How to create jewelry. Making jewelry with your own hands

With a little time, skill and craftsmanship, you can make jewelry using a variety of tools and materials. You can use these skills to start your own business or make necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings for your own personal use.

Steps

Jewelry design

Get ideas. When designing your own jewelry, you first need ideas. This will help you think about what aspects of the design are most important to you and what will the best way match your needs.

• Take a look at your collection. Look at your own jewelry, purchased or made by others. You can recreate or take ideas from copies you already have. Maybe you like a certain type of beaded bracelet, or a clasp, or a color scheme. Look through your own collection to see if there is a type of jewelry you need. Look for holes in your collection, such as a lack of casual pieces for everyday use, and consider what you can do to fill that need.
• Look at jewelry in stores. Go to stores that specialize in jewelry or the jewelry departments of large stores to get ideas. The wide selection in these stores will allow you to get more ideas and also help you stay on top of fashion trends.
• Look at others. You can look at jewelry from your friends, in magazines and on the Internet, and ask how your favorite celebrities are dressed. Think about what you like about your jewelry and what items you would really like to have.
• Look at vintage jewelry. Looking at vintage jewelry and their history, you can easily see a large number of styles. Consider what aspects of vintage jewelry you want to use for design ideas that you would like to support.

1. Decide on materials. Once you've decided which design elements you like the most and what your needs and desires are, you'll need to decide what materials are best for it. The selection of some materials will be based on taste, some on availability, and some on need. .

   • Metals. Metals will typically be used in the form of wire, chains, and rings to tie other pieces of jewelry together. The type of metal used will depend on what it will go for as well as personal taste. For example, soft metals bend better and should be used if you need to create cycling. It will be gold or copper - this is your personal preference.
   • Stones. You can use regular or gems in building jewelry especially if you make pendants and rings. The choice of stone is largely based on personal taste, but be aware that some are more expensive than others. To save money you can use fake stones. When choosing colors, try ones that match your eye color or fit well with your wardrobe. This will make your jewelry stand out and show off a wonderful design.
   • Other materials can also be used depending on what you are trying to achieve. If metals and gems are too commonplace for you, try alternative materials such as wood, resin, plastic, twine, and other less common materials.

2. Make sketches. Before you make your jewelry, you need to express your ideas and then decide on the final design. This will allow you to plan how much or how long each item should be made and make sure you have a plan in place to follow. This will help avoid unnecessary material costs. .

   • Create a sketch on paper. This will help you better align design elements and relative product sizes. You can also use tools like a ruler, stencils, and tracing paper to further refine your design.

   Collection of materials

   1. Buy rings different sizes. If you don't want to make beads, but prefer to attach jewelry or beads, buying chains and rings will be very important. They come in different sizes and can be further connected with wire cutters or pliers.

      Buy zippers. They are various types. You will have to choose what is best for your piece based on what type of jewelry you want to make and the size and weight of the chain and beads. Clasps can also be chosen for aesthetic appeal, or they can remain common and undervalued.

      • Clasp "crab". The most common clasps for necklaces and bracelets in last years are "crabs". They are quite durable and easy to use.
      • Tumbler. It is good for a more rational and modern look of the product. It is especially suitable for rough details. These simple clasps are easy to use but less secure than some others.
      • Barrel clasp. This is a very secure clasp that consists of two tube-shaped pieces that screw into each other. It is best to use this clasp on a necklace, however, it is worth remembering that in order to fasten such a clasp, you will need a certain level of dexterity.
      • Hook and loop. A simple clasp that you can easily make yourself with the right tools. Consists of a hook and loop closure. This is less secure and is best used for heavy necklaces that have the weight to hold the clasp closed.

   2. Think beads. They are often used in jewelry and can be of interest for a simple chain or can be tied together to hang a more ornate pendant. Beads can be cheap or expensive, depending on the material, and there are many to choose from.

      • Beads can be of all colors and various materials(plastic, glass, wood, shells, bones, stones, clay, polymers and many other materials).

   3. Use stones to shine. You can spruce up your jewelry and use real or fake gems. Make sure that if you plan to use stones, you have the appropriate tools with which you are going to secure them to your piece. Gemstones can be comparatively less expensive or very expensive, depending on size, type and quality.

      • The main precious stones used in jewelry are diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, opals, topazes.

   4. Buy a lace. In order to tie beads, pendants and pendants together, you need some kind of material that is respectively strong and flexible. Depending on the weight of the product and its clasp, you can use wire, elastic cord, twine, fishing line, or any other materials.

      Buy wire for the base. You will need larger caliber, much less flexible wire to make a lot of jewelry binding components. These can be chains, rings, bundles, bars, etc. Make sure the wire is strong before buying, it must be suitable for your product.

      Buy the right tools. You should have several tools to make a medium set of decorations. If your product requires working with any metals, you will need certain tools. Make sure they are high quality and sharp. Blunt instruments are a common way to injure yourself.

      • Buy a complete set of pliers. Many different types of pliers are needed to create various pieces of jewelry. These include pliers, round nose pliers, chain pliers, tongs, and bent chain pliers.
      • Scissors and cutters. There are tools to suit all your cutting needs. Scissors should be used for fishing line and elastic thread. Always use wire cutters to cut wires, if you try to use scissors, you are likely to get hurt.

   Basic Skills

   1. Straighten the wire. This is the first step in creating your own jewelry. If your wire was bent when you cut it, it will also be bent when you use it to make the decoration. It is very difficult to straighten the wire after it has been cut.

      • Start by unrolling the coil a length of wire. Using special pliers, pull the length of the wire until it is straight. You can rotate the wire or hold it at a different angle to make sure it's straight on all sides.

   2. Cut the wire. Use pliers that are specifically designed for jewelry making. They allow you to achieve two different goals for the wire - one side is left flat, the other is bent at an angle.

      • Find out which side of the cutter is used for cutting and use it accordingly. Be careful when using these cutters as they can be very sharp.
      • Do not use blunt cutters the right way get hurt. If the cutters are not sharp enough, they can slip off the wires.

   3. How to bend wire. Bending wire to sharp corners is another essential skill for jewelry making. This is easy to do with pliers, preferably with a curved chain. You just need to take the wire and bend the pliers into your finger until the desired angle of rotation appears.

The jewelry beauty that we see on store shelves is born in the minds of designers. Large jewelry exhibitions are held in Russia four or five times a year, and each company must prepare at least two or three new collections.

“There is a lot of competition,” admits the technologist of the model site Dmitry Pavlov. “Imagine that two thousand companies are painting in parallel and you need to come up with something new that no one else had.”

The master does not give out the secrets of inspiration, but he shows how jewelry models are created in computer program and grow layer by layer from polymers in a 3D printer.

Model is poured molding sand and put in the oven. Gypsum takes the desired shape, the polymer is melted, and the master pours metal into the vacant space. Product prototype the jeweler brings to perfection. Now this master model is placed in a rubber mass - under the influence of high temperatures it hardens, and neat rectangular molds are cut out of it.

rubber molds are sent to the next workshop, where the craftsmen pump them with wax. I watch the actions of the worker from behind my shoulder: the girl quickly fills the rubber and squeezes out either future earrings or pendants. Wax products do not look very impressive. But nearby, a man inserts shiny pebbles into wax rings - not diamonds (cooling my ardor), but cubic zirkonia. But he has a whole jar of them!

“Only zirconium dioxide, cubic zirconia is inserted into the wax,” explains the head of production Mikhail Chmil. – Natural stones and diamonds are set immediately in gold or silver. Due to temperature changes, the metal expands and contracts with the stone. For cubic zirkonia with metal, these coefficients are similar. And at natural stones and diamonds have internal defects, they do not hold temperature and can break.”

The craftswoman collects wax jewelry on a special stand. Future Jewels attached to a pole so that they resemble a Christmas tree. But, unlike the New Year's symbol, this Christmas tree in this form will not get to the buyer.

Through the labyrinths of corridors we come to the foundry workers. There is an even hum of machinery in the workshop: Christmas trees were filled with molding sand, and now large devices are melting wax. Tomorrow morning, when the mixture finally hardens, this batch will be filled with metal.

Gold and Silver Lost Wax Caster Yuri Zapara takes out a golden Christmas tree from a vat of citric acid and explains:

“After casting, the metal oxidizes, we put it in a lemon for 20–30 minutes, where it brightens.”

Master washes ornaments in greenish citric acid water, then rinses under great pressure and hands it to me. I see future stud earrings, but gold does not shine either mysteriously or temptingly, so that the desire to pull someone by the sleeve with cries of “I want, I want! Buy-buy! until it occurs.

metal tree they are carried to a specialist who bites off the products from the pole with a tool. Manual labor it is difficult to replace a car, emphasizes Zapara:

“There is an apparatus with two cutting elements, like scissors. But they are plump, it is hard to crawl to small details. With that apparatus it is more convenient to cast large products that are less likely to stand on a Christmas tree.

Details for decorations are made separately. In a small room, a press extrudes a pattern on metal plates. A full-wall cabinet is lined with shaping stamps, a sample is glued next to each form. I'm looking at patterns. Oh, such waves are on a friend's bracelet, and similar leaves are on a grandmother's ring.

I am interested in the thickness of precious plates from Mikhail Chmil, so as not to distract the master lowering the press.

“The smaller the product, the thicker the rolled product, so that weight does not suffer in a large product, and strength in a small product. For example, a thickness of 0.15 mm is the minimum that we can afford without sacrificing strength. And 0.4 mm are small products that have enough strength,” says the head of production.

Finished parts are sent for assembly to assembly shop. Here the radio sings provocatively, grinders and small burners hum softly, with which craftsmen solder parts. The hands of many are hidden in glass boxes - this is a means of protection so that gold and silver dust does not scatter around the room.

Jewelry assembler Oleg describes his work (today he makes crosses):

“Here is a substrate of two parts, upper and lower, Jesus is the third part, the fourth is the ear. I soldered it all and am processing it: here the sides were uneven, after casting they were a little rough.

He dusts off the cross and takes it out of the glass bowl to show me. I run my fingers: the processed parts are smooth and shiny, and the eye still seems matte, but my fingers don’t feel any special roughness out of habit.

Difficult decoration

The collected jewelry is sent to tumbling And polishing.

“Products go through a three-stage process: grinding, rough and fine polishing,” Chmil shows three drums in which rings and earrings rotate in different materials: in small ceramic triangles and nuts of different grinding.

Mikhail suggests sticking your hand in there and catching something. I choose finely chopped nuts. The palm is immersed in warm soft waves. Jewels slip through your fingers, but here's the luck! I open my hand. Wedding ring. Hm. Hesitating for a second, I throw the ring back into the walnut whirlpool.

But since fate itself sends to my fingers wedding rings Let's go see how they are made. A large apparatus draws out golden tubes of the required diameter and thickness and cuts circles. A few seconds - and another person says "yes" to the registry office workers.

- So simple! - bursts out of me.

Simplicity here is conditional, - Mikhail shakes his head. – Yes, the number of operations is small, and the manufacturing process is fast, but this is one of the most difficult areas. These machines cost more than 210,000 euros in total.

Boasts about technology and Alexander, operator of machine tools with numerical control:

“This is German equipment of the highest class. The parameters of the ring are set, and the device attaches stones to the workpiece, makes a pattern, - the master hands me the result and the source: a princess and a beggar (if such a comparison is applicable to jewelry treasures). “The simplest ring is made in 40 seconds, and the most complex one in an hour and a half.”

gold dust

Natural stones and diamonds are attached to jewelry by hand, and then all products are sent to chemists for gilding, blackening or rhodium plating.

“The products are coated with a layer of rhodium so that the shine is metallic. In silver, the mechanical properties improve, the thing becomes harder, scratches less and does not darken, ”explains Mikhail.

In the same laboratory are the most accurate scales at the factory - determined to the fifth decimal place. With their help, alloys are checked for compliance with standards.

“For analysis, 1 g of metal is taken from each melt, it is dissolved in acid, and a sample is determined from the remains of gold: if this gram contains 0.585 mg of pure gold, then this is a sample of 585. If an error occurs, then the entire batch is sent for remelting,” – Chmil says.

And I really hoped that the defective gold was stored near the factory. But here, every gram is treated with reverence: the metal poles of Christmas trees, shavings and even dust are cleaned and melted down again.

“Here's a bag of gold,” the head of production laughs. Above the bucket of black water, a dark fabric bag hangs on the frame, the precious metal in it would not be seen even by the most experienced thief. “This is dust from the floors, which is collected in all areas. Then defend and anneal to a powder state. As a result three months we collect up to 70 g of gold from the floors.”

Golden (in every sense) hands are also washed by local craftsmen in special sinks- good and does not disappear here. Losses are only technological, provided for by production standards.

“Gold exhibits molecular volatility when heated to temperatures above 1,300 °C. But this figure is not frightening,” Mikhail reassured.

Kilometers of chains

In parallel with the production of piece jewelry, they make chains. First of all, gold or silver is drawn into a wire and wound onto coils.

- And how much can fit on a coil of gold - in terms of weight and length? I'm curious.

By weight 6 kg, and by length ... - Artur Tashliev, a purveyor of parts and materials for art and jewelry, calculates on a calculator: - 6.5 km! The thinner the wire, the longer it will be.

I barely heard the last phrase, because a small but greedy dwarf rushed about in my head. For some reason, he liked the idea of ​​measuring gold in kilometers.

Wire spools are sent to chain knitting shop where machines deftly tie precious threads. The machines are set up for a certain type of weaving, but if necessary, they can change the task.

Chain knitting machine operator Vitaly Blazhko calls me to the apparatus on which the semblance of a microscope is installed. I'm leaning towards eyepieces. Small paws quickly twist the wire into even links with a sip-sip-sip sound.

In another workshop, the chains are processed in talc And oil, the links are soldered at a temperature of 900 °C. It is important that the chain has the same width along the entire length. Jewelry assembler Roman Vakulenko, under the light of a lamp, looks through a thin chain, notices a defect and plucks out an uneven link with a tool. The master soldered the gaps himself.

Next stage - diamond shop. Yes, I expected to see mountains of gems under " Best friends girls are diamonds!” as a soundtrack. However, only cutters were found here from diamond, with which the upper layer of the chain is removed. Decoration is frosted cold water on a special drum, and the master cuts off fractions of millimeters so that the surface becomes a mirror.

Andrey Kovtun, a chain knitter, shows a chain finished on one side only. The surface without gloss really does not look so attractive, and gold after diamond processing shines invitingly and affectionately.

Then the chain is cut to the desired length, locks are placed and sent along with the rest of the jewelry for branding, verification and packaging.

Knowledge is gold

- Where can you learn all this?

In Kostroma there is a specialized school, courses at the Yerevan, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa factories. In Belgorod, they thought to make a department on the basis of the university, but this is still in the project. Either people with experience work here, or we train them for ourselves. Educational establishments of a general profile give information about all areas of jewelry activity, but superficially. And we do not need a base, but specific knowledge of mounting, polishing, - Mikhail Chmil answers.

An elevator with golden walls takes us to the exit. We were not shown only a safe with gold and diamonds. There must be a huge dragon hiding there.

The editors are grateful for their help in preparing the material. jewelry Factory"Carat"

Elizabeth Kuravina

Making jewelry is a long and painstaking process that requires several years of training, knowledge of physics, chemistry and the availability of expensive special equipment. We know this and spend hours looking for the desired jewelry in stores. Many even develop a sketch on their own and turn to a jewelry workshop so that the master makes a dream jewelry for them.

Times are changing, and now everyone can be a jewelry master. To make it real silver ring with our own design, we turned to the jewelry school ARGENTARIUM and made sure that it is not only interesting and exciting, but also really easy.

(Total 26 photos)

Before starting work, we were shown decorations made by instructors and students of the school. There are many options for decorations, and all this can be done with your own hands.

Despite such a variety of possibilities, we still wanted the ring. We decided that, if you like it, we will return a little later for the pendant.

The first surprise: it turned out that it was not necessary to melt the silver in order to give it the desired shape. The decoration is made of plastic Precious Metal Clay (PMC) silver, which was invented by the specialists of the Japanese company Mitsubishi Materials Corporation. Made from a mixture of tiny particles of silver, water and a non-toxic plasticizer, PMC is as easy to work with as regular plasticine.

The whole process is simple and straightforward: you need to come up with a piece of jewelry, make it, burn it in an oven (the water and the plasticizer will burn out, and the silver particles will firmly sinter with each other), and at the end you will get a 999-carat silver product. Modern alchemy at its finest! Before starting work, the head of the school, Evgenia, showed us what tools we can use to create exactly the decoration we want.

Surprise two: most of the tools for work can be found at hand: any texture can be “printed”, and to cut the desired shape, an awl or blade will do.

Various dies for making imprints and imprints on silver mass before firing.

To create volumetric products, you can use liquid silver in a syringe. Silver paste is squeezed onto the cork base with a syringe. During the firing process, this base burns off, and you get a hollow silver bead, similar to those that were created by silversmiths hundreds of years ago and were called "filigree".

There are thin plates-leaves of plastic silver, from which you can fold any figure, for example, origami. Isn't it a miracle to build yourself a crane or a boat of pure silver?

And you can use dried leaves as a blank for future decoration. If the leaf is covered with liquid silver, burned, the leaf will burn, and you will get a unique pendant or pendant that completely repeats all natural curves and textures, which are simply impossible to make on your own.

In jewelry, there is nowhere without precious stones. Multi-colored inserts can be added to the design of any jewelry: cubic zircons (cZ) or other laboratory stones that can withstand high temperatures.

Of course, it was very tempting to make a unique pendant for ourselves, but we came for the ring and decided to make it anyway.

Before you start working with ductile silver, you need to correctly calculate the size of the ring, because during the firing process, the mass shrinks by 16%.

Lubricate the board with a special compound so that the silver does not stick, and go!

Roll out the RMS into a pancake of the calculated size. Cards glued in several pieces on the sides of the blank allow us to adjust the thickness of the future ring and roll out the silver in an even layer. A simple life hack, proven by practice 🙂

PMC silver can be cut, rolled, textured and shaped into any shape. Surprise three: it is especially pleasant that ductile silver forgives any mistakes - after drying, it is easily restored with water and again takes on a working state. You have the opportunity to remake the decoration before firing, if you don’t like something in the original blank, or add additional elements.

We created a floral ring using a rubber stamp.

After we have obtained the desired impression and closed the ring, it must be dried.

Roasting can be done different ways. Professionals use a jewelry muffle furnace, and for beginners, a more budgetary “home” option is suitable - a ceramic burner of a special design that runs on dry alcohol.

We fired the ring in a muffle furnace. With the right temperature and time conditions, the water is completely evaporated, the organic plasticizer burns out, and the silver particles fuse with each other, forming a solid metal at the outlet, retaining the entire design, down to fingerprints.

After 25 minutes, our ring was “baked” 🙂

Now we remove the oxide film - a white coating that appears on the surface of the product during combustion. Then, with the help of jewelry tools, we bring the decoration to mind.

The fourth surprise: after firing with metal, you can do anything you like. Drill, saw, grind, enamel, blacken and, of course, polish to a mirror finish!

Using a steel brush, we clean off the oxide film.

Sanding with sandpaper.

A black special solution - among jewelers it is called "sulfuric liver", and another remedy is available to mere mortals - Sulfuric ointment, which is sold in any pharmacy. By the way, the blackening of jewelry is also a whole art. Blackening emphasizes the structure and ornament of the decoration: depending on the technique, the result can be so different that a separate master class was devoted to this matter.

We polish the ring with an agate tool to give it a shine.

And here it is - the ring of dreams! Made by own design and by hand!

If you wish, you can learn to knit, sew, weave beads and burn pots. It seems that the creation of jewelry is something beyond ordinary human capabilities, somewhere at the intersection of alchemy and magic. In fact, everyone can take a master class and make their own jewelry. The technology turns out to be surprisingly simple, especially when explained good master. Our teacher Evgenia was able to interest even skeptical students. It seems that now half of the group will definitely return for a pendant for their author's collection.

Perhaps we are too 🙂 And for the first visit to any master class, we give our readers a 10% discount using the promo code BIGJEWEL (you need to enter it in the class registration form).

Silver clay is a great material to start working with silver, but you can also cut, melt, and bind hard pieces of silver with a hacksaw, soldering iron, or hammer and anvil. Try to combine techniques and you will get unexpected results.

Steps

Modeling from silver clay

Decide how you will heat the clay. After shaping the clay, you will need to heat it up to high temperature so that all the binder material melts and only silver remains. Some types of metal clay can be heated on a gas stove, while others can only be heated with a gas burner or even in a kiln. Before choosing your clay, determine what temperature you can reach.

• If you are heating clay on a gas stove, you will need a stainless steel grate.
• If you plan to use a burner, look for brick or stone that can withstand the heat.
• It is not recommended to fire large or thick objects in the kiln.
• To get an idea of ​​what temperature you can reach on your stovetop, heat a small, thin-walled aluminum pan over high heat and hold an infrared thermometer near the surface as it heats up.

1. Buy silver clay. You may have to order it online as many stores don't stock it. Pure silver clay is sold more often, but the resulting jewelry will be less durable.

   Make your desired decoration out of clay. Can be sculpted by hand or special tools. You can add details with a knife or wire, or carve from clay different figures through a stencil.

   Dry and sand the clay. Let the clay dry overnight or dry with a hair dryer. Sand the surface with fine grit sandpaper.

   Heat the clay with a torch. If you have a burner, place the clay on the brick and the brick on a heat-resistant surface. Hold the burner two inches away from the clay and heat it up until it ignites. It will start to burn, then it will glow red from incandescence, and then the light will become weak. Heat the clay for at least five minutes, or as long as the instructions on the package say.

   • Take your eyes off from time to time so they can rest.

2. Heat the clay on the stove. If you have a gas stove, you will need to do the following:

   Heat the silver in the kiln. If you have a kiln, you will be able to follow the exact instructions for firing the clay. Silver reaches its maximum strength when fired for a long time at a low temperature, but there are faster ways to achieve the result. A special jewelry oven will heat the silver faster, but a regular one will work too.

   Cool the metal (optional). It is recommended to let the silver cool on its own, but if you are in a hurry, you can dip the hot silver into cold water (but don't touch it immediately afterwards). Cooling can affect the structure of the silver, and it will break if you decide to reheat it, but drying thoroughly will help to avoid this.

   Polish the surface (optional). After firing, the silver will be white and slightly hazy. If you want it to shine, buff the surface with a copper or steel bristle brush. You can also use a polishing machine with polishing powder.

   Wash the item in warm soapy water. This will wash away any remaining polish from the surface. Wipe with a dry, clean cloth, preferably wool or suede.

   Attach a hook to each earring. Drill a small hole in each earring, insert a hook, twist it or secure it in some other way so that it does not come off. If you are not making earrings, skip this step.

Silver soldering

Gather necessary materials and tools. If you want to connect several elements, the easiest way to do this is with a fuse. Of course, the process will require careful preparation, as well as the following materials and tools:

1. Prepare your workspace. You will need a well-ventilated room and a heat-resistant table, as well as brick or heat-resistant stone. It is important to wear safety goggles to protect yourself from small particles that will fly during fine work. Also prepare gloves, an apron from denim or leather and tight-fitting but not synthetic clothing.

   • You will need a water tank where you can rinse the items. If you are working in an area with flammable materials, have a fire extinguisher ready.

2. Clean the silver and apply flux. If the silver is dirty or often held in your hands, treat it with a special solution that washes away grease. If the silver has darkened due to oxidation, immerse it in an etching solution. Once the silver is clean, rub the flux into the areas where the silver will connect to the other piece.

   • If you have a flux in powder, you must first get a liquid or paste from it. Read the manufacturer's instructions.

3. Start soldering silver. If you have never soldered anything before, first find out how it is done, or follow our instructions:

   • Carefully place items on the heat-resistant soldering stone, then use tweezers to place a piece of solder (or drip a little flux) on top.
   • Heat the item from a distance of 10 centimeters, trying to melt the thickest part of the silver. Do not heat solder directly. To prevent thin pieces of silver from melting, hold them with tweezers.

4. Rinse, pickle and rinse again. When the solder melts and holds the two pieces of silver together, turn off the burner and allow the solder to harden for 1-2 minutes. With copper tongs, immerse the silver first in water, then in an etching solution to remove traces of oxidation. Rinse again with water and dry with a cloth.

   • Avoid contact of the pickling solution with skin or clothing as it is highly caustic.
   • Pliers not made of copper may react with the pickling solution, damaging the metal.
   • If you like the aged look of your silver, you don't need to soak the item in an etching solution.

Vladimir Markin has been engaged in jewelry business since 1997. He worked in different companies, and four years ago he founded his own brand and opened a workshop on Krasny Oktyabr. Now his team of eight makes things to order and releases two collections a year. The brand is known for unusual design jewelry: in the form of bridges, wood with stones, in the form of stationery and mechanical (for example, there is a ring in which diamonds can be hidden at the touch of a button). The price of items from the collections starts from 15 thousand rubles, custom-made jewelry costs from 100 thousand rubles to several tens of thousands of dollars. Here's how they're made.

If ideas for collections come spontaneously, then the process of creating custom-made jewelry begins with communication with the client. According to Vladimir Markin, customers often do not know what kind of thing they want - they have to find out for whom it is intended, what the person likes. “We try to get as much information from the client as possible, which will give ground for creativity, so that it would be interesting for him and we are pleased,” says Markin.

For example, these cufflinks were ordered by a man who used to be in the oil business and now works on Internet projects - black diamonds are hidden behind microchip-like plates.

The artist draws a sketch of each decoration by hand. After the sketch is approved by the customer, production begins.

Based on the sketch, a 3D model is built. With its help, a prototype of the decoration is printed on the printer, which is needed to make the shape of the future product.

There is no foundry in the workshop - the contractor does the casting. Gold blanks come to the workshop already prepared.

An employee of the workshop selects the stones that will need to be fixed on the product. It uses diamonds, sapphires and other precious stones of different colors and sizes. Stones are bought all over the world - sometimes they are selected for a specific decoration, sometimes a product is invented for an existing material. Workshop works with different stones, but diamonds are most commonly used.

Setting stones on a pendant in the shape of a snail. It should have about 400 sapphires. With the help of various wrappings, an employee fixes the stones - she will spend about a day on this.