Bench Jeweller

Bench jewellers are artisans specialising in making and repairing jewellery, using a combination of skills.  Some of the more common skills that a bench jeweller might employ include restoration, silversmithing, goldsmithing, stone setting, engraving, fabrication, wax carving, lost-wax casting, plating, forging, and polishing.
In general, an original design is made and sold using processes such as moulding, casting, stamping and similar techniques. The other is original, one of a kind work. The bench jeweller will be a factor in many facets of the process, depending on what is needed and the skills of the worker. When a production piece is contemplated, it may go through a design process that can range from one person with an idea to a full-scale planning stage involving teams of artists and marketing professionals. Eventually, that design will need to be made into a real piece of metal jewellery, which is generally called a model, and the worker who makes it is generally the model maker. This is often considered the highest form of craftsmanship, as the piece must be made true to the design and also to most exacting standards. A good model maker is among the most technically skilled workers in any trade. After the model is made and found to be what is desired, it is moulded or perhaps entered into a machining process to make copies. Assuming it is moulded, multiples of the piece are cast from the mould. The cast pieces will likely need a variety of work done to them, including filing to remove the skin left from casting and prepare for polishing, straightening parts, rounding and sizing rings, and assembling many various parts together using solder. Although the method used is called soldering, it is actually a form of brazing, using "solders" of the metal being worked, i.e. gold solders for gold pieces, silver solder for silver pieces, etc. All of this is the work of bench jewellers, who at this level are sometimes known as production workers in some arenas. In this context, the bench jeweller (often known simply as a goldsmith) is responsible for all of the main work involved in turning a raw casting into a piece of jewellery - filing it, straightening it, assembling parts or adding settings for stones, repairing any problems that might have occurred, and preparing it for stone setting and polishing.
Part of the process is lost-wax casting. This in itself is one of the most complex parts of the job. It usually involves making a cast of an item that the jeweller will reproduce. This is made of wax or other oil based material so it is flexible enough. Sometimes the cast is a one-off and destroyed after use, though the wax versions last longer, though will degrade over time.

Type

Artisan