Custom Design Process
Talisman Jewelers is a designer-goldsmith shop, which means that we are able to take your idea for a piece of jewelry and transform it into beautiful reality.
Finding your design is the first step in the creating a custom piece of jewelry. Maybe you know exactly the design you want; maybe you don't. Often, we are able to help you formulate or refine your idea using our extensive collection of brass alloy samples, photos, and loose gemstones.
Other times, your idea requires a brand new design. We begin with pad and pencil, sketching while we talk about the design elements of your idea. Our sketch artist may further refine the design until what we have on paper meets with your approval.
The next step transforms your unique design into three dimensions.
Our wax artists add this dimension by creating a model of your design in wax. For a brand new design, the wax artist starts with a block of wax and painstakingly carves the new design, closely following the sketches made for you earlier.
For an adaptation of a previously produced design, the wax artist uses a flexible rubber mold of the piece. Melted wax is injected into the mold and cooled. Then the wax artist modifies the wax model, including positioning any gemstones in the wax for a perfect fit.
This step alone may take several days, as the precision and attention to detail is critical at this stage. The wax artist works closely with a goldsmith, conferring on gemstone placement and structural integrity of the piece.
Once the wax model is complete, you may view it to make sure it truly is the design you've envisioned. Sometimes adjustments need to be made, and they are done most easily at this time.
The result is an approved wax model, ready to be prepared for casting.
To be ready for casting, a sprue—nothing more than a small cylinder of wax—is attached to the wax model. The sprue and model are then connected to a sprue base. Multiple models may be connected by their own individual sprues to a single base.
The entire sprue base with its attached wax models is placed in a steel cylinder flask, the sprue base creating a bottom for the flask. Investment, a plaster of Paris like substance, is then poured into the flask, surrounding all the wax. Air bubbles in the investment are removed in a bell jar vacuum chamber. The investment is allowed to harden. The base is removed, leaving an escape for wax vapor in the oven and entryway for molten gold during casting.
The hardened investment flask is placed in an oven and heated to temperatures of up to 1350° over an eight-hour cycle. At such high temperatures, the wax actually vaporizes, leaving a perfectly clean cavity in the investment.
The cycle is complete when the oven temperature returns to 900°, at which time casting with precious metal begins.
The goldsmith places the investment flask in a cradle on a rotating arm within a centrifuge. In the middle of the centrifuge, gold grain is melted in a crucible using a torch. As the investment flask spins around, the heavy molten gold is centrifugally forced into the cavity originally occupied by the wax models.
After the spinning stops, the investment is submersed in water while still very hot. The sudden thermal shock breaks up the investment, revealing for the first time the cast piece of jewelry.
The cast piece is separated from the sprue and base, which are now also cast in gold.
 |
 |
Using a variety of special tools and polishing compounds, the goldsmith files and polishes the piece. Polishing continues until the piece gleams.
Gemstones are set during the finishing process. Gems can be set in a variety of ways: prong-set, channel-set, bezel-set, bar-set, gypsy-set, or bright-set.
Although casting is the way we most often make jewelry, "constructing" a piece of jewelry is another technique available to the goldsmith. By welding individual components together, the goldsmith crafts a mounting for gemstones. This method is most often used to showcase outstanding gems, minimizing the metal elements of the design. When done well, constructing a piece of jewelry requires great amounts of time, concentration and skill from the goldsmith.
The final step in the custom process is for you to enjoy and treasure your new jewelry—once imagined but now real.
