There are several different ways of crafting jewellery and each one has its own merits. Firstly, handmade jewellery, such as designs made by Tookalon, are all stunningly individual however, as they are entirely made by hand and not produced in moulds or casts, the finish of the Silver work can sometimes appear slightly inconsistent. For those who love the romance of handmade pieces, these minute anomalies are more of a signature of the craftsperson than an unwanted defect. It is also important to note that every piece will be slightly different to the next.
For more precise jewellery or when larger quantities of the same piece are required, most jewellers will create a master model/master mould from the original drawing and then from this master exact replicas can be made.
The master mould can be made in one of two ways: firstly, modern CAD packages can be used to create a 3D drawing of the design and when completed these can be printed using a very special printer which actually prints a physical 3D version of the mould. Although these printers can cost over one hundred thousand dollars they have revolutionised the master model process and without them, my companies for example would find it impossible to make so many new designs each day. The more traditional way of creating the master model/master mould is to actually craft the original piece by hand out of wax or silver. Once it is finished a rubber mould can be made, from which the replicas are produced.
