Custom jewelry is a great way to go.  You get to design a piece that is perfectly suited for you and you don't have to worry about anyone else having the same piece. But how is custom jewelry actually made? For many years custom designed jewelry was created using age old techniques that date as far back as the the seventeenth century. Up until recent years, the majority of all all custom designed pieces were created in this way. The onset of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) has altered all of that and in it's introduction has brought in a whole new realm of options. Designs that have never been thought were possible can now be creating using the highest quality standards.

Before you learn more about the benefit of 3D-Computer Aided design you will want to understand more about the design process for a custom jewelry piece. The majority of jewelry is made utilizing a method known as lost wax casting. A skilled jeweler or artisan will hand carve a prototype from jewelers wax utilizing knives and small scalpels. The wax prototype, sometimes known as a "model", is then placed inside a flask while plaster known as "investment" is poured around the wax model. After the plaster hardens an identical impression of the wax is created inside of the flask. The model is then burned out of the flask which leaves a cavity in the shape of the jewelry design.

Then extremely hot metal will be injected into the flask mold using centrifugal casting or vacuum. Once the metal cools down and gets hard, the plaster is chipped away to reveal the unfinished jewelry cast. This cast is then filed down, polished smooth and prepared for assembly, which could include setting in stones or welding other types of precious metal to the cast.

The issue with this process is that your hand can not be nearly precise as a machine that is computer-aided machine while creating the model. Precision equals increased design possibilities and much better quality of jewelry production. At the end you will end up with a product that looks cleaner and will not be as likely to suffer from stone loss or breaking.

Similar to any other job or trade, you will find good jewelry craftsmen as well as bad ones. It is  very important to do some prescreening with your jeweler to figure out if he or she is an expert at creating customized jewelry. You should ask them to see their portfolio so that you can look at their designs and figure out if the aptitude they have for custom jewelry design is well suited to your personal style. For example, if you are looking for custom hip hop jewelry, you would want to ensure that your jeweler is familiar with those type of design principals. You should also pay good attention to their particular communication and interpretative skills since a lot can get "lost in translation" if you and your jeweler are not aligned. After the jewelry is made it is too late to be able to make more changes and in general your jeweler will not be willing to remake it without additional fees.

At this point higher qualified and better skilled custom jewelry designers have moved to using 3D-CAD to create their designs. If you feel 2 jewelers are equally matched in aptitude and skills then you should choose the one that is using 3D-CAD design. You'll pay a little more to have your jewelry created in 3D-CAD but the final results will be amazing. The jewelry will look 1000% better than if it were hand carved and it will last much longer because of the precision of the jewelry model.