“If a jeweler is burned after death, what will be left of him is a 5-gram gold bar,” jokes 24-year-old Alexander Tokmakov, one of the youngest jewelers in Tula.
Sasha told Myslo correspondents how people come into this profession, why it is dangerous, how a jewelry workshop is organized, what unusual things customers ask for, and how jewelry is created.
How to become a jeweler
—What did you dream of becoming as a child?
- Firefighters. I thought that this was a courageous profession and that everyone respected firefighters. But then I found out that they were getting pennies, and I changed my mind. I was involved in sports - powerlifting, so after school I decided to enroll in the Faculty of Physical Education. But he didn’t become a physical education teacher either: a jeweler he knew suggested going to him as an apprentice, his father supported him and said: “Go, you’ll always earn money for food.”
I was hooked on this profession as soon as I saw the metal melting - it was very beautiful!
For a whole year, every day after classes at the university, I went to the workshop, studied, and then began to carry out simple orders. A year later, my teacher went on vacation, leaving all the work to me. I was very worried: it was scary to work without support, I was afraid of messing up. But I did it, and also earned money.
— Do you remember your first completely independent job?
- Yes, I still keep it. This is a pair of silver wedding rings. They are terrible (laughs): there are visible seams on the rings, they are uneven, and not polished properly.
— As for “earning money for food”: does a jeweler always have work?
- Yes. Firstly, in store-bought jewelry, something often tears, bends, breaks, and people go to jewelers for repairs. Secondly, in the workshop you have the opportunity to make jewelry that no one else will have. According to any sketch, any shape and size.
Pendants in the shape of boxing gloves were made as a gift for world boxing champion Alexander Besputin, who trained in Tula last summer.
Again, handmade: even two identical rings will never be the same. I once had an order from Israel: a girl asked for ordinary congo earrings (rings). There are plenty of them in stores, but she wanted handmade ones.
Weave bracelet "Pharaoh" and lock "Box". The jeweler says that this was his most difficult job in a year.
— What talents and qualities are needed to work as a jeweler?
– You need to have perseverance, hard work and communication skills. The ability to communicate is very important - you work not only with metals and stones, but primarily with people. As for talent, today you don’t have to be an artist to work in the jewelry industry: in our age, most products are made using a 3D computer model.
Ring manufacturing technologies
Today, the four most common technologies for making gold rings are:
- Casting;
- Pipe-cutting;
- Soldering;
- Stamping.
Casting is used in the entire line of jewelry: from creating rings to earrings, bracelets and pendants. This method allows you to recreate jewelry of varying degrees of complexity in metal with high precision in every detail.
Each individual piece of jewelry is cast in wax, which guarantees the originality and quality of the jewelry.
The most unusual and most expensive orders
— Are there orders that surprise you?
- Yes. For example, there was a 370 g silver anchor chain that a 100 kg bodybuilder was going to use to do pull-ups. Colleagues said that nothing would work, it would break - but it didn’t break.
The accordion pendant was ordered by a client from another city. “Thanks to this order, I remembered how an accordion differs from a button accordion,” says Alexander.
Once they ordered me a medallion with a pentagram, which I had to finish making on Tuesday - only on this day there is some special energy.
Sometimes they order things that many people wouldn’t even think of, but I’m not surprised: everyone has their own cockroaches, everyone lives as they want. That’s why I do it, and if a person is happy, I’m happy too. One of the most unusual orders was a silver rod for the urethra. The customer wrote that he was satisfied.
— What is the most expensive jewelry that was ordered for you or brought in for repair?
– We ordered two large chains made of 750 gold for 550 thousand rubles. And for example, they brought in a Cartier bracelet worth 1.2 million for repair; a diamond fell out of the jewelry. It’s exciting to work with such things; it’s scary to damage or ruin them. It's better not to know how much it costs at all.
9. Check
The finished gold product will not be recognized as such until a special responsible body, namely the Assay Chamber of Ukraine, puts its mark on it.
The metal and its compliance with the declared sample are analyzed using special reagents. A confirmation stamp is placed on the inside of the accessory.
If controversial issues arise, the Assay Chamber of Ukraine has every right to send the ring for revision.
Most often, rings are made of 585 gold - such models are most in demand among buyers because they are durable and least hypoallergenic to wear. But the 750 alloy is considered more elastic, which makes it possible to produce items of unusual exclusive designs.
What ails jewelers
— Do jewelers have occupational diseases? Is the work harmful?
– Not that it’s harmful... But it has its “sores”. Astigmatism develops from working with small details and constant eye strain. Your hands suffer, sometimes they become calloused and bloody, and it’s inconvenient to work with gloves.
When sandpaper is used, gold and silver dust hangs in the air, which you breathe, and it never leaves your lungs.
If a jeweler is burned after death, I am sure that 5 grams of pure gold will remain (laughs). You can slightly reduce this harmful nuance: install a Chizhevsky chandelier, have more flowers in the workshop, or keep the window open.
Preparatory work
Preparatory work involves, first of all, coordinating the type and shape of the ring, its external decor and possible inlay. The master decides whether to take on the order and evaluates it from the point of view of technological feasibility.
With the help of modern computer-aided design (CAD) technologies, you can see what the ring will look like before it is ready.
In order for the final product to meet all expectations, the customer, designer and jeweler-technologist jointly need to solve a number of important problems:
- Develop a general initial vision of what the ring will look like;
- Conduct a preliminary assessment of how comfortable and durable it will be to wear;
- Assess possible risks based on the characteristics of the decor;
- Select manufacturing technology.
-22%
Hit price
22% discount
Gold ring with cubic zirconia (4b_k-224)
3,892 UAH 5,004 UAH
How jewelry is created
— How long does it take to make one decoration?
- It depends on what to do. A pair of wedding rings can be made in half an hour. 100 g chain - about five hours. And there are some orders that you sit on for a week. I spent five days, seven hours each, working on the “Byzantium” or “Fox Tail” weaving chain: it is assembled from many rings, a very difficult job.
This is what the Fox Tail weave looks like.
— What tools does a jeweler use?
- There are simply a trillion of them. Many of them are familiar to everyone - a jigsaw, a gas torch, wire cutters. Some tools came from dentistry, and special ones include a furnace, a polishing machine (I made it myself), and an ultrasonic bath for washing products.
Some of the tools a jeweler uses.
— What is the process of making jewelry?
– It all starts with a sketch, and then we either create a 3D model and use it to make a product in a special oven, or we make the decoration by hand. I prefer to work with my hands. For example, this is how the process of making a ring works.
First, the metal is melted in a crucible.
The metal is poured into the mold, we begin to form a square out of it.
The metal must be constantly heated red-hot to remain ductile. The finished square is rolled in rollers and joined into a ring with solder. In order for this semi-finished product to turn into an even circle, it is tapped with a wooden or textolite mallet, which does not leave marks on the metal.
The ring size is checked with a ring gauge or caliper.
Sanding removes all imperfections and creates a scratch-free surface.
Then we polish the surface on a polishing machine. When polishing, pastes of various fractions are used, they make the surface mirror-like.
The final stage is to wash the product in an ultrasonic bath. The entire process of making the ring took 25 minutes.
— Was it ever that you wanted to keep a piece of jewelry made for another person?
- Was. Large ax pendant on a thick chain. For the first time in my life I felt sorry for giving an order.
The same axe.
— Do you have to redo a thing if something is wrong?
– It happens that when I myself don’t like the result, I redo it until I’m satisfied. And the customer sees the product several times in the process, at “semi-finished” stages, and can make his own adjustments.
— Does it happen that you dissuade a customer from some absurdities?
– No, I never impose my opinion, I can only suggest, but not dissuade. Whatever a person wants, the main thing is that the decoration brings him joy.
facts about jewelry
Creating a Sketch
First, the master thinks about how the product will look and projects it on paper from different angles. The designer creates a layout of the future ring taking into account the chosen decor. The main thing here is to find a balance between the artist’s creative impulse and the possibilities of its implementation in reality. This is already being done by a jeweler-technologist who assesses the feasibility of a specific idea in metal.
The technologist approves the sketch or sees which of its elements should be changed/simplified. For example, if a piece of jewelry is too intricate in shape, it might make sense to break it down into pieces and make each one separately.
Small but accurate adjustments to the design will always benefit the future product, helping to improve its shape and comfort to wear.
How much gold is in the ring?
- Fineness on jewelry indicates the percentage of pure gold and silver it contains. In a 585 carat ring, gold will be 58.5% of its weight, the rest will be copper and silver (their ratio will vary depending on the shade of gold: red has more copper, lemon has more silver) or copper and palladium in white gold. 925 sterling silver jewelry will be 92.5% pure silver, the rest will be copper. Pure precious metal is too soft, it bends in your hands, and jewelry cannot be made from it.
- Gold jewelry can be full or hollow. The full chain is made of wire, the hollow chain is made of tubes. The second weighs less and at the same time looks more voluminous. But the first one is more reliable: the wire links are stiffer, they are more difficult to break, and they do not fray much longer.
- There is an opinion that jewelers cheat with the weight of the metal, secretly squeezing precious grams from the customer. In fact, 9% of the precious metal is lost during the manufacture of a product: it burns out during melting, turns into dust during grinding, which cannot be collected and given to the customer, and is removed during polishing. These are all production losses, and not the jewelers - the swindlers.
- Many of our grandmothers and mothers had jewelry with rubies. In fact, this is not a ruby, but corundum - an artificially grown stone that has no special value. Real rubies are very expensive.
- On some people, silver jewelry turns black. This is not due to the low quality of silver, but due to the chemical composition of the body's sweat and fat secretions: silver reacts to sulfur and chlorine. You can clean the darkened jewelry, and think about your health.
Finishing
This is the so-called “beauty-making” stage. To give the rings a presentable appearance that will captivate displays, they are sanded and polished.
Sanding and polishing are not the same thing. First, the master polishes the product, that is, he removes rough marks from the initial processing and evens out the texture of the ring. Then comes the time for final polishing: the product is given a beautiful glossy shine.
Inlay
If the product contains stones, an additional step is to set them in the decoration. First, a gemologist, that is, a stone specialist, selects the stones. They must match perfectly in color and size. When the minerals are selected, the fixer places them in the grooves and seals them.
The main difficulty in the work of a fixer is the same search for balance. He must install the stones as firmly as possible into the seats so that they do not fall out. At the same time, this must be done as carefully as possible so that the fragile pebble does not break during the setting process.
