On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 20:45:54 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry
(Tasha) wrote:

However, I've now been asked to turn out a whole lot more of identical
pieces, and I'm thinking that there must be a better way than cutting
up rings.

You're right, there are better ways. How, depends on the quantity you need, but
in general, what you're most likely to want to do is to cast the rings, or have
them cast, as most likely you don't have the equipment now to do it yourself.
(By the way, many professional jewelers also outsource the casting to
specialists, so you'd not be alone in this approach)

What you might do is to get some carving wax, a type of plasticized wax,
available in blocks or even in a tube preformed so that a slice of it is halfway
to being a ready made shape for a ring. You carve the ring shape in the wax.
The inside might be hollowed out under the top to reduce the weight, but carve a
shallow recess in the top for the pink inlay. Do this so that what will be the
black lines is left in the model, so the casting will have those lines already
cast in, as raised thin ridges inside that overall cavity. This in essence
means that top recess is actually several recesses, not just one. When the wax
model is cast, and you then have a finished metal ring, you'd only have to fill
the multiple recesses with a pink material, and then oxidize the thin rims, so
they'd show up black. the inlay could be fimo, as you used, or could be one of
several types of plastic resin used to imitate glass/vitreous enamels, or even
might be real fired enamel, if you're ambitious. With the resins, you could
oxidize the black lines, fill the cavities flush with an opaque pink, and then
cover over the whole oval with a clear coat, to the black wouldn't be subject to
wearing off.

But in any case, the method would be to make the model of the first ring by
either carving it in wax and casting it, or fabricating it directly in metal,
much as you already did, though as you say, cutting apart existing rings is
inefficient. Once you've got one model, you can have a rubber mold made from it
which allows multiple wax models to be easily made from that mold. These wax
models are then cast, giving you the multiple rings.

This is the method by which most commercial jewelry is made, and it works well
for just a few multiples, just as it works well for thousands of multiples of an
item.

If you don't personally have the skills to make the model, there are plenty of
jewelers who can do it for you, including many of the readers of this
newsgroup. Same thing with making a rubber mold from the model, and casting
the pieces from the mold.

What many smaller jewelers do is to do their own wax carving, and then send the
wax to a caster, who can cast the original, and make a mold from it. Then all
you need do when you need castings is to call your caster and place an order for
the castings, which can be shipped to you as raw unfinished castings, or in the
case of many casters, fully finished castings. Some such casters could also
handle things like the enamel inlay for you. If you get raw castings, you
spend less on the castings, but then have to put in the time and effort to
finish the rings. If you work with someone who can do the whole job, you pay a
wholesale price for the rings, and resell them to your customer at your choice
of a markup, not needing to do the actual metal work. While this may be less
satisfying in terms of the craft of jewelry making, if you're a beginner, it
makes a certain sense for this kind of large order. You get the product made to
your specs, and it ends up being made to professional standards, efficiently,
and with little uncertainty for you as to how it will turn out. You put in the
original creative work in specifying the design and working with the caster or
modelmaker to get the design right, but leave the manufacturing to the
specialists. It makes a certain sense, and has the potential to make you a
decent profit, if your customer is willing to pay a fair price for the product.

If you wish, I'm certain there are many readers of this newsgroup who could help
you produce either the models, or the complete product, or we can refer you to
others who could also do such work.

Hope that helps.

Peter Rowe