Mrs. Aeschbacher, can you tell us about the process from the idea to the finished piece of jewellery?
We either buy a gemstone at a trade fair or a customer comes with one and asks us to make a piece of jewellery. First I sketch by hand what the piece of jewellery should look like. Based on this sketch, our goldsmiths first make a wax model.
Or our CAD specialist produces a technical drawing and an electronical rendering. This gives the customer a very good idea of what their piece of jewellery will look like. Changes can be made with one click of the mouse. If everything looks good, a 3D printout is made that corresponds to the original in terms of size and proportions.
The electronic data is sent to the caster, who casts the piece of jewellery using the casting process. The casting is returned to the workshop, where the actual manual work begins. The jewellery is trimmed and the details are finished. The holes for the diamonds are drilled, the settings for the gemstones are prepared, etc. Finally, the piece of jewellery goes to the setter, who sets the diamonds or coloured stones. This is followed by polishing and the final cut as well as hallmarking or possibly engraving. Here we also have the latest technology in-house in the form of a laser engraving machine. White gold jewellery is also rhodium-plated. This means that they are coated with a thin layer of rhodium. This makes the jewellery more resistant and gives it a brilliant shine.
