Process of Jewelry Making: Design and Pattern Making

As a very important procedure and the starting point of jewelry making, pattern making is also known as model making. A skilled master in the area needs years of training before his excellent manipulation of the procedure. It needs dexterity on both aspects of heart and brain to make and demonstrate the intention behind the designer. The procedure is the modifying creative procedure of the design in some sense.When exerting analysis on any kinds of jewelry pattern, we can view it as music-like comprising which is assembled with some parts in the same. The making of the model starts from the basic components which conclude “point”, “line” and “facet”.Design of pattern When based on the commercial purpose, design of the pattern should keep consistent with the market demand, costs, complex degree of producing, demand of customer etc.. A well-designed product can satisfy the need of the commercial and promoting need, so can the art and aesthetic appreciation.Patterns of the model makingWax carving. It is easier and more flexible to produce a model with wax than metal. Due to the property of arbitrariness, wax is perfect to be used as material of producing patterns which are irregular and abstract. Some of the models do not even need a draft in advance; the maker can carve the item with his unrestrained imagination. The arbitrariness brings the jewelry making more modifying and creative apace. However, weakness of the waxing carving are obvious as well – wax materials is of one-time use and the very detailed and exquisite component or item is hard to be carved with perfect effect. In addition, the size of model should be focused, another 10 % larger size should be reserved ahead to make up the 2% to 3% shrinkage because of gel mould and the following modifying and polishing procedures.Metal pattern. Metal pattern is the so-called original model which can be casted with was, while the metal part would take brass and silver as refining and available choices. The metal that is chosen to produce metal pattern should be of high hardness in that it is very hard to burnish the soft metal into the very smooth and light degree. The inadequacy of the metal pattern is that the kind can only be used to produce simple model, more complicated patterns and outlines might be difficult to be achieved.Well, here is the two parts of the original process design and pattern making of jewelry making, other more procedures includes how to pick an appropriate gem, molding, casting, polishing, cleaning and so on, I will introduce one by one by one in the following days.