Our Design Process

“Jewellery design has substance, rhythm and flow; it emulates the client’s personality and connects you to them on a personal level”

  • Andrea Venter, Designer, Your Diamonds

The sea of options out there is staggering. Customers today are lucky to have so many choices available when looking to purchase jewellery. However, choosing the perfect jewellery designer can often feel like an overwhelming decision. To choose the right jewellery designer, such as at Your Diamonds, will put your mind at ease. We consider it a long-term service and a life-time relationship.

You want to find a jewellery designer that reflects your personal style, that uses the quality and style of diamonds, precious stones or semi precious stones which you prefer, and you certainly don’t want to compromise in any way. Plus, having jewellery custom made means that you can set the budget.

Not all stores that carry a wide variety of fine designer jewellery are also experienced at creating custom pieces. The designer you choose should offer future repairs, maintenance and cleaning. Therefore you will want to select a designer that will be around for a long time.

This is also an opportunity to get expert advice and guidance with your buying decision. Because customer satisfaction is essential to Your Diamonds, we work hard to ensure you are happy with the purchase. Answering questions, respecting your budget and providing reliable service should be standard procedure.

It all starts with a feeling

Many a modern day bride browses the internet to gather up ideas, visual concepts and current styles. A woman has a strong bond to her engagement ring and it starts with a feeling. From early childhood the dream of walking down the aisle with her handsome prince is played out in games with borrowed dresses and way-too-big high heeled shoes.

The Center stone

The initial spark turns into sparkle when we as woman fall in love with our first diamond, precious stone of semi precious stone for our engagement ring. Selecting the centre stone is the most crucial part to starting the design process. The center stone impacts the whole design process as the measurements for any jewellery piece starts from the inside out. It is a micro world of millimetres and builds out into your spectacular piece.

During our consultation period you will be guided to make the correct purchase for your budget and personal style. We also take finger size into consideration when an engagement ring is made. Selecting the correct diamond or stone size for the finger is crucial to the glamour of the end product.

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The Concept

In the design world, it’s far too easy to let your imagination run wild with all the creative possibilities. It’s all about striking a great balance between making stunning, unique jewellery that is also comfortable and wearable. With this in mind, we sit down with our customers to tap into their ideas and concepts. They will often lead with a selected picture and we welcome this.

This allows potential customers to have an up close and personal look at their design with their selected stone or stones, and offer feedback on the size, colour, material, texture and pricing. Often we find that observing and interacting with our customer wonderful inspiration for our work.

Your concept or picture will guide us to put pen to paper to create a first draft and lead you to understanding the depths, measurements and practicality of your piece. This often comes into play when creating an engagement ring, as not all ring concepts are practical for everyday wear. Guiding you is the key to understanding what will work without compromising on your unique style and taste.

3D Design

After consulting with your designer they can take your concept and the paper drawings and lay it down on modern day 3D Jewellery Design programs.

For years customized jewellery has been created using old world techniques dating as far back as the 1800’s. Until the early 2000’s, practically all specially crafted adornments have been made utilizing these strategies. The introduction of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) has changed all that and in its wake ushered in a whole new universe of possibilities. Designs that were never thought possible are often made to the very best quality standards.

This also enables your designer to give you a high resolution rendered picture of your piece of jewellery. The customer can visually see the piece in full colour from all angles. This wonderful technology enables the customer to make small changes or even alter the design completely until they are satisfied before it goes into production.

Where does it go from here?

From here a seven to ten day period starts:

These drawings are exported to varied sorts of prototyping machines called CNC mills or growing machines. CNC mills cut-away material from a block of wax to form the jewellery model. The growing machines layer material from side to side very similar to a printer to create the model, samples of this process are often viewed at design your ring The precision of those models exceeds what any human could do while hand carving the jewellery model. Design possibilities become limitless because the 3D-CAD software enables the designer to make parts and style elements that are not possible using outmoded tools and methods.

Next Sprues are added to the completed wax model.  Sprues are usually wax rods that are added to a wax model or 3D print, acting like a tunnel in which the liquid metal can travel down to get to the 3D print.

The finished, cured, and cleaned 3D prints are then taken to a casting professional who will begin by adding your 3D prints to a wax tree. The tree is built as you would imagine with a base (connected to a heat-resistant rubber flask cap) attached to a thicker trunk section, and off that many sprues connecting the main sprue (or trunk) to the 3D prints. This tree is then surrounded by a steel flask and an investment material (a highly heat resistant ceramic compound) is then mixed, vacuumed (to remove air) and poured into the flask to cover the entire wax tree and all the resin 3D prints. 

The flask and investment material are then left to cool and set around the tree capturing all the beautiful surface detail of the 3D prints. A wax tree will be build up of the models that will all be casted in the same metal, be it platinum, white gold, yellow gold, rose gold or silver. White gold, yellow gold and rose gold are further broken down into the various carats: 18ct, 14ct or 9ct.

Once the investment has hardened, it is added to a furnace or oven. The temperature is slowly raised in increments until all the resin and wax has melted and burnt out of the investment, leaving a void (empty space) where the resin 3D Prints and wax tree used to be. The oven temperature is gently lowered so that the investment material is the required casting temperature. The chosen metal is then heated in the crucible to the required temperature. Next it is casted in the Vacuum Casting Machine.

 

Vacuum casting retains all of the advantages of Low-pressure permanent mould casting. The use of the vacuum chamber and perforated flasks allows the vacuum to handle thin-walled profiles, assuring a complete fill, denser castings and gives an excellent surface finish. The completed metal pieces are then cut from the tree.

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Finishing and Setting

 After receiving back the casting the process of delicately finishing your item begins. Because the metal model is already almost perfect, sandpaper is used to pre-finish the item. The sizing of the ring is also checked before final finishing.

We take great care in polishing the inside of the settings before setting your stones to allow maximum shine and brilliance. The setter carefully mounts each stone as per the spec given by the designer. After the stones are set the final polishing phase starts. Small polishing brushes and burrs are used by an experienced jeweller and setter to get into all the smaller areas. 

The final polish is done on a polishing machine. An ultrasonic machine will be used on all materials that are heat resistant to remove any polish and fine metal particles. For non heat resistant stones a soft brush will be used to cleanse the item. All items are also steam cleaned. White gold metals get a final electroplated finish to get that white brilliant shine.

In Closing:

The jeweller then hands over the item which goes through a strict quality control screening of at least three people, including the designer. If the item pasts this stringent quality control we are elated to present you with your unique jewellery piece.

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