By Gary Hocking
We need to understand two things before we can make a decision as to whether a piece of jewellery made by hand is better or worse than a casting: What is a casting? What is made by hand?
Hand made Jewellery.
Jewellery made by hand is jewellery which is made by the use of bending, twisting, hammering, filing sawing and soldering metal until it has the form of a piece of jewellery that the maker wants.
Let’s take a simple example: a plain wedding band or wedder as it is often referred to. The jeweller starts off with a lump of gold which he melts down and pours into a steel mould. It comes out of this mould in the shape of something resembling a big nail. He takes this piece and rolls the metal through a mill until finally he get a long flat piece of metal. He cuts that piece to a length which will fit around the customer’s finger. Next he hammers it into the shape of a ring and he solders it to form a ring. After that he might file it into a nice rounded shape, polish it, and he now has a gold wedding band! The whole process probably takes about an hour or a bit more
Now he wants another one for the customer’s spouse to be. So the whole process starts again and proceeds just like the last. Tomorrow a new customer comes in and wants a ring just like the one he made yesterday so wouldn’t it be better if he could have copied the first one some how?
The casting process.
He now makes one perfect wedding ring. Once finished this is called the model or master. From this master he is going to make tens or hundreds of copies all identical to the first one that he made by hand. In the jewellery trade the main casting method is called The Lost Wax Casting Method.
Advantages and disadvantages of the two methods:
A hand made piece takes hours and sometimes days to make while a casting takes minutes to cast a hundred identical pieces. Of course there is cleaning up to do but the time spent is nothing like making a piece by hand. So the labour cost is a fraction of the hand made piece.
A hand made piece is likely to be stronger and denser and as it is hammered and filed it becomes harder in the process. The jeweller is carefully making this single piece and is naturally conscious of its quality all the way.
Sometimes a casting can have bubbles inside which may be missed by the manufacturer causing the item to break years later for no apparent reason. Of course, in a modern, well equipped workshop things like this are under tight control, but it can happen.
Is a hand made piece unique? Not necessarily. The jeweller might have a cast piece which he is copying. I am often asked to copy a grandmother’s piece of jewellery so that it can be given to a second daughter.
So what’s the answer? Which is the better method? A casting will be cheaper and so more people can enjoy the same thing. Would I be happy for my daughter to wear a cast ring? Absolutley, in fact she does. But I have also made her many pieces by hand.
A one off engagement ring may be better if it is made by hand with all that attention to detail and quality, but it is going to cost you for the priviledge!
Author: Gary Hocking. A manufacturing jeweller who makes items of jewellery for people all over the world. He has his own websites: http://www.jewelleryexpress.com.au and http://opaljewelryexpress.com
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