Find out how Jewelry is made

The method used to make a number of identical pieces of fine jewelry is called casting. A master model is made, generally of metal. Then a rubber impression, or mold, is made of the master model. Molten wax is cast in the rubber mold to make a wax model. This wax model is used to form a second mold, made of plaster of Paris. This plaster mold is placed in an oven, and the wax is melted out. A hole left in the plaster lets the wax escape and the precious metal enter. The plaster mold can be used only once. The first, or rubber, mold may be used hundreds of times.

The casting process is much faster than working each piece separately. But it is far from an automatic process. Each step must be done by hand. Great care and a high degree of skill are necessary.

Not all fine jewelry begins as a casting. Much of it starts as a flat piece of precious metal, which is turned into an original design. When a jeweler works this way, he uses many different hand tools, such as files, punches, saws, mallets, and pliers. He also uses a blowtorch to solder the parts of an article together.

Jewelry is also made by stamping. In this process the metal is pressed between two shaped steel surfaces called dies. Dies are expensive to make, so stamping is used only to make large quantities of jewelry of the same pattern. Stamping usually makes the article in two halves, which then have to be joined together.