How is Gold Jewellery Made?

Have you ever wondered how gold is made into various stunning jewellery designs? Jewellery used to be made entirely by hand, with metals being moulded into shape and gemstones being painstakingly placed into their clasps. However, with advances in technology, jewellers are now equipped with a range of fantastic machinery to help craft pieces in quicker time.

Read on to learn how gold jewellery is made in a variety of ways.

Hand Made

Even with the advancements in technology, hand-made jewellery is still very much a thing in 2018. Whether the jewellery is going to be made from silver, gold or platinum, it needs to be heated slowly until it forms a block that can be slowly moulded.

It is then moved over to an iron wheel, where the metal is placed and rolled to create sheets, or wires, that will eventually create the various parts of the jewellery piece.

It will then move on to create the base of the jewellery as well as the clasps that will hold the gemstone. Once all elements of the jewellery piece have been created, they will then be soldered together.

Finally, the jewellery will be polished and cleaned to remove any dirt from hard-to-reach places. A setter will then place each gemstone into its clasp with utter accuracy.

The ultimate quality of hand-made jewellery depends entirely on the skills of the worker creating the piece.

Gold Casting

Gold casting is a popular method of jewellery making and uses CAD software to design the wax model via a 3D printer.

Firstly, the mould is created in the desired jewellery design. Hot liquid wax is then added to the mould, which eventually cools down and hardens. It is then separated from the mould, revealing a wax version of the jewellery.

The next step is investment casting. The wax jewellery will be placed in a furnace and filled with plaster. The heat from the furnace melts away the wax jewellery and leaves the hardened cavity of plaster. Molten gold is then poured inside the cavity, of which is quickly cooled.

The gold casted jewellery is polished to reveal a beautiful piece of jewellery made from gold.

Die Striking

Die Striking is used to create lightweight pieces of thin, gold jewellery. It is done quickly by punching thin sheets of precious metal into a shape via large dies that have an image or text already inscribed. Die striking is similar to a hole punch!

At Cuttings, we have a large variety of stunning gold jewellery pieces, including this vintage 18ct gold sapphire ring and this 15ct gold antique locket.

For more information about our current stock, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the Cuttings team today via our contact page.