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One of the more difficult challenges Chihiro Makio of 314 Studio in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, faced when creating her Orange Necklace was getting the citrus-themed elements to sit properly on the wearers neck. The piece comprises roughly 30 three-dimensional elements, some shaped like oranges and others like leaves, and deciding how to best get them to sit in harmony with one another took some doing.... (2005) Complete Story
The one tool that allows each of these jewelers to do their jobs better is a laser welder, a technological advancement that is becoming increasingly common in trade shops and manufacturing facilities. By using a sharply focused beam of light to produce very high heat in a small area, lasers are allowing jewelers to routinely accomplish tasks that would once have been either impossible or too time consuming to be worthwhile.... (2003) Complete Story
Connections are an important part of jewelry manufacturing. We make them with suppliers, with retailers, even with the people who buy and wear our jewelry. But some of the most important connections are those we make between metals. Whether creating custom one-offs or producing in volume, jewelers must constantly make physical connections between metal objects ear posts to earrings, clasps to chains, and jump rings to nearly everything.... (2000) Complete Story
Since their introduction to the jewelry industry, laser welders have been lauded for their speed, accuracy, and convenience of use. Retail stores and job shops have made sizable investments in these machines, which are guaranteed to simplify day-to-day repairs such as fixing damage next to stones and cleaning up porosity in castings. But it has only been in the last few years that the technology has started to turn up in higher volume production settings. Now, however, as laser welders become faster, more user-friendly, and suitable for a wider range of jewelry applications, they are finding new homes as standard equipment on the manufacturing shop floor.... (2003) Complete Story
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