GEMSTONES: precious, semi-precious, natural, pearls, man made and “other” types of stones. Diamonds, Cubic Zirconia, Swarovski Austrian Crystal, Crystal, rhinestones and glass are used by jewelry manufacturers throughout the world for both the retail and wholesale jewelry industry. As we have previously spoken, “it is vitally important to know as much as possible about the jewelry manufacturer of whatever type jewelry you are considering buying.

The current retail and wholesale jewelry business is a multi billion dollar industry worldwide. And in the past several hundred years the industry is not totally honest as once was the case dating all the way back to 2,000BC. Of all the precious stones (diamond, ruby, emerald sapphire, ad infinitum) clear, or white, diamonds are by far the most widely mined, cut, polished and prepared for the retail and wholesale jewelry industry. They also are the stones of choice to fill the marketplace with fraud. Diamonds are best known for being “under karated” – that is convincing the innocent, uninformed retail or wholesale buyer the diamond(s) is rated carries a much higher quality level as put forth by the world famous GIA – Gem Institute of America.

“Hiding” defects such as cracks and fissures by a process called “filling,” within the diamond is the second choice to perpetrate a costly fraud on the unsuspecting buyer. One could easily convey a great deal of vitally important information with several thousand words. My most sincere advice to you is to utilize the web and educate yourself BEFORE ever shopping for a diamond.

Major fashion and sterling silver manufacturers such as the Shavonne Corporation incorporate all the newest technology to create the finest jewelry possible for an affordable price.  The master model maker is ultra important and must create an actual physical model from the VR.  This requires incredibly tedious hand crafting skills.  The model maker usually is unaware if any specific jewelry piece is being developed for the retail or wholesale market.  The model maker realizes any imperfections allowed in the master model will then cause an imperfect mold.

The finished model is then used to create very special molds for casting.  Ofttimes a ring is manufactured for the wholesale jewelry buyer in 7 actual sizes. This requires the work of an equally talented master mold maker. If the model maker miscalculates even the smallest amounts, the size will not be exact.  Let’s say you are looking to purchase a size 7 ring as that size always fits just right, but you try on one you really like, and it is marked size 7, and it doesn’t fit properly.  Ask the salesperson to use a steel ring sizer to measure the ring for you.  If the mold maker made a mistake, it could result in slightly larger or smaller than a true size 7.

Archeologists have identified Incan methods, Egyptian methods, Native American methods, ad infinitum – dating to several thousand years.  Even going back to the very early times in America, jewelry manufacturing  was basically done by the talented village blacksmith.  This was the one craftsman used to working with heated metals, much as he created horseshoes.

Historically the oldest societies worked basically with their hands and rough hewn tools.  Until the adaptation of the modern computer in the 1970′s, surprisingly little had been done to “modernize” jewelry manufacturing.  All manufacturing began to change in a rather spectacular fashion with the new methods of creating fine and fashion jewelry made available by using a computer.

Much of the exquisite work of today is still initially designed by talented individual designers with paper and pencil.  The remainder of the most beautiful creations are created entirely in the computer.  Utilizing full 3-dimensional imagery has elevated so much of what we see today. Ring designers, for example, keep in mind what will be required for the manufacturer to exactly recreate their design.  The most modern manufacturers’ sample division can furnish the designer a virtually rendered (VR) image which is generated using some form of Computer Aided Design (CAD) software.  This VR shows a computer generated image of what the fashion jewelry item will look like prior to making a sample and has become invaluable to modern day creations for manufacturing.

Over the next 2 to 3 Fridays, I will go into detail about the fashion jewelry manufacturing process that fuels our retail and wholesale jewelry business.