Thursday, March 8, 2012

Metal Jewelry Making

The use of metal in jewelry started with the discovery of metals and subsequent knowledge and advance in metallurgy. The manufacturing changed from being more as a handicraft item to special art of jewelry making.  The raw materials used earlier were beads, bones, wood, clay and other natural materials. The body adornment then depicted natural forms, floral motifs birds and animals.

With the use of metals gold and silver jewelries studded with diamonds and precious stones became popular. This development came about with the refinement in mining process. The traditional jewelry makers used more complicated designs and patterns to design and handcraft the products. Handcrafted products emerged with the development of tools like hammer, pliers, metal cutting tools, bench pin, files, mandrel for resizing rings, saw blades and more.

Originally jewelries were handmade crafted by traditional craftsmen all over the World. The type of manufacturing involved in this art is:

Handmade or handcrafted
Dye Cast
Machine made or assembled.   

Unlike handcrafted designer jewelry the latter two cater to middle class segment. Most popular jewelries are cast made and are usually less costly. The machine made products are mass produced with little differentiation in design. The products are of large markets which are cost conscious. 

Fine designer jewelries are handcrafted without the use of machine tools. The design and settings are done by hand hence the name handmade designer jewelry.  The jewelry designers in the modern World are professionals capable of producing highly appealing trendy designs.

Fashion jewelry differs from traditional items since the latter is a product ethnic design and development. There are many traditional communities in the third World that are involved in the process for centuries. While fashion jewelries are more of recent origin bordering on abstract designs and vivid patterns.  Another form is the art jewelry category which is preferred by the collectors and the wealthy who can afford to buy them.