JD Institute of Fashion Technology
What are Some Important Techniques for Jewellery Designing?

Nowadays, women urge for better innovations and good quality in their lives. The same applies to the jewellery they want to wear. The Jewellery not only has to be of good quality but also has to have an innovative design. It even can showcase some exciting new effects that add more value to it looks. Not only this, jewellery should also be environment friendly and safe to wear. The one thing that holds the utmost importance in the jewellery business is innovative designs. Without innovative designs, one can lose their business. 

Jewellery is always viewed as an artistic expression of a jewellery designer. A jewellery design is solely considered from an artistic vision. Technology and artistic innovation both fit into the representation of a jewellery design. How well do they fit together? What relationship do they hold? All of this would be certainly answered in this very discussion. 

The link between design and technology: 

There are various vital links between design and technology. The main being that the practical realisation of a design on jewellery requires the perfect understanding and use of technology. The use of technology is vital in both material and manufacturing processes. Second of all is the use of new technologies can open up new design opportunities for the use in jewellery making. Thirdly, the design demands require the use of improved technology. All of these pointers prove the vital link between design and technology.

Some Important Technologies for Jewellery Designing:

1. Electroforming: Electroforming is a manufacturing process that involves the application of layers of precious or non-precious metals around a metal mandrel. Electroforming is a fast-growing manufacturing process mostly used in gold jewellery manufacturing. Though electroplating and electroforming are on similar lines still electroforming is more advanced technology than electroplating. Gold and its alloys are some of the best metals known for the process of electroforming. Major advantages of using the process of electroforming in the manufacturing of decorative gold objects is that the production of the thinner sections of a jewellery design that can’t be achieved with other methods can be easily achieved by the process of electroforming. In the process of electroforming, an electrolytic bath is used in order to deposit nickel or any kind of other electroformed metal onto a conductive surface of a model that is known as a mandrel. Once the deposited material has gained the desired thickness, the electroform is parted from the substrate. This process allows the replication of the mandrel surface texture with excellent process control.
2. Cable making: Cable making is relatively a new process technology that involves spinning many wires together in a helical manner. A recent trend that supports this process is the use of gold cables for supporting pendants in neckwear instead of using gold chains. This is a bang on the opportunity for jewellery designers in order to break away from the conventional neckwear design philosophy. Here, the cable-making technology used in the jewellery industry has been adapted wisely from the electrical cable industry. One of the major aspects to think about is that the use of these different gold wires in cable-making offers interesting design options for jewellery making. This technology not only offers different design options but also creates designs with different surface texture.
3. Knitting and Weaving: Another process technology that is extremely new to the jewellery business is the knitting of the precious metal wires in order to create knitted metal fabrics. Knitting and Weaving are on similar lines as of chain-making technology which is used to create fabrics. The knitting and weaving technologies can be used to knit precious metal wires into unique designs and patterns. The most important advantage of the process is that it can offer interesting design opportunities to the jewellery designer.
4. Laser technology: Nowadays, laser technology is being used in jewellery production a lot. It is not only used for cutting and welding the jewellery but also used in decorating the jewellery by laser engraving. Laser engraving is a modern process for basically making custom and unique designs in jewellery. Laser technology can be used while engraving metal pieces or adding minute details to the jewellery. The smallest of unique details can be created with the help of a laser technology due to the precise working of the machinery. This technology opens up various interesting design options for not only individual jewellery pieces but also for mass production.
5. Computer-aided design(CAD): With the growing demand of jewellery products, CAD has become one of the important parts of technology for many businesses. CAD proves to be one of the versatile technologies that help customers that have a varied taste in jewellery designing. Some want bold whereas some prefer delicate designs, CAD can help with all of this. Computer-aided design (CAD) has become one of the key features of jewellery designing and manufacturing. This type of technology helps to modify a design before it goes into its production stage. It can precisely generate 2D models, 3D models or technical illustrations of the jewellery designs. The major advantage of this kind of technology is that it not only reduces the amount of time it takes to create designs but it also allows for the production of different stages of a design. The technology helps in saving the time, resources, metals and gems of a jewellery designer. CAD allows the jewellery designer to create more intricate designs as the piece can be easily seen and edited now with the help of CAD technology. The jewellery designer would be open to customers input into the designs after the customer has seen the realistic images. 

Jewellery is often a significant investment of a customer and the client has to be satisfied with the product they are buying. They will only be satisfied when the jewellery meets the expectations of a client. Therefore, a jewellery designer can take help of all these technologies in building unique designs for the jewellery that the customer finds approachable and perfect to wear.