“If a jeweler is burned after death, what will be left of him is a 5-gram gold bar,” jokes 24-year-old Alexander Tokmakov, one of the youngest jewelers in Tula.
Sasha told Myslo correspondents how people come into this profession, why it is dangerous, how a jewelry workshop is organized, what unusual things customers ask for, and how jewelry is created.
How to become a jeweler
—What did you dream of becoming as a child?
- Firefighters. I thought that this was a courageous profession and that everyone respected firefighters. But then I found out that they were getting pennies, and I changed my mind. I was involved in sports - powerlifting, so after school I decided to enroll in the Faculty of Physical Education. But he didn’t become a physical education teacher either: a jeweler he knew suggested going to him as an apprentice, his father supported him and said: “Go, you’ll always earn money for food.”
I was hooked on this profession as soon as I saw the metal melting - it was very beautiful!
For a whole year, every day after classes at the university, I went to the workshop, studied, and then began to carry out simple orders. A year later, my teacher went on vacation, leaving all the work to me. I was very worried: it was scary to work without support, I was afraid of messing up. But I did it, and also earned money.
— Do you remember your first completely independent job?
- Yes, I still keep it. This is a pair of silver wedding rings. They are terrible (laughs): there are visible seams on the rings, they are uneven, and not polished properly.
— As for “earning money for food”: does a jeweler always have work?
- Yes. Firstly, in store-bought jewelry, something often tears, bends, breaks, and people go to jewelers for repairs. Secondly, in the workshop you have the opportunity to make jewelry that no one else will have. According to any sketch, any shape and size.
Pendants in the shape of boxing gloves were made as a gift for world boxing champion Alexander Besputin, who trained in Tula last summer.
Again, handmade: even two identical rings will never be the same. I once had an order from Israel: a girl asked for ordinary congo earrings (rings). There are plenty of them in stores, but she wanted handmade ones.
Weave bracelet "Pharaoh" and lock "Box". The jeweler says that this was his most difficult job in a year.
— What talents and qualities are needed to work as a jeweler?
– You need to have perseverance, hard work and communication skills. The ability to communicate is very important - you work not only with metals and stones, but primarily with people. As for talent, today you don’t have to be an artist to work in the jewelry industry: in our age, most products are made using a 3D computer model.
Nuances of choice
When visiting a jewelry store, some women (and sometimes men) get wide-eyed. There are many options on display, and an ignorant person will simply be confused. It is recommended to immediately pay attention to the quality of the material, its shine and the strength of the connection of the links. Even if you choose the most durable type of weaving, unpleasant situations associated with the craftsman’s dishonesty are possible.
You should definitely check the lock. It can be carbine or springel . The first one is usually suitable for massive, heavy products, provides a strong fastening, and eliminates the possibility of spontaneous opening and loss of the chain. The second has a round shape, usually used for thin, elegant, hollow chains.
When choosing, it is worth noting the size of the hole on the selected pendant. The eye of the lock should pass through it freely, so that the owner can independently put on and, if necessary, change the pendant to another.
It is recommended to pay attention to the length of the product. For women, chains of 40-50 cm are suitable, for men it is better to choose an option from 55-60 cm or more. The indicator depends on the purpose of the chain and the use of additional accessories.
An important point - before purchasing, it is recommended to try on the jewelry, feel it on your neck, and listen to your feelings. If you experience discomfort, it is better to choose another option.
The most unusual and most expensive orders
— Are there orders that surprise you?
- Yes. For example, there was a 370 g silver anchor chain that a 100 kg bodybuilder was going to use to do pull-ups. Colleagues said that nothing would work, it would break - but it didn’t break.
The accordion pendant was ordered by a client from another city. “Thanks to this order, I remembered how an accordion differs from a button accordion,” says Alexander.
Once they ordered me a medallion with a pentagram, which I had to finish making on Tuesday - only on this day there is some special energy.
Sometimes they order things that many people wouldn’t even think of, but I’m not surprised: everyone has their own cockroaches, everyone lives as they want. That’s why I do it, and if a person is happy, I’m happy too. One of the most unusual orders was a silver rod for the urethra. The customer wrote that he was satisfied.
— What is the most expensive jewelry that was ordered for you or brought in for repair?
– We ordered two large chains made of 750 gold for 550 thousand rubles. And for example, they brought in a Cartier bracelet worth 1.2 million for repair; a diamond fell out of the jewelry. It’s exciting to work with such things; it’s scary to damage or ruin them. It's better not to know how much it costs at all.
How to choose a chain size for a man? We decide on the length and thickness...
The diameter of the chain is determined by the proportions of your body. Remember that chains less than 3 mm thick are usually women's, so it is better to discard them immediately. The optimal thickness for an athletic man is 5-6 mm, but the more massive your torso is, the wider the chain should be.
The length of the chain depends on the width of your neck and whether you will be hanging a pendant on it. The length of men's chains starts from 50-55 cm (the chain lies at the level of the base of the collarbone). For chains with pendants and wearing under clothes, chains of 60 cm or more are required. Remember that short chains are suitable for work and sports, they should be thick; a medium-length accessory is more catchy - it is worn in an informal setting, sometimes over clothes.
What ails jewelers
— Do jewelers have occupational diseases? Is the work harmful?
– Not that it’s harmful... But it has its “sores”. Astigmatism develops from working with small details and constant eye strain. Your hands suffer, sometimes they become calloused and bloody, and it’s inconvenient to work with gloves.
When sandpaper is used, gold and silver dust hangs in the air, which you breathe, and it never leaves your lungs.
If a jeweler is burned after death, I am sure that 5 grams of pure gold will remain (laughs). You can slightly reduce this harmful nuance: install a Chizhevsky chandelier, have more flowers in the workshop, or keep the window open.
How jewelry is created
— How long does it take to make one decoration?
- It depends on what to do. A pair of wedding rings can be made in half an hour. 100 g chain - about five hours. And there are some orders that you sit on for a week. I spent five days, seven hours each, working on the “Byzantium” or “Fox Tail” weaving chain: it is assembled from many rings, a very difficult job.
This is what the Fox Tail weave looks like.
— What tools does a jeweler use?
- There are simply a trillion of them. Many of them are familiar to everyone - a jigsaw, a gas torch, wire cutters. Some tools came from dentistry, and special ones include a furnace, a polishing machine (I made it myself), and an ultrasonic bath for washing products.
Some of the tools a jeweler uses.
— What is the process of making jewelry?
– It all starts with a sketch, and then we either create a 3D model and use it to make a product in a special oven, or we make the decoration by hand. I prefer to work with my hands. For example, this is how the process of making a ring works.
First, the metal is melted in a crucible.
The metal is poured into the mold, we begin to form a square out of it.
The metal must be constantly heated red-hot to remain ductile. The finished square is rolled in rollers and joined into a ring with solder. In order for this semi-finished product to turn into an even circle, it is tapped with a wooden or textolite mallet, which does not leave marks on the metal.
The ring size is checked with a ring gauge or caliper.
Sanding removes all imperfections and creates a scratch-free surface.
Then we polish the surface on a polishing machine. When polishing, pastes of various fractions are used, they make the surface mirror-like.
The final stage is to wash the product in an ultrasonic bath. The entire process of making the ring took 25 minutes.
— Was it ever that you wanted to keep a piece of jewelry made for another person?
- Was. Large ax pendant on a thick chain. For the first time in my life I felt sorry for giving an order.
The same axe.
— Do you have to redo a thing if something is wrong?
– It happens that when I myself don’t like the result, I redo it until I’m satisfied. And the customer sees the product several times in the process, at “semi-finished” stages, and can make his own adjustments.
— Does it happen that you dissuade a customer from some absurdities?
– No, I never impose my opinion, I can only suggest, but not dissuade. Whatever a person wants, the main thing is that the decoration brings him joy.
facts about jewelry
The most popular types of chain weaving
Today there are many varieties of knitting gold chains. According to various sources, there are from 50 to 70 of them! But nevertheless, all jewelry is divided into three large types (everything else is subtypes and subtypes).
- Made using the Bismarck technique , such jewelry has no equal in durability. This is due to manufacturing technology. To achieve such reliability, craftsmen manually connect the link elements to each other in different directions. And then the finished links are soldered together quite closely, forming a “dense” chain. The most popular subspecies here are:
- "American";
- "Arab Bismarck"
- "Italian";
- "python".
- "double diamond";
- "spikelet";
- "lav";
- "nonna";
- "rhombus";
- "snake"
- "figaro".
- "garibaldi";
- "double anchor";
- "rollo".
How much gold is in the ring?
- Fineness on jewelry indicates the percentage of pure gold and silver it contains. In a 585 carat ring, gold will be 58.5% of its weight, the rest will be copper and silver (their ratio will vary depending on the shade of gold: red has more copper, lemon has more silver) or copper and palladium in white gold. 925 sterling silver jewelry will be 92.5% pure silver, the rest will be copper. Pure precious metal is too soft, it bends in your hands, and jewelry cannot be made from it.
- Gold jewelry can be full or hollow. The full chain is made of wire, the hollow chain is made of tubes. The second weighs less and at the same time looks more voluminous. But the first one is more reliable: the wire links are stiffer, they are more difficult to break, and they do not fray much longer.
- There is an opinion that jewelers cheat with the weight of the metal, secretly squeezing precious grams from the customer. In fact, 9% of the precious metal is lost during the manufacture of a product: it burns out during melting, turns into dust during grinding, which cannot be collected and given to the customer, and is removed during polishing. These are all production losses, and not the jewelers - the swindlers.
- Many of our grandmothers and mothers had jewelry with rubies. In fact, this is not a ruby, but corundum - an artificially grown stone that has no special value. Real rubies are very expensive.
- On some people, silver jewelry turns black. This is not due to the low quality of silver, but due to the chemical composition of the body's sweat and fat secretions: silver reacts to sulfur and chlorine. You can clean the darkened jewelry, and think about your health.
Technology on the verge of fantasy
Today, the jewelry industry is experiencing incredible growth. New weaving techniques appear regularly, and existing ones are improved. That is why today there are so many options for how gold chains are made.
Methods for making chains
In total, there are three main ways of making wicker accessories:
- machine knitting;
- hand knitting;
- stamping.
However, this does not mean that you can choose the knitting method as you wish. Some chains are woven this way, others differently. But understanding the weaving technique is very useful. After all, the strength of the product, its wear resistance, and durability depend on the method of knitting the chain. Some chains are easy to repair, others are more difficult or cannot be repaired at all after deformation. Before buying this not the cheapest jewelry, it would be wise to have all the information.
Machine knitted chains
Typically, the end result of machine knitting will be a small, lightweight, neat product with small links. Usually its weight fluctuates within one gram. Watching a jeweler make a chain is a pleasure. To do this, the finest gold wire is taken, from which the machine casts links. This is an incredibly fast process, producing 10 links in just one second. Then these blanks are fastened to each other in a certain way, and the jeweler heats them in a furnace. High temperature helps to harden the product, making it strong and durable.
Hand knitted chains
This method of work is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past: it is too long and expensive for modern life. But at the same time, there are weaves that no machine can handle. To make them, only human hands are needed. One of these weaves is the super popular “Bismarck”. Products of this type are in great demand among Gold.ua buyers, and throughout the world.
Hand knitting allows you to get real works of art, each of which is unique in its own way. And the appearance and strength of such a chain depends only on the skill of the jeweler. With proper adherence to technology and high professionalism of the craftsman, a handmade chain will be the most reliable. For example, the correct thickness of the wire determines whether the chain links will bend or break. And we are talking here about tenths of a millimeter. If the choice turns out to be incorrect, such a chain can no longer be corrected.
However, it cannot be said that hand knitting is an “obsolete” method of making chains. Understanding how jewelers make gold chains and how important it is is present both in small private workshops and in serious enterprises. They still value the exceptional work of experienced jewelers and give them orders for exclusive jewelry.
Stamped chains
This method is considered the fastest and quite cheap. In jewelry production, there are special stamps. They are placed on a gold sheet and thus the shapes of individual links are extruded. The links are then connected to each other.
The appearance of the jewelry, according to many stylists, leaves much to be desired. And stamped chains cannot boast of strength and durability. Stamped chains are practically not subject to repair. And this is especially disappointing considering how easily they become deformed. But if you are aware of all the risks when purchasing such an accessory, and “oblige” to wear it carefully and infrequently, then why not?
Hollow chain
One cannot help but pay attention to another relatively inexpensive method of making a wicker accessory. We are talking about “blown” or hollow chains. Such products are now extremely popular. After all, large, massive jewelry is in fashion. And only a hollow chain allows you to create the appearance of a huge product, but at the same time it will not be too heavy or too expensive.
If you decide to purchase a “blown” chain, be very careful. The process of making this product itself does not differ from the machine one (which is why it is believed that there are three main methods, not four). In the same way, thin wire is taken, chain links are formed, and then the product is fired. What's the difference? There is a so-called core. It is this that ensures the hollowness at the end of the process. In general, a core is a cylinder made of base metal (most often iron), which is wrapped in gold. At the last stage of making the chain, the core is etched with acid.
But this is ideal. The slightest deviation from adherence to technology or the use of low-quality equipment will lead to inevitable deformation of the product during wear and the impossibility of repair. And in case of incorrect or incomplete etching of the core, the iron remaining inside the chain can lead to an actual “lowering” of the sample of the product.
In any case, you need to wear “inflated” chains very carefully. We repeat: such products, as a rule, cannot be repaired.
