Every piece of jewelry we see shines brightly, in a wide variety of shapes and styles, perfectly interpreting beauty, fashion and classic. If there is no exquisite setting craftsmanship, jewelry may be just a stone, a piece of decoration, which cannot be worn around people's necks, wrists and fingers.

 

 

　　In order to make jewelry come alive and become a work of art, for hundreds of years, generations of craftsmen have continuously improved the method of jewelry setting, either to enhance the brilliance of gemstones, or to hide small flaws seamlessly. In fact, every piece of jewelry has to go through many processes, such as design, production, grinding, polishing, etc. Each of these steps must be carefully operated...

 

 

　　Jadeite has both the western jewelry culture and the eastern jade culture. The exquisite jadeite inlay technology not only reflects the exquisite craftsmanship of the West, but also reflects the classical beauty of the East. It is the most suitable Chinese jade category for inlaying skills.

 

 

　　Well, let's introduce the process of emerald inlay for you.

　　The jade inlay process is a skill with high technical requirements. The so-called inlay is to fix the gemstones (including various natural and synthetic gemstones and semi-precious stones) on the bracket (used for setting gemstones) by various appropriate methods. A craft on jewelry such as pendants, earrings, and chains). The inlay process is generally divided into hand-painted design, plate-up, mold injection, mold execution, diamond setting, polishing and other processes.

　　1. Design drawings

　　Designers will first draw sketches of new works on paper, and use pencils and gouache to complete the design drawings. This process is as short as a few days and a half months, and as many as a few months before a model is finalized.

 

 

　　2. Starting version

　　The craftsman engraves the wax plate by hand according to the design drawings, which is the most demanding process in the jewelry making process. (This process depends on the degree of complexity, ranging from a day or two to a few days)

 

　　With the development of science and technology, there are fewer and fewer jewelry made by hand, and most of them use computer CAD software to draw.

　　3. Moulding

　　The ancient lost wax casting method, the wax mold is made into an 18K ring. If it is mass production, then the front wax plate will be made into a silver plate and pressed into a film, and the wax mold will be mass produced! But for customization, only one piece of each item is made, so it goes directly to the pouring process, Plant wax trees first. ① Planting a wax tree Each wax ring is individually hand welded to a wax rod, and finally a wax tree shaped like a big tree is obtained, ready for casting.

 

 

　　②Pour plaster

　　Put the planted wax tree together with the chassis on the stainless steel cylinder, and slowly inject the corresponding weight of gypsum slurry along the inner wall of the steel cylinder, without the wax tree, and leave it for 6-12 hours after vacuuming to make the gypsum solidify.

 

　　③Baking gypsum

　　The plaster mold is baked for dewaxing, drying and casting insulation.

　　④Casting

　　Take out the baked plaster mold and prepare the metal solution for casting at the same time. Pour the melted golden water into it from the nozzle.

　　⑤Gypsum mold frying and cleaning

　　After casting, the plaster mold is in a high temperature state. After being taken out from the casting machine, it is naturally placed for 10-30 minutes, and then placed in cold water for frying and washing. After the gypsum burst due to shrinkage, take out the golden tree, brush off large pieces of gypsum with a steel brush, soak it in 30% hydrofluoric acid for 10 minutes, clip it out, rinse, and remove the remaining gypsum until the surface of the golden tree is clean.

　　⑥ Shear casting

　　Cut the jewelry from the golden tree along the bottom of the nozzle to dry.

 

　　4. Model execution

　　Molding is a process of welding, filing and hammering the casting with auxiliary tools such as ring iron and rammer, and then grinding it with sandpaper to repair the deformation and rough surface of the casting during the casting process.

 

　　The produced models, or scattered models, are spliced together by welding to make them a predetermined style, and the style has begun to take shape.

　　5. Diamonds

　　If a jewelry handicraft wants to achieve the dazzling effect of jewels, it is basically inseparable from the foil and embellishment of broken diamonds.

 

(fired paint)

　　After the mold is set, the semi-finished product needs to be fixed on the fire lacquer before micro-setting the diamond, and the diamond is set under a 40 times magnifying glass.

　　Many of them are actually handicrafts. These handicrafts will gradually be replaced by machines, and these craftsmen will gradually disappear and be buried. In the future, the things that can be made by hand may be those expensive high-end jewelry. It may be difficult for ordinary people to afford hand-made things.

 

　　(Diamond)

　　In fact, there are already machine-set diamonds, especially in the watch industry. I don’t know when the jewelry industry will completely replace labor, and then there will be no artisans staring at magnifying glasses and setting stones.

 

　　(set with diamonds)

　　6. Grinding

　　A process of polishing and reviving gold. Before polishing, the gold can only emit a bleak soft light. The polishing master uses brushes, cloth rolls, reels and other tools to carefully polish every corner of the gold with polishing wax from coarse to fine, so that the surface of the gold is smooth. Shining like a mirror.

 

 

　　7. Inlaid jade (main stone inlaid)

　　This is the last process of jewelry setting, that is, setting the main stone of the jewelry on the polished gold characters.

 

　　(Inlaid with thin water jadeite center stone)

　　This step really tests the experience of the craftsman. An experienced craftsman is very calm and does not need to do a single movement. The strength is just right! This is the skill that has been honed over the years!

　　For jade jewelry, modern jade inlay has become a symbol of culture, the demand for individual ideas and the trend of jade jewelry. The beauty of jadeite lies in its cultural connotation and the vitality it expresses, and inlaid jadeite is an extension of this connotation and vitality. It is this extension that makes modern jadeite inlaid jewelry an inevitable product of the times.