Hand crafted engagement rings
Which is better – cast or handcrafted?
At Pedro Da Silva’s our unique engagement rings are all handcrafted and have been for the last 30 years.
Once the plaster has set, the wax is melted out, leaving cavities inside the plaster. Molten metal is then poured into these cavities. When the metal has cooled, the plaster mold is removed and the individual jewellery pieces are clipped off the “tree”. The pieces are then polished and the gemstones are set. In today’s world, a huge percentage of jewellery is mass-manufactured. With the advent of Computed Aided Design and Manufacturing software (henceforth CAD/CAM), jewellery is commonly made by a process called “casting”. For large jewellery manufacturers, hundreds of the same design are created and then standard size gemstones are set into them. Casting begins with the designs being carved by the CAD/CAM machine into wax models, then a specialised plaster is then cast around them on a “tree”.
The quality of our jewellery is something that we are immensely proud of and the way that our jewellery is manufactured is of great importance to us. We specialize in traditional hand fabrication which means forging a piece by hand, without the use of CAD, wax models, casting or prefabricated pieces of any kind. Hand fabricated jewellery requires a lot of skill and creativity.
It means smelting and pouring molten metal into an ingot to get a rectangular bar from which we cold-roll metal wire, bar or sheet of precious metal, then through a process of cutting, hammering, shaping, filing, sanding and annealing (heating), the precious metal is shaped into the required design. It is this process of working and annealing that hardens the metal which the casting process skips, making handmade jewellery more durable then cast jewellery.
There are not many jewellers that manufacture truly handmade rings. Many jewellery companies claim to make one-off, custom made rings, when actually, they are using the casting method.
Hand crafted engagement rings have more flexibility in pre and post design
Hand crafted rings tend to be more unique and personal.
Dealing with a goldsmith allows you to be more creative and to be far more involved in the process.
A lot of love and care goes into our engagement rings, so you can be assured of a magnificent result.
Regards, Pedro Da Silva
