Jewelry Design & Repair

Careers available in the jewelry field; duties and responsibilities of jewelers; the work environment; traits of successful jewelers; the 'golden rule' of retail; shop and sales floor safety procedures; receiving a repair item; units of measure.

Steam, ultrasonic, and hand cleaning procedures; building a plating bench; plating metals; finishes; brush plating; plating solutions and warnings; buffing and polishing techniques.

The jeweler's benchtop, anvil, and illuminating lamps; beading tools; ultrasonic cleaning machines; steam cleaners; spring dividers; drawplates; emery paper and other polishers; ring shells; files; flexible-shaft machines; hammers; loupes; mallets; steel markers; polishing motors and dust collectors; ring stretchers; saw frames and blades; shears; electric soldering irons; soldering blocks; gold-testing needles; torches; tweezers; bench vises.

The three major steps in the design process; the properties of a design format; understanding line, form, texture, balance, and color as they relate to the components of design; the four methods of structuring a design; keeping a sketch book of design ideas.

Sources of design ideas; abstract, realistic, and non-objective design principles; using themes to enhance your designs; design renderings; layout.

How to study more effectively and increase your productivity, both as a student and when you begin your career.

What makes a stone a gem; the four major gem categories; the â??four Câ??sâ? and how they affect value; identifying gems.

Tiffany, flat-top, fishtail, illusion-type, and star mountings: operational sequence; bead forming; trimming; milgraining; tube settings; bezel settings; variations; removing stones.

Five different casting methods; the advantages and disadvantages of various casting techniques; the process of lost wax casting; procedures for producing multiple casts from a single model; common problems encountered when casting.

Increasing your employability; organizing your job search; the interview.

Using quality modeling materials and waxes; additive and reductive modeling techniques; using layouts; methods for spruing wax models.

Antioxidizing, pickling, cleaning, tinting, and finishing solutions; tarnish remover; removing mercury and soft solder; using flux; testing silver and gold; determining the karat value of gold; gilding; acids; satin finish; lacquering; pearl cement.

Using a bench pin; handling the hack saw and jeweler's saw; cutting corners and straight lines; clamping large pieces; selecting the proper file; filing and shaping techniques.

Solders; fluxes; hard-soldering by flame, electric machine, and blowpipe; hard-soldering exercises; soft soldering; hard and soft solder methods for repairing bar pins; repairing hinges.

Spectacle-frame repair; repairing scarf pins, ring mountings with filigree, cufflinks, bracelets, broken watchcase lugs, and costume jewelry; sizing an engraved wedding ring; tightening cameos and similar stones in pins and broaches; attaching safety chains.

Making a ring; enlarging and reducing ring sizes; shanking; prong repair; replacing worn mounting tops; installing new heads.

How to handle links, jump rings, and spring rings; chain soldering methods; repairing worn links or rings.

Measuring wire thickness; fabricating chain and bracelet links; double-link chains; how to produce jump rings; closing links; making a catch.

Secondary jewelry repair jobs; using ring guards; how to test and replace a watch battery; how to install and adjust different kinds of watch bands; machine engraving techniques.