How jewelry is made in factories. For its weight in gold. How jewelry is made. Equipment for an individual jeweler's workshop

Making jewelry is a long and painstaking process that requires several years of training, knowledge of physics, chemistry and the availability of expensive special equipment. We know this and spend hours looking for the desired jewelry in stores. Many even develop a sketch on their own and turn to a jewelry workshop so that the master makes a dream jewelry for them.

Times are changing, and now everyone can be a jewelry master. In order to make a real silver ring with our own design, we turned to a jewelry school ARGENTARIUM and made sure that it is not only interesting and exciting, but also really easy.

(Total 26 photos)

Before starting work, we were shown decorations made by instructors and students of the school. There are many options for decorations, and all this can be done with your own hands.

Despite such a variety of possibilities, we still wanted the ring. We decided that, if you like it, we will return a little later for the pendant.

First surprise: it turned out that it was not required to melt silver in order to give it desired shape. The decoration is made of plastic Precious Metal Clay (PMC) silver, which was invented by the specialists of the Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials Corporation. Made from a mixture of tiny particles of silver, water and a non-toxic plasticizer, PMC is as easy to work with as regular plasticine.

The whole process is simple and straightforward: you need to come up with a piece of jewelry, make it, burn it in an oven (water and plasticizer will burn out, and silver particles will firmly sinter with each other), and at the end you will get silver item 999th test. Modern alchemy at its finest! Before starting work, the head of the school, Evgenia, showed us what tools we can use to create exactly the decoration we want.

Surprise two: most of the tools for work can be found at hand: any texture can be “printed”, and to cut the desired shape, an awl or blade will do.

Various dies for making imprints and imprints on silver mass before firing.

To create volumetric products, you can use liquid silver in a syringe. Silver paste is squeezed onto the cork base with a syringe. During the firing process, this base burns off, and you get a hollow silver bead, similar to those that were created by silversmiths hundreds of years ago and were called "filigree".

There are thin plates-leaves of plastic silver, from which you can fold any figure, for example, origami. Isn't it a miracle to build yourself a crane or a boat of pure silver?

And you can use dried leaves as a blank for future decoration. If the leaf is covered with liquid silver, burned, the leaf will burn, and you will get a unique pendant or pendant that completely repeats all natural curves and textures, which are simply impossible to make on your own.

In jewelry, there is nowhere without precious stones. Multi-colored inserts can be added to the design of any jewelry: cubic zircons (cubic zirconia) or other laboratory stones that withstand high temperature.

Of course, it was very tempting to make a unique pendant for ourselves, but we came for the ring and decided to make it anyway.

Before you start working with ductile silver, you need to correctly calculate the size of the ring, because during the firing process, the mass shrinks by 16%.

Lubricate the board with a special compound so that the silver does not stick, and go!

Roll out the RMS into a pancake of the calculated size. Cards glued in several pieces on the sides of the blank allow us to adjust the thickness of the future ring and roll out the silver in an even layer. A simple life hack, proven by practice 🙂

PMC silver can be cut, rolled, textured and shaped into any shape. Surprise three: it is especially pleasant that ductile silver forgives any mistakes - after drying, it is easily restored with water and again takes on a working state. You have the opportunity to remake the decoration before firing, if you don’t like something in the original blank, or add additional elements.

We created a floral ring using a rubber stamp.

After we have obtained the desired impression and closed the ring, it must be dried.

Roasting can be done different ways. Professionals use a jewelry muffle furnace, and for beginners, a more budgetary “home” option is suitable - a ceramic burner of a special design that runs on dry alcohol.

We fired the ring in a muffle furnace. With the right temperature and time conditions, the water is completely evaporated, the organic plasticizer burns out, and the silver particles fuse with each other, forming a solid metal at the outlet, retaining the entire design, down to fingerprints.

After 25 minutes, our ring was “baked” 🙂

Now we remove the oxide film - a white coating that appears on the surface of the product during combustion. Then, with the help of jewelry tools, we bring the decoration to mind.

The fourth surprise: after firing with metal, you can do anything you like. Drill, saw, grind, enamel, blacken and, of course, polish to a mirror finish!

Using a steel brush, we clean off the oxide film.

Sanding with sandpaper.

A black special solution - among jewelers it is called "sulfuric liver", and another remedy is available to mere mortals - sulfuric ointment, which is sold in any pharmacy. By the way, the blackening of jewelry is also a whole art. Blackening emphasizes the structure and ornament of the decoration: depending on the technique, the result can be so different that a separate master class was devoted to this matter.

We polish the ring with an agate tool to give it a shine.

And here it is - the ring of dreams! Made by own design and by hand!

If you wish, you can learn to knit, sew, weave beads and burn pots. It seems that the creation of jewelry is something beyond ordinary human capabilities, somewhere at the intersection of alchemy and magic. In fact, everyone can take a master class and make their own jewelry. The technology turns out to be surprisingly simple, especially when explained good master. Our teacher Evgenia was able to interest even skeptical students. It seems that now half of the group will definitely return for a pendant for their author's collection.

Perhaps we are too 🙂 And for the first visit to any master class, we give our readers a 10% discount using the promo code BIGJEWEL (you need to enter it in the class registration form).

-=Advertising. Post paid =-

As a child, I dreamed of a good gold chain, or rather, a chain! I wanted to look something like this:

Then, in the dashing 90s, it seemed like a symbol of success!

And today it looks ridiculous. Ridiculous golden chains have remained in jokes about the new Russians, which few people understand today. But the gold jewelry has not disappeared. They just make them smaller now.

Do you know how they are made? Modern technologies greatly changed the jewelry industry. I recently visited one of the largest jewelry factories in Russia. It is located in Moscow, and the craftsmen working on it create more than 30,000 pieces of jewelry. If you want to know what heights the jewelry industry has reached, then go under the cut, I will tell and show everything.

We started our tour of the factory with chain knitting. I was told that the best equipment was installed here, which can weave hundreds of different types chains.

First of all, the employees of the plant make alloys, from which chains will then be woven. In addition to gold, silver, copper and zinc are added to alloys. The main thing here is to keep the right proportion. The sample, color and strength of the chains will ultimately depend on it. Therefore, in the production of alloys, metals are mixed with an accuracy of 0.01 grams. The finished alloy is poured into water, and it solidifies in the form of many small granules. Then gold bars 5 millimeters in diameter are cast from these granules. They are sent to rolling machines, and after processing they turn into coils of gold wire.

The wire is loaded into automatic machines, which, according to the given settings, weave chains from them. There are more than 20 basic types of weaving, but there are still a huge variety of different variations. There are also unique ones, that is, those that have no analogues in the world, they are woven exclusively on Russian plant. In total, there are more than 130 chain knitting machines. All of them are made in Italy, and at the moment they are the best in the world.

After the weaving stage, the chains are pulled through special devices. In them, under the influence of temperature, all links are sealed. To check the quality of the soldering, the chains are tested for strength. And after testing, they are sent for diamond cutting.

Chains are wound on a steel drum, the temperature of which is -12 degrees. Minus temperature is needed in order for the chains to freeze and fix well.

The machine operator selects a program, and the diamond tools process the chains in accordance with this program. As a result, they acquire a smooth, shiny surface.

Then the processed chains are sent for cutting. This is done manually. Transitional elements and locks are also put on the resulting chains and bracelets manually. After Assembly finished goods marked with the imprint of the manufacturer.

Then they undergo testing and branding operations at the State Inspectorate for Assay Supervision in Moscow and the Moscow Region. Each product is checked for gold content, after which a corresponding mark is put on it - a sample. After that, the products can be prepared for sale: they are ultrasonically cleaned, dried, checked, tagged, packaged and sent to stores.

There is also a large jewelry production at the plant. More than 15 thousand pieces of jewelry are created here every month: all kinds of rings, earrings, pendants and pendants. All of them are made with a large share of manual labor.

The creation of any piece of jewelry begins with a sketch. The production employs professional designers and artists who create detailed designs for future products. According to these projects, craftsmen make prototypes, or master models. Previously, master models were made by hand, but here a 3D printer is used for this purpose. The printer creates a wax prototype of the jewelry, and then a master model is cast from silver in a single copy.

The master model is used to create rubber molds. They are made in a special apparatus under the influence of temperature and pressure. The output is a rectangular piece of rubber with a silver master model inside. This piece is cut in half, silver is removed from it, and the rubber mold is ready.

But pouring molten gold into a rubber mold will not work, so the craftsmen move on to the next stage - the creation of plaster molds. To do this, molten wax is injected into the rubber mold under pressure. Since the rubber mold is reusable, in this way it is possible to create many identical wax models of the product. Wax models are mounted on a special wax stand in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Then this Christmas tree is immersed in a container and filled with plaster. The gypsum mold is sent to the oven with a temperature of 650 degrees. The wax melts and flows out, and the mold becomes empty. Now you can pour gold into it.

Products cast in gold are sent for assembly and polishing. First, they are polished in drums with different fillers: these can be pieces of plastic or shells. walnut. After processing in such drums, the products undergo additional manual polishing on a grinding wheel.

The next step is soldering. It uses a hydrogen burner. Unlike gas burners, hydrogen burners make soldering much more accurate and do not oxidize gold.

And the last stage of production is the installation of stones. After that jewelry just like chains with bracelets, they are sent to the Assay Office, cleaned, checked, packaged and sent to stores.

They also showed me how wedding rings are made. They are made from gold pipes of different diameters, depending on the size of future rings. These tubes are inserted into special machines, processed and cut into rings. Then, just like other products, they are sent for revision to master jewelers.

All products produced at this plant fall into the network of jewelry stores. Remember my post when you visit them for an engagement ring for the bride or a gift for the wife)

Is it possible to create jewelry with your own hands at home? Yes, so that it turns out cool, extraordinary and just beautiful? The answer is yes, it is quite possible! After all, as they say, it is not the gods who burn the pots. But in order to get a real piece of jewelry in the truest sense of the word, it is necessary to take into account some points.

Which ones, we'll talk a little lower. First, let's remember what jewelry is.

"Jewellery" in translation from foreign language means precious. That is, it is initially assumed that the materials for future jewelry will be quite expensive: silver, platinum, gold, their alloys, precious and semi gems, pearl. However, less expensive metal alloys (melchior, nickel silver, pewter, bronze, brass) are often used, followed by gold or silver plating, as well as inlay with rhinestones and synthetic stones (zirconium, cubic zirconia). Can be used . Such products are called jewelry.

Jewelry includes bracelets, earrings, brooches, pendants, pendants, necklaces, rings, rings, beads, chains.

Now that we have figured out what jewelry is, let's talk about how to make it yourself.

Making jewelry: where to start?

First, you need to decide what exactly you need. Will it be a ring, bracelet or beads? Or do you want to make a necklace or head piece? Each product has its own subtleties and manufacturing technology.

Secondly, you need to choose necessary materials and arm yourself with the tools you can't do without. Materials are processed, faceted stones or beads, wire of different diameters and hardness (both stranded stainless steel with a polymer coating, and homogeneous non-ferrous metals, including noble ones), gold and silver plates. These materials are sold in specialized stores.

Tools can be both the most simple and specialized.

The first are pliers, round-nose pliers, side cutters, wire cutters, a hammer with an anvil, a vice, a hand drill.

The second type of tool is less common and is used mainly by professional jewelers. In addition to the listed tools, it includes anks and punzels - high-precision tools for making hollow balls and other jewelry elements. Also, special tools include presses, rollers, winders, polishers, conical rods (crossbars) with and without markings, specialized wire cutters and pliers with various shapes of working surfaces, scrapers, punches, punches, splitting castes of various configurations, etc.

As you can see, to create a piece of jewelry with your own hands, you may need a lot of things. But it is quite possible to get by with the necessary minimum.

We create jewelry masterpieces with improvised means

The first group of hand tools, despite the relative scarcity and availability, should still be High Quality. It is better to immediately abandon tools with chipped working surfaces and made of fragile materials. It would be nice to purchase tools of factory domestic, German, American, Korean production or made under license famous brands in other countries. Such products can cost much more than the "bazaar", but they will pay for themselves. Plus, they are much easier to work with.

Now let's move on to the technology of making some jewelry.

simple wire rings

a) wire (any colored medium hardness or soft) is cut from the reel in a piece about 15-20 cm long;

b) three turns of wire are wound onto a cylindrical rod of suitable diameter, both ends are left long;

c) removing the wire from the rod, string the required number of beads or stones with holes on it so that the decorations are on the side perpendicular to the ends of the wire, which are bent at the next stage;

d) the ends are bent and tightly twisted around the resulting ring with several turns using round-nose pliers and cut off the excess with scissors or side cutters. The ends of the wire should be located outside the ring so as not to cause discomfort when wearing the ring.

The resulting ring looks very beautiful and stylish, and making it is very simple and fast.

Making beads, bracelets, necklaces and necklaces

a) cut the multi-string wire with a polymer sheath to the required length;

b) string beads, stones, pendants, etc. elements on it in the desired sequence;

c) a suitable lock-clasp is attached to the ends of the wire - carabiner or another type.

Instead of wire or along with it, you can use various chains, it is also permissible to weave multi-colored floss threads into the composition. In the case of necklaces, several rows of wire are used with decorative elements strung according to a given sketch or according to fantasy. In addition, by purchasing stones with rings and chains, you can complement the resulting neck or wrist jewelry with pendants. As they say, there is a place for creative imagination and fantasy to roam.

In the case of making a head decoration such as a crown, diadem or crown, the base is first prepared from a rigid or semi-rigid single-core colored wire. Then a wire frame with beads and / or stones is attached to it by soldering or by another method.

All the ways to create jewelry with your own hands at home can not be counted, as there are a lot of them. But note that this is a great opportunity. with my own hands make a real masterpiece of beauty! This needlework can be in your free time.

Gold is a metal that is praised, revered, hated and for which people have been dying for more than one century. The most magical metal on earth.

Meanwhile, jewelers claim that in processing it is one of the most malleable and convenient. Maybe that's why so many works of art have been created from it since time immemorial. Rejecting the mythical component, Sputnik correspondent Yulia Balakireva decided to find out how jewelry is made and whether it is easy to build a business on metal, the consumption of every gram of which is closely monitored by the state.

Sergei Badylevich, head of the marketing department at ZIKO, and Kirill Kozlov, head of the injection molding production, spoke about the finer details of Sputnik's jewelry work.

Where do they get gold?

As it turned out, it is very difficult to take a tour of the enterprise where gold jewelry is made. First of all, I was asked to remove all jewelry from myself. So that there are no problems at the exit. And a security officer walked with us everywhere.

Pure gold does not look presentable at all - a powder that looks like sand. And it is not easy to believe that someday an elegant decoration will turn out of it.

I was allowed to hold a small (but weighty!) plate of this metal - a little more than a smartphone. Nothing unusual - metal like metal. Unless you know its cost - about 35 thousand dollars.

The company buys gold for future jewelry from the Ministry of Finance, Sergei Badylevich said. From here it comes clean, that is, the 999th test, in the form of both ingots and scrap. But in which country it was mined, it is not reported.

"The main gold deposits are known even to schoolchildren, and Belarus, unfortunately, is not among them," Badylevich said.

Also, the metal is bought in places where gold is bought from the population. In this case, the jewelry is subjected to metallurgical processing - refining, in which gold is separated from impurities and becomes pure again.

“Diamonds, which are used in jewelry, we buy in Belgium, Russia. Pearls, precious and semi-precious stones - in Asian countries, among which Thailand is in the lead,” the agency’s interlocutor continued.

If you do not go into details, then at the enterprise, products are created in three ways. At the first, the metal is poured into the prepared mold. It turns out finished decoration but it needs processing.

The second way is stamping. With the help of a press and a stamp, details for a future piece of jewelry are created. But the most interesting method is used in the manufacture wedding rings. A gold pipe is cast, which weighs about 2.5 kilograms. It is divided into parts, which are then stretched for different sizes of rings. Next comes the shaping of the future ring with the help of lathes. It turns out a seamless product, which has no difficulties during a long family life not terrible. It won't bend or crack.

Why not 999 proof?

There are many legends and myths about gold. Of course, we could not help but ask the experts about them.

For example, why is the highest standard of gold not used for jewelry?

“Pure gold is a very plastic and soft metal. Therefore, the products would be unwearable,” Kirill Kozlov explained.

Jewelry made of pure gold would be not only soft, but also very expensive, the specialist noted. Therefore, alloys are more commonly used. Gold is taken as the basis, to which other metals are mixed to increase strength.

"For example, the 585th sample of gold means that 100% of the total mass of the product consists of 58.5% gold, and everything else is alloying components, which include other metals - silver, copper, palladium, nickel, and so on," - said Kirill Kozlov.

“But in a number of countries, traditional interior items made of pure gold are being created, which, of course, is very exclusive,” he added.

There is a popular expression "golden toilet". Is the seat really made of gold?

“Perhaps somewhere very wealthy people with a rich imagination have them, but we didn’t make a single one,” the interlocutor smiles.

Another thing is gold crowns. Those who grew up in the Soviet Union remember very well the time when gold crowns were considered a sign of wealth.

Interestingly, is the metal used for crowns the same standard as for jewelry? If they are at home, can they be used somehow?

"Before using such a metal, it is purified at the enterprise to the 999th test. Only after that it will be suitable for making jewelry. If gold crowns are kept idle at home, then the best solution would be to hand them over to gold buying points Also in our stores there is an opportunity to exchange your old gold, including dentures, for new precious jewelry," Kirill Kozlov advised.

What is fashionable?

Before reaching the counter, gold jewelry goes a long way. It all starts in the designer's office preparing the sketch. And sometimes this process takes up to six months.

In this regard, the company recalls a popular question from the townsfolk: why is it expensive to buy gold jewelry and sell it cheap?

“In addition to the cost of the metal itself, a number of other parameters also affect the price of the product upon purchase: the stones used, the labor intensity of the product, and so on. When you hand over scrap, you receive money only for the metal, which still needs to be cleaned for further work,” Sergey Badylevich explained.

Jewelry also has its own fashion. The last collection of the Briz company turned out to be especially successful, Badylevich admitted. The demand for it is very high. In this situation, the designers have guessed with seasonality. Jewelry is made in a summer theme - silver and with aquamarine spinel. Turned out light and bright.

“Trends in jewelry depend on the time of year. The age category of the audience also influences. For example, young people like minimalism more and when unusual details are used in jewelry. The older category prefers classics. Pearls are popular this summer,” said Badylevich.

The company does not hide the fact that they are trying to follow global brands.

“In fact, everything that is possible has already been invented in the jewelry business. It remains only to return to the good past. But already in a new reading. This is how all companies in the world behave,” the source explained.

It is better to store jewelry in a box, upholstered inside with a soft cloth, separately from each other. Otherwise, gems and jewelry will be scratched or damaged.

Contact of perfume with jewelry is strictly prohibited.

Do not wear jewelry while doing housework. It is necessary to take them off when sleeping, taking a shower, visiting a sauna or swimming pool.

Each time you remove the jewelry, it should be wiped with a special microfiber cloth. But you need to clean it carefully. Dust and dirt usually contain microparticles of quartz, which can scratch the metal elements of products.

You will need

- equipment and a set of jewelry tools;
- precious and non-ferrous metals;
- precious and semi-precious stones.

Instruction

Equip your own jewelry workshop, including workplace and utility room. Provide a supply and exhaust ventilation in the workshop to remove harmful fumes and dust released during melting, pickling and grinding of the material.

Purchase the necessary equipment. You will need a workbench, a jewelry burner, a movable lamp, a drill, a set of baths, a box with compartments for storing stones and precious metals. Provide the room with a dust collector. Place a washstand with a sump in the utility room to collect metal particles.

Prepare the tools necessary for work: files of various profiles, files for metal filings, tweezers, pliers, wire cutters, scissors for working with metal, a jigsaw, hammers, a miniature anvil. You will also need plates and punches for molding parts and a drawing board. Processing products with a drill will require a set of drills, cutters and abrasive wheels.

To take measurements, stock up on desktops with weights, calipers, a micrometer, and a metal ruler. As you master the technology of manufacturing products, you will probably need additional tools and fixtures.

Stock up on the amount of precious and non-ferrous metals and stones necessary to start work. Most often, silver, platinum, palladium and their alloys are used in jewelry.

Determine for yourself the types and types of jewelry that you intend to make. There are an infinite number of them, but not every product can be made in an ordinary workshop. Rings, earrings, brooches, pendants, medallions, some types of chains (with simple weaving) will be the most suitable options that are within the power of an individual master.

Start making jewelry with preparatory operations, including the preparation of alloys and individual parts of the future product. They include smelting, forging, drawing, stamping, pattern casting and so on.

Use mechanical processing of the material, which is mostly done by hand. To do this, transfer the drawing of the future product to the workpiece, cut it according to the markup, or saw off the part with a jigsaw. Also use drilling and filing of the future product to give it the desired shape.

After completing the work on the formation of the contours of the product, proceed to the final stage of the manufacture of jewelry: soldering, mounting movable joints, scraping.