This ring was born in our store this past month. It isn’t just a simple process of scraping a chunk of silver off a block and gluing a gemstone down inside. It takes just a bit more work (and equipment!) than that…

Here you can observe- in painstaking detail- the conception, gestation, and final delivery of a custom designed ring from Wexford Jewelers.

It all begins with a wax model. This is extruded sheet wax that has been bent into the primary form, cut to shape, cut to size, and ...

Part I of this series here.

Part II of this series here.

For more photos of this process, visit our flickr photostream!

Quick review- here’s what we started with:

And here’s what we’re going for:

How we get from point A to point B has been detailed fo ...

Remember this?

Part I of this series can be found here.

Part III of this series can be found here.

The molds that we left in the steam de-waxer have lost more than 90% of their wax. They are now ready to enter the next phase of casting! Here is the de-waxing machine:

Not very impressive by itself. Here is the inside, after a de-waxing. Note t ...

This ring was born in our store this past month. It isn’t just a simple process of scraping a chunk of silver off a block and gluing a gemstone down inside. It takes just a bit more work (and equipment!) than that…

Here you can observe- in painstaking detail- the conception, gestation, and final delivery of a custom designed ring from Wexford Jewelers.

It all begins with a wax model. This is extruded sheet wax that has been bent into the primary form, cut to shape, cut to size, and ...

Whether it was the advent of spring, the task of cleaning my outdated wardrobe, or just a lifelong fixation with the color green, I had to build this ring this past month.

Having recently acquired a couple of cat’s eye chrysoberyls, I was anxious to use them in some stunning piece. I think we pulled it off, don’t you?

I began with a simple bezel of extruded blue wax. This is a softer wax, perfect for forming. Bending the wax to within a millimeter tolerance of the stone, I secured it on the bottom with a more rigid piece of Ruby Red wax, extendin ...

I’ll always remember my first time at the wheel. I was a short, scrawny, 9 year old girl with straggly, brown hair. I did not know what I was doing.

Zzz… zzz…zzz, went the hard, abrasive wheel, as I gouged deep, rough valleys into the thin, silver, practice ring, that was just cast and cleaned. Trying to take down the casting sprue. Then the ring slipped off the wheel and my finger received the same treatment. Zzz… into my soft, not yet calloused finger tip. I received a little instruction from my teacher, my dad. He showed me how to firmly but gently, roll the ring into the wheel to keep the nice ...

I am now becoming more involved in our casting process. And by more involved, I mean that I am doing a casting once a week. My whole casting setup had been in my basement, and even though it was handy, the cons outweighed the pros. So I decided to do what I love to do. Build a workshop. I am proud to say that Wexford Jewelers now has its own fully functional casting and molding workshop! This is what I have always dreamed of. Working in a self sufficient jewelry shop. You see, before, everything had been here and there.. wax carving in the dining room, casting the basement, molding on the kitchen counter, finishing at our jewelry store, and selling them in 5 locations at times! And me being the organization guru I am, th ...

The year is 1,200 BC. A man sweats in front of a furnace, a huge pair of bellows resting in his scarred hands. Beside him is a scorched earthen bowl packed hard with sand. He has spent hours shaping a plug of beeswax into an intricate crescent moon shape for a wealthy woman. Afterwards he tamped clean sand around the wax, delicately at first, then harder and harder as the shape became covered.

He places the bowl into the fire, resting it against an earthen wedge so that it is tilted sideways. The heat burns his face and brings tears to his eyes, but he is used to it now. The fire wanes and the man works the bellows again, forcing oxygen into the blaze with swift and powerful strokes. The small plug of beeswax, visib ...

Having apprenticed under a half-crazed master jeweler, I have grown to be closed minded towards new ideas. Wait. Let me rephrase that. I have learned to be closed minded towards any good idea that anyone but myself has come up with. So having said that, let me begin.

Centrifugal casting was THE way and the ONLY way to cast precious metal. It took me some time to learn, but after a year, I believe I had acquired the skill to complete a successful casting. All the while, there was still a small spark in the back of my mind telling me that there were other- possibly more efficient- ways of doing things.

“JASON! Go heat up the car! i want to look at 800 acres not too far from here, where we can build our ...