Many years ago, it was easy to buy a ring or a jewell in gold without diamond or gem on it. So you could put on what you wanted on it. Now, it is difficult to find around here.
Does someone know a place that I can find that kind of jewells?
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:48 am Posts: 584 Location: Odenton, Maryland
I'm not sure what the jewelry shows look like in your part of the world, but here in the States at shows like Intergem (http://www.intergem.com/), you'll see lots of "semi-mount" vendors, where the rings have all the accent diamonds already set, but the main setting is empty. Primarily in gold for wedding/engagement rings, of course.
Personally, I like casting, and I'm working on producing my own rings & pendants so I'm not dropping custom-cut stones into basic precut basket settings
I went a lot to this jeweller show with my parents but I do not have access anymore as I do not own a shop. I am looking a way to go thought.
You say that you cast your own jewells. That is very impressive to me. It must take an expensive equipment and be diffcult? Would I ba able to do that at home? Where do you buy the gold?
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:48 am Posts: 584 Location: Odenton, Maryland
Brigitte wrote:
You say that you cast your own jewells. That is very impressive to me. It must take an expensive equipment and be diffcult? Would I ba able to do that at home? Where do you buy the gold?
It's not that impressive--a simple casting takes less time than I took to cut the stone that's in it. I generally work in Argentium Sterling silver, and only do gold for commission work. I can't afford to have excess gold on hand
When I do cast in gold, I sometimes reuse the customer's gold ("I have this gold jewelry I never wear, can you make me a Mason's ring?"), and generally get my "new" gold from Rio Grande (riogrande.com). I'd like to get into alloying my own gold from master alloys (Stuller has more master alloys than Rio), especially to play with some of the colored alloys, but haven't done so yet.
A complete casting system can get expensive, especially if you use a vacuum investor, but I use the stuff at my local lapidary guild. We've got torches, a spincaster, a vacuum investment table (also works for vacuum casting, but I've not tried it), etc. It is fun, though!
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