The word handmade gets bandied around a lot these days. We have found that moving our workshop to the front of store in our new location has been greatly received by customers, who don’t just see the label handmade – they see the work actually being crafted.
So what exactly determines whether a product is handmade or not and how does that product differ from its mass-produced counterpart?
The Oxford Dictionary sums it up nicely:
“Handmade – Made by hand, not by machine, and typically therefore of superior quality”
But in an age when technology can do so much and achieve such precision, what are the qualities that handmade products possess that make them of superior quality?
MACHINE MADE VS MASS PRODUCED
Computer Aided Design is used to create a design and print a ring in 3d. It is then cast in white gold, hand finished and the diamonds are set by hand.
One clarification that needs to be made early on is the difference between machine made and mass produced – some modern techniques employed to manufacture jewellery can create the most beautiful, high quality pieces. For example, one of our designers, Michael O’Dwyer, will create a design in a Computer Aided Design Programme, have that model printed in 3d and then cast in a precious metal. The piece will then be finished by hand and the stones will be set by hand. These pieces remain of superior quality although they are not strictly handmade in the purist sense. Were these pieces mass produced however, the quality would inevitably lessen. The reasons below outline why.
PRODUCTION
The majority of our jewellery starts off as sheet or bar which is then worked using various hand tools to create our ranges.
While we cast some items for our jewellery ranges the majority of our pieces start as sheet, bar or wire. Using a saw, various hammers, a rolling mill, files and solder we turn these raw materials into the finished product.
Mass produced work will be made from a mould which can allow multiples to be cast at a time decreasing production time incredibly. It costs us €3 to have an item cast so it most likely costs large production company less than €1 per item cast. That same piece could take us anything from an hour to a couple of days to produce by hand!
JEWELLERY DESIGN
As a designer I need to consider a lot of details before completing a new range: aesthetic, material cost, retail price, time to produce, amongst others. Designers for mass produced jewellery ranges need to consider all of this and more but in much finer detail. Whereas I won’t concern myself with 5 minutes additional production or half a gram of metal, in mass produced jewellery these details are crucial. Designs have to be drawn again and again until they are the lightest they can possibly be and the fastest they can possibly be produced, keeping costs at an absolute minimum. It is inevitable that this will ultimately compromise the quality.
WEIGHT
The ring on the left is a mass produced ring that will arrive with the metal removed where the stones will sit and hollowed out at the back. The center ring is what our setter would start with to make a ring such as the one on the right. The holes will all be accurately marked out and drilled by hand to the exact depth required for the stones. This leaves a beautifully finished ring on the inside – smooth, polished and comfortable to wear.
Customers will often comment when they hold a piece of our jewellery ‘there is a lovely weight to it’. I believe that quality should appeal to all of your senses and where jewellery is concerned that means looking beautiful and feeling beautiful. Precious metals are expensive and there is a lot to be gained for the designer by scrimping on a gram of gold here or there but, to my mind, it is so evident in the finished piece.
It also isn’t physically possible for handmade jewellery to be made as light as some mass produced ranges – certain processes are used to create hollow jewellery or to hollow out certain areas of the piece at the back/underneath. This simply cannot be done by hand.
SOURCING GEMSTONES
Some stones from one of my favourite stone dealers – like our handmade jewellery, his gemstones are very specialised, of modern design and a beautiful quality.
Jewellery designers making handmade jewellery ranges hand pick their gemstones. We will go to jewellery fairs or meet with stone dealers and examine each stone to make sure that we are happy with the cut, colour and clarity of the stone, regardless of what grade we are told it is.
SETTING STONES
Technology has come up with a way of removing the traditional stone setters’ skills – a huge amount of mass produced jewellery nowadays is cast with the stone in place. Provided the stone can take the heat of the molten metal, it is placed in the wax model and then the metal is cast around them. While this type of setting removes a huge amount of labour the result is nowhere near as accurate as traditional setting.
All of our stone setting is done by expert stone setters who specialise in a modern and progressive form of setting called Micro Pave. This setting, carried out under a microscope typically set to 25x magnification, allows the highest form of precision in stone setting.
FINISHING
We use a selection of wooden sticks covered in emery paper to finish our jewellery which allows us to keep all of the surfaces flat and accurate. The sharp lines on the cocktail ring could not be achieved by mass production finishing.
Polishing and finishing jewellery is critical to the finished product and the process varies greatly from handmade to mass produced. Handmade jewellery will be sanded with decreasing grades of emery paper to give it a very fine, smooth surface. It will then be polished on a motor using a polishing compound to give it a final buff.
Mass produced jewellery will be polished in barrels that are filled with different media and turned/vibrated. This process will also achieve a high polished finish but it is a more aggressive form of polishing and will remove sharp lines and angles.
Of course these are only a few of the reasons that you should choose handmade jewellery. Supporting local designers, supporting your local economy, owning something that is unique… the list goes on! With a wealth of talent in jewellery design and manufacture in Ireland nowadays there really is no need to look elsewhere.
