The production of jewelry in Russia and throughout the world has become widespread. In order for products to have an impeccable appearance and high quality, it is important to take into account the features of the technological process. It, in turn, acts as the most important factor in shaping the strength and reliability of products. As part of its production, a whole cycle is carried out: from the acquisition of raw materials to final processing.
All technological processes observed during the production of jewelry can be basic and finishing.
The first group includes:
- punching;
- casting;
- fuse;
- annealing;
- rolling;
- getting rid of fat;
- soldering;
- drawing;
- washing;
- drying.
As for finishing operations, they can traditionally be presented as follows:
- chip;
- diamond type processing;
- softening;
- slicing;
- cutting;
- grinding/polishing;
- matting.
The range of finishing work carried out depends on the specific type of decoration
Casting
Making jewelry to order, as well as its mass production, involves the use of casting techniques. It involves the use of several dozen models simultaneously, which are assembled together and soldered to one base. As a result, a so-called “jewelry tree” is formed, which is subsequently shaped into clay and baked.
In order for the jewelry casting technique to be carried out efficiently, it is necessary that the clay dries evenly and that there are no cracks. An important role is also played by the flow of wax in full; this approach will allow you to obtain a form with voids. After this, the alloy is mixed and sent to the mold. All that remains is to cool this mass and remove the clay, taking out the finished “Christmas tree”.
At the next step, the work is carried out by jewelry assemblers. The technology makes it possible to produce products that contain several parts at the same time. It is precisely the assembly specialists who are engaged in fastening them together. The parts are assembled into one whole, and the rings are adjusted to the required size.
Features of jewelry casting
This direction correlates with the technologies for making jewelry in Ancient Egypt, as it has much in common with them. The manufacturing process has remained virtually unchanged since that time, and modern craftsmen actively use the technologies of their ancestors and innovative high-precision equipment.
It is worth noting that before installing the stone into the product, the workpiece is first subjected to grinding and polishing. In the first case, the profile is leveled, in the second, a shine effect is created.
Tumbling is a procedure involving a combination of grinding and polishing. Products are processed by first mixing in a drum with abrasive, the composition of which can be variable. When using this technique, the quality of the product is lower than when using grinding and polishing. However, the technique is fast and accessible.
Many mass-produced jewelry are processed exclusively using this technology.
Casting using inexpensive stones
This technique is used in making jewelry from silver and gold. It is worth noting that not every model is suitable for its use. The stones are inserted directly into the waxes during the process of creating a jewelry tree. After the mold is fired in clay conditions, the stones are stored inside. After pouring the metal, the inserts are immediately fixed. Next, the product enters the tumbling drum and is considered ready. Of course, in this case there is a fairly large percentage of defects, but production is considered to be as cheap as possible.
"Golden" raw materials
The main problem is rising prices for raw materials. The cost of gold and precious stones has increased by 50-60% since last year. Precious metals and stones account for 85-90% of the cost of the product, Utkin notes.
According to the Central Bank, in December 2022, the price of gold was 2900-3000 rubles per gram, silver 34-35 rubles per gram. Last year, we received an increase in prices for gold by 50%, and for silver by 75%, says Utkin. A gram of gold in December 2022 already cost 4300-4500 rubles, silver - 60-61 rubles.
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Stones are not an exchange commodity. According to the Jewelers Guild, natural stones have risen in price two to three times over the same period. For example, the most popular stone, topaz, has increased in price from $5 per carat to $11-12.
The rise in prices has significantly hit producers; due to a shortage of working capital, they cannot purchase gold in sufficient quantities and produce products, Utkin notes. Thus, according to the Jewelers Guild, in 2022, 57 tons of gold jewelry were produced, 30 million pieces were hallmarked. In 2022, only 39 tons of products were produced and 21 million pieces were branded. The downward trend will continue this year, the expert is sure.
Setting stones
If a product is made with stones, then a setting procedure is required. This issue is resolved by the master fixer, who, in turn, installs the stones in the grooves and seals them to prevent them from falling out.
Practice shows that many stones are very fragile and cannot withstand loads during the setting process. This means that chips appear on them. If we are talking about inexpensive cubic zirconia, there is no problem. But in the case of diamonds, such nuances are unacceptable.
Handmade jewelry making is quite common, however, today automated processes are popular . The more efficiently each step is performed, the better the quality of the finished product is considered. Accordingly, the higher its cost.
Where to begin?
Before a jewelry production workshop begins its work, an entrepreneur will have to go through several difficult stages related to organizing a business:
- At the first stage, it is necessary to put the implementation of this business idea on official “rails”. In other words, register as an individual entrepreneur. This procedure is indecently simple and inexpensive. All you need to do is contact the Federal Tax Service office, write an application, pay the state fee (800 rubles), wait a little and receive the desired OGRN certificate. It is also necessary to register your activities with the Assay Office.
- When choosing a premises for setting up a jewelry workshop, the decisive factor is its level of security. Steel bars on windows and reinforced doors are not a luxury, but a necessity. It is also necessary to have an alarm system and be connected to a private security system. As for the workshop area, 50 sq. meters will be quite enough.
- When recruiting staff, you will certainly face the problem of a lack of qualified personnel. It's no problem. The main thing is to find one or two master jewelers who will organize training for beginners. It will take no more than two months.
You can set up the production of jewelry without any problems, but where to sell it later? There are two options: the first is to open a jewelry store right in the workshop; the second option is to actively search for wholesale buyers in your region. You will decide which sales method to choose when you conduct a thorough monitoring of the situation on the domestic market.
Automated technologies
Knitting chains and bracelets by hand is an extremely routine task. The jeweler is required to work with gold wire of the required thickness, as well as subsequent cutting of links and weaving. This means that the work will cost even more than the cost of the raw materials. Automated production allows the use of special machines that are manufactured for different types of work.
With their help, it will be easy to reduce the cost of a machine hour and speed up the process
Only luxury grows
The increase in the cost of products from the manufacturer forces retail chains to raise prices. “Last year, retail maintained a certain inventory of products at old prices, but now this is not the case. Prices are creeping up, they have already increased by about 30%, and this is not the limit,” warns Utkin.
According to him, the mass segment suffered the most; sales in volume terms fell by 30% last year. At the same time, the luxury segment has doubled. Those who previously bought jewelry abroad and are now unable to travel due to the pandemic are purchasing items in Russia, explains Utkin. The greatest demand is for products with rare natural stones - rubies, emeralds, sapphires, garnets, aquamarines, tourmalines, tanzanites.
“Customers appreciated the comfort of purchasing goods in Russia. We have a wide selection of models, a high level of service and all duties are included. In addition, prices for watches and jewelry are competitive compared to Europe. All this became an important factor for sales growth,” the Mercury company’s press office explained to Forbes. Jewelry sales in January - June 2022 at Mercury increased by more than one and a half times compared to the same period last year. The company notes an increase in interest in watches and jewelry as investments. For example, there has been an increase in demand for watches with complex functions, such as Patek Philippe, all Rolex models and jewelry with exceptional characteristics, confirmed by international certificates.
“Sales of jewelry in the premium and luxury categories are constantly growing, year after year. In this segment, we have never observed a decline and we are not seeing it now,” Anastasia Sarantseva, director of sales and development of the Moscow Jewelry Factory, told Forbes. “We classify jewelry worth 1 million rubles and more as luxury.”
In the first quarter of 2022, sales of expensive diamond jewelry increased by 20% compared to the same period in 2020, says Dmitry Dosko, commercial director of the Adamas jewelry store chain. Quantitatively, sales have decreased, he confirms. But the growth of the average receipt (both due to the cost of a unit of goods sold and the number of items in the receipt) outweighs this drop by almost half. “Our revenue from operating stores now exceeds the values in 2022,” Dosko assures.
Features of jewelry polishing
With its help, as already noted, you can get a mirror shine and maximum reflection. This process is carried out on a specialized machine, which involves the use of pastes and circles made of leather, felt, and cotton material.
Considering that jewelry is made not only by hand by highly skilled craftsmen, but also using automated stamping systems, when purchasing, pay attention to such details as the cleanliness of the work performed, how strong the clasps, links, and inserts are.
Financial issue
Jewelry production is a business that does not require significant initial investments. Also in this business it is quite difficult to burn out and go into a big minus. All the same, sooner or later, all the goods will be sold. The main cost items when opening a jewelry workshop are as follows (the prices presented below are averaged for the Central Federal District):
- Rent – from 20 thousand rubles.
- Purchase of equipment – from 50 thousand rubles.
- Preparation of the necessary documentation – from 20 thousand rubles.
- Purchase of the first batch of raw materials for production - from 100 thousand rubles.
- Advertising campaign – from 10 thousand rubles.
The resulting amount of initial investment in organizing jewelry production is quite affordable - only 200 thousand rubles.
Now let's try to calculate the amount of monthly income. With an average check of 2 thousand rubles and the number of buyers 100 people per month, it will be 200 thousand rubles. We subtract mandatory monthly expenses in the amount of 120 thousand rubles and get the amount of net profit - about 80 thousand “wooden”. It is not difficult to calculate that in this situation, the production of jewelry will pay for itself in less than six months.
Increase in the number of synthetic products
“The crisis in the diamond industry will only worsen in the coming months,” Diamond Market Analyst Anirudda Lidbidde was quoted as saying by the Times of India. “The biggest challenge now is the popularity of lab-grown diamonds. [This trend] has been particularly strong in the United States.”
In the summer of 2022, by decision of the US Federal Trade Commission, sellers were allowed to sell their products without indicating this on the tag. In Russia, the situation is different - sellers must indicate the non-natural origin of the stone on the tag.
The increase in the number of synthetic products is associated with the high cost of original products, the low cost of artificially grown diamonds and their similarity to natural diamonds. If we talk about Russia, then this is also a drop in real incomes of the population since 2014.
If in 2008 it cost about $4 thousand to make a CVD diamond weighing 1 carat, then in 2018 it costs only $300–500. As is the case with jewelry, the retail price of such a stone is about ten times higher, but still lower than that of a natural diamond. The most amazing thing is that two years ago the difference was only 20%, but now it is 50%.
Gem-quality artificial diamonds were not widely sold until relatively recently. In order for their defining characteristics (purity, on which the refraction of light and color then depends) to correspond to the level required in jewelry, high production technologies and equipment are needed. The level of production and technology must be at such a high level that, roughly speaking, it is capable of simulating the natural environment in laboratory conditions. The natural process of formation of a natural diamond takes thousands of years. The laboratory is able to speed up the process of converting carbon-graphite into diamond in a few days.
HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature) and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) technologies can cope with this, although they have their drawbacks. Stones grown using CVD technology from gas have a noticeable dark tint, which does not allow them to glow enough. HPHT technology also has its problems.
There is a direct trend towards the development of 3D printing. On April 4, 2018, aerospace corporation Lockheed Martin filed a patent application describing a 3D printer for printing synthetic diamonds. The words of patenter David Findley: “The method consists of layer-by-layer application of layers of ceramic powder and bonding them with a previously dissolved polymer. After the layer-by-layer construction is completed, the object is heated to at least the polymer decomposition temperature, which is lower than the powder sintering temperature.”
Despite all the problems with these technologies, it is very difficult to tell the difference between a natural diamond and a synthetic copy. According to the General Director of the Guild of Russian Jewelers, Eduard Utkin, even a specialist with a magnifying glass will not guess that a diamond is artificial - for this you need $10 thousand equipment. “In terms of physical, chemical, optical properties, they completely correspond to natural ones,” says Utkin.
50 years have passed since the production of artificial diamonds exceeded the production of natural ones. In the 1970s, diamonds were suitable for technical needs, primarily for making cutting tools, drills, etc., but they could not be made into jewelry - they looked like inconspicuous yellow or brownish stones. The first diamonds suitable for cutting were created around the same time, but the process was too complicated - it was more profitable to continue cutting diamonds from mineral raw materials.
Nowadays, the cost of synthetic products has become several times lower, and the quality has increased many times. The development trend of synthetic diamonds in the jewelry market is becoming more and more noticeable every year.
Online shopping
The largest online diamond trading platform, Rapnet, has a presence in 97 countries and over 1.56 million diamonds valued at over US$1.5 billion. Every year the number of sellers and buyers is rapidly increasing. There is a trend around the world towards the development of the online trading market.
Reasons for the increase in online shopping:
- Cheap compared to the offline world
- Ability to compare prices between retailers
- Large market for products and product information
- Free delivery and fitting
- Possibility to study a product without losing image quality
Let's analyze the reasons and compare them with offline purchases.
The high cost of offline goods compared to online goods is due to the need for the seller to include in the price of the product the costs of renting premises for selling the assortment, staff salaries, marketing of a separate outlet, household expenses (including electricity), etc.
A wide range of products presented online on a large number of sites guides the buyer by price and reputation of the seller and allows him to find more optimal conditions for purchase. Compared to offline, it is less time-consuming.
The number of goods offered to the buyer offline is limited to the premises rented, while online the number of products placed is not limited by anything. The buyer can find the required product on the seller’s website with a greater probability than if he came to one of the retail departments and asked for the product. Also on the websites of various companies that sell jewelry, you can study information about the product. For example, on the website of the jewelry company Cartier, you can read detailed information about the uniqueness of each product presented, about the collection that the product belongs to, and instructions for use.
Major players offer their customers free shipping and fitting. If buyers are not satisfied with the quality of the product, they can refuse it free of charge. On the scale of a large city, this is especially convenient (and most buyers of precious jewelry are residents of large cities) - the buyer does not need to waste time getting to the point of repurchase of the product. In small towns, the buyer also has access to courier delivery and the possibility of self-pickup. Representative .
The development trend of online shopping in Russia is stimulated by the permission of the Government of the Russian Federation dated November 30, 2022 for the sale of “jewelry made of precious metals and (or) precious stones” remotely.
Up to this point the situation was vague. According to the decree of the President of the Russian Federation “On types of products (works, services) and production waste, the free sale of which is prohibited,” dated 1992, precious stones and metals were not allowed for free sale. However, according to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, restrictions on the sale of goods can only be introduced by law - in Russia there was no law banning the online sale of jewelry. After the Government resolution, the situation became clearer.
“Now businesses have a clear understanding that online sales of jewelry are permitted subject to compliance with the requirements established by law. We see that it is convenient for customers to buy jewelry online: since the launch of this category on Ozon in February 2022, sales have grown monthly by 40%, and since July - by 70% per month,” said an Ozon representative.
The representative of Alrosa shares the same opinion: “Previously existing legislative restrictions in Russia related to the remote sale of jewelry and precious stones to individuals restrained the development of this business. The lifting of restrictions will undoubtedly stimulate online commerce.”
Another confirmation of the development of the virtual jewelry market in Russia is the creation of the Tmall Internet platform under the leadership of the largest online store - the Chinese AliExpress. The first partners were retailers Sunlight and Sokolov.
In 2016, 180 billion rubles were spent on the jewelry industry: 1% was purchased online, and in 2022 - already 3%. In one year, online sales increased 3 times. In 2013, Carat Lane, India's largest online diamond retailer, sold $2 million worth of jewelry online; in 2022, it will sell over $150 million. According to a consumer study by the World Gold Council released in November, 6% of gold jewelry is purchased online.
Spokesperson: “We forecast that online sales will reach 25% of total jewelry trade worldwide by 2025.”
There is a clear trend in the development of the online jewelry market in the world - there are many prerequisites for this, which are mainly related to the development of scientific and technological progress and the Internet. This trend is confirmed by statistics and figures reported by large jewelry companies and their representatives.
