiny stones are embeddedto
look like the piece is paved with loose diamonds.
Prong: Several prongs hold
thediamonds to let light pass through without interference.
The final stage of manufacturing includes the finishing
touches that assure the customer a quality product. Rhodium or gold plating may
be added to the product to enhance its attractiveness, followed by a thorough
cleaning process. After adding a trademark symbol to the finished product to
identify its origins, the product goes through a rigorous quality control
process. This process is in place to ensure that there are no scratches or pits
in the metal, no broken or loose stones in the setting, and no rough edges on
the prongs. Once these qualifications are met, the piece of jewelry is ready for
shipping.
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