Making Jewellery the Cad /Cam Way It’s the Future!

Cad means computer assisted drawing and Cam means computer assisted manufacturing and they have been around for a long time now.

A jeweller makes a piece of jewellery in two traditional ways: Firstly, by hand, using files, saws, soldering equipment and a host of other gadgets. It takes a long time and might take days or weeks to finish one single piece. Secondly, by making a model first and then having this cast in metal. He makes the model either by hand in a cheap metal such as brass, copper or silver, or carving it out of wax. Even this second method takes just as long as the first or a good part of it.

Enter the computer. Using a specially written computer programme a trained user of the programme draws the item, lets say a ring. This process might take a few hours depending on the skill of the operator and the intricacy of the ring.

After the drawing is made then it is downloaded to a computerized manufacturing machine which can understand the file. There are different types of these machines. One type is where the actual drawing is cut by machinery directly into metal. So the drawing goes in and a ring comes out. The most common type is where a machine prints wax like a printer prints ink and the lines of wax are built up into the form of the piece of wax jewellery. This process might take twelve to twenty four hours but it is all automatic.


We end up with a wax model of the ring. Now it has to be made into precious metal and for that we use the lost wax casting method, a method that is used the world over to mass produce identical pieces of jewellery.

The computer operator does not need to be a jeweller but he or she would certainly need a jeweller’s advice to fully understand what he was attempting to draw.

But then jewellers are mostly computer illiterate. Find a manufacturing jeweller and try to get him to send you a jpeg file by email and you will surely agree with me as you see the blank look on his face.

So we either need a computer literate, experienced jeweller, which is a very rare animal indeed, or we need two people with different skills one a computer expert with this programme and the other a jeweller and get them to work together to produce a piece of jewellery.

It might sound like the holy grail of making jewellery but there is a lot involved. What with serving his favorite customers in his shop, dealing with sales reps, answering phone calls etc your local jeweller is not likely to be skilled enough or have the time to make you a wax model by hand let alone draw you a computer image. There are people who just make wax models by hand for jewellers and do nothing else.

The computer programme costs around $5,000 US to purchase and the lessons cost something around $1,000 plus per day for a few days in order to cover the basics and then there will be many months of practice ahead. The printing machine will cost around the $60,000US. So, all in all, you are not going to see these around in small manufacturing workshops for a long time.


One day you will walk into a jewellery shop and sit down with a designer, jeweller or computer operator and tell him what it is that you would like. He will show you designs and after you get across what you like then he will draw the image for you. Of course, this won’t happen while you are sitting there, but it is feasible that later the same day you might be able to see the image. Then after some minor touch ups it will be printed and then manufactured. You might have a piece of jewellery by the next week. That’s some time in the future I believe but it will happen and may happen here and there right now.

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Author: Gary Hocking, is a manufacturing jeweller who makes jewellery for people all over the world. He makes items one-off by hand, or makes waxes by hand, or uses Cad/Cam technology to make that special piece for his clients. He has his own website,
http:// www.jewelleryexpress.com.au

More About Hallmarking. What Are Those Stamped Marks on my Ring?

Hallmarking began somewhere back in the thirteenth century most likely in France. Its purpose was to test coins made of silver and gold so that the correct amount of precious metal was actually in the item. It was the original consumer protection law.

In England in 1327 it became law that if you were selling an item made of precious metal it had to be tested. Manufacturers were compelled to take their articles to the hall where the Assay Master would test the precious metal content. Once it passed the test then he stamped the item with marks indicating the fineness or content of the precious metal and eventually other stamps were added such as a date, maker and the assay office mark.
So the term hallmarking came into existence.

Right up until 1773 if you tried to dupe your customers by counterfeiting the hallmark stamps the offence was punishable by death. Thank God it was then changed to just the offender being sent off to one of the penal colonies for a mere 14 years! Today in the UK it is just 10 years in the clink.

So what do these marks look like?
The marks tell three basic things: the maker (or his sponser if he is not available), the fineness or amount or percentage of precious metal in the item and the assay office where it was tested. The maker will have his own particular stamp in letters, the fineness will be a number such as 925, and the assay office’s mark will be a symbol such as the current Birmingham office’s mark which is an anchor. There are other non compulsory marks as well.

Over the centuries these marks have changed significantly and that’s a great thing for dating antique jewellery and watches. For instance, when a certain mark was used for the year then we can accurately date the time an item may have been made. When marks changed along the way that helps us quickly identify the general period of manufacture.

Does Jewellery need to be assayed today? Legally in the UK and some European countries it certainly does. Some other countries allow a self regulation to take place.
Other countries which do not consider themselves as major producers have no requirement. The stamp such as 925 on silver jewellery is not hallmarking. So in Australia you will see 9 carat or 925 stamped on a silver ring but this is an indication that the manufacturer claims the correct content of precious metal has been included but this is not hallmarking which takes place in the UK.

What does it mean to you the purchaser of an 18 carat engagement ring? Well, if the manufacturer has cheated you and your ring is only 95% precious metal then you would never know. It is so minute an amount that you would not perceive it. The only way you, as a layman, will ever be able to tell is by comparing the ring to another piece of 18 carat gold jewellery. However, if a large manufacturer on the world stage saves a fraction of gold on every item then that would be an enormous profit saving at the end of the year. So while this law is there to protect you do you really care? The manufacturer has to get the item to an assay office, insure its delivery, wait a few days to get it back and then pay for the service. So who is really going to pay for all this? You of course!

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Author: Gary Hocking who makes jewellery for people all over the world. He has his own website http://www.jewelleryexpress.com.au

Synthetic Opals - How Do I Know if They are Real?

Synthetic Opals? – How Do I Know if they are Real or Not and Should I buy them?

First of all what is a real opal? A real opal is a natural occurring stone. They vary like most gemstones from being dull and lifeless to brilliant and mystifying.
Well then, what is a synthetic opal? It is a man-made copy of nature.

Great looking opal is hard to find and expensive. Even the tiniest pieces can be made into something saleable. There are basically three type of opal pieces sold: Solids, which are one piece of natural opal stone, Doublets, which are two pieces and Triplets which are three pieces.

Doublets are usually one piece of real opal with a piece of black opal or some other stone glued to the back of it. So a doublet may no longer be 100% real natural opal. A triplet will be a doublet with a dome of clear substance on the top of it. This is often glass, quartz or something else. Triplets then, most likely only have one of their three parts as real opal.

Are doublets and triplets bad? Heavens no! They suit the lower budgets and that’s a good thing. Solids are the real thing and are the best. Doublets are a thin layer of real opal and are not as valuable and triplets are less valuable again.

Now we have totally man made or synthetic opals. These are actually opals but the normal process of nature has been sped up so what occurs over millions of years now occurs in a laboratory in months or years. The result is stunning!

How can I tell if it is synthetic?

It is not easy but let me say that most retailers will wittingly not try to pass off synthetic opal as real. I have gone into shops in different parts of the world and told the owners that what they are calling opal is not real but synthetic opal. In all cases they were selling a lovely piece of jewellery with a small piece of synthetic stone and they were interested to learn, particularly when I showed them some real opal.

If you look at synthetic opal from the side it mostly has vertical striations which are quite uniform whereas natural opal is generally wobbly and layers go all over the place. These striations are too uniform and is a good sign that you are looking at synthetic, but I have seen and mined real opal that looks like this too.

Synthetic opal will be perfect in most cases whereas natural opal is flawed. If it looks too good then it probably isn’t a natural stone.

But should you buy a synthetic opal? Why not! They look stunningly beautiful. I buy them and I cut them and make them into fantastic pieces of jewellery that my customers and my family are happy to wear. You just have to appreciate that they are synthetic.