Recently, a customer stopped by our office to double check her finger size on a ring we had just cast for her. When she saw the raw piece, straight from casting, she freaked out. I then explained to her more about the jewelry manufacturing process from 3D CAD, to the printed wax, to casting, to the beautiful polished, finished piece. When the ring was polished and ready a few days later, she stopped by to pick it up and could not believe the difference!
This got me thinking that maybe people think jewelry comes out of casting looking all polished and ready to go. Well, this is not the case. Here is a ring we recently custom manufactured for a client of mine. He wanted a diamond halo cocktail ring with 40 round brilliant cut diamonds surrounding a 9.58ct blue zircon. I want to walk you through the steps of the manufacturing process and show you some behind-the-scene pictures and CADs….
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The 3D CAD is designed with all of the details in mind. We know the shape, size and carat weight of the center stone as well as the customer’s finger size. Here you can see the 3D CAD. - The next step is to have the CAD printed into wax form. This wax is then sent to casting and a day or so later, voila, we have the raw, cast piece. Below (left) you can see the raw, casting.
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Left: Raw piece straight out of casting. Right: Finished custom ring.
Once the ring has been cast, our jeweler does an initial polish so the ring can go to diamond setting. Our expert pave setter carefully handsets each pave diamond using a microscope. Once the accent diamonds are set, the center stone is set and the ring goes through a final polish and rhodium. Here you can see the final product.
- Our last step in the manufacturing process is to make sure the ring has gone through a thorough inspection process. We check for loose center stones, loose diamonds, we double check finger size, that the metal is stamped properly, etc. This is a critical step, like all the previous ones, to ensure a perfect, final product.
To learn more about our custom process or our manufacturing in general, click here. It’s really incredible to see a piece of jewelry go from concept to final product and everything in between. If you need help with designing a piece of jewelry or if you have questions regarding the manufacturing process, please do not hesitate to call on us!