Online Articles

A Classic Casting Method Metal molds remain an option for mass production, but are they right for you? By Shawna Kulpa (Originally Published August 2023) Casters have been using metal molds since World War II, when 90 percent of the country’s access to natural rubber was cut off and what was available was needed for […]

The More You Know A thoughtful and patient approach is crucial for successfully creating castable models By Gary Dawson When I was initially approached about pulling together an article on my “top 10 CAD tricks,” I was a little leery, as I’m not the biggest fan of top 10 lists unless they’re part of a […]

13 Ways Jewelers Can Work with Their Casters… from sharing information to keeping it clean to standing, for a moment, in their shoes By Shawna Kulpa As a jewelry designer, you may find it difficult to entrust someone else with bringing your designs to life. But you likely recognize that no one person can do […]

The More You Know A thoughtful and patient approach is crucial for successfully creating castable models By Gary Dawson When I was initially approached about pulling together an article on my “top 10 CAD tricks,” I was a little leery, as I’m not the biggest fanof top 10 lists unless they’re part of a comedy […]

13 Ways Jewelers Can Work with Their Casters… from sharing information to keeping it clean to standing, for a moment, in their shoes By Shawna Kulpa As a jewelry designer, you may find it difficult to entrust someone else with bringing your designs to life. But you likely recognize that no one person can do […]

What Jewelry Makers Need to Know About Casting with Scott Bradford Airdate: August 1, 2022 Scott Bradford understands the relationship between good design and a good casting. In this episode, Bradford shares his advice on how jewelry makers and designers can achieve better cast items, especially when working with a contractor. Watch Video • Listen Online • Highlights • Show Notes & […]

A guide to taking the plunge into casting Sponsored by: By Sharon Elaine Thompson You’ve done it. You’ve mastered the art of designing in CAD and brought your designs to life with CAM. Now you want to bring production in-house by learning to cast. Theoretically, the process of casting is simple: create a hollow mold […]

Bare Bones Casting The technique behind cuttlefish bone casting and design possibilites it offers By Margaretha Held Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from “Cuttlefish Bone Casting: Theory of Mold Making, Design Possibilities, Practical Casting Technique and Analysis,” a paper by Margaretha Held that was published in the proceedings of the 2019 Santa Fe Symposium […]

Old School Casting A step-by-step guide to cuttlebone casting for beginners By Tony Deluca Cuttlebone casting is an ancient casting technique that can create unique textures using the calcified remains of the cuttlefish. It can be used to create both simple and complicated designs, but most jewelers use the technique for the wonderful wood grain […]

How one jewelry caster turned to 3-D printing to better compete By Shawna Kulpa For much of the history of volume jewelry casting, practitioners followed a pretty standard formula: create a master model, use it to develop a mold (often made of rubber), shoot wax into the mold to create a new model, repeat as […]

For the right job, stone-in-place casting can offer time and cost savings—if casters do their homework By Shawna Kulpa Gemstone setting is an art form, and a very precise one at that. It’s also led many jewelers to tear their hair out. After all, there may be few things more stressful than forcing a metal […]

Effective spruing strategies By Shawna Kulpa (Originally Published August 2019) Casting jewelry isn’t for the faint of heart. Aside from the high temperatures needed to melt precious metal alloys, you’ll need to rush that molten metal into a hot flask as fast as possible. There’s also a tremendous amount of science involved: Casting is equal […]

Casting Case Studies: The Case of the Platinum Mamba Knife Handle By Shawna Kulpa When it comes to casting, bigger isn’t always better. Although many casting problems can be traced back to parts being too small, causing fine details to become muddled, larger items have their own share of problems. Take the Case of the […]

Creating a double boiler vacuum oven By James Binnion In “A Sure Cure,” which appears in the September 2017 issue of MJSA Journal, I detailed the experiments I conducted to cure photopolymer models using a vacuum and low-heat procedure in an effort to reduce the issue of investment degradation during burnout and result in castings […]

A new method of preparing 3-D acrylic photopolymer patterns for investment casting By James Binnion  Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from “A New Method for Preparing 3D Acrylic Photopolymer Patterns for Investment Casting,” a paper by James Binnion that was published in the proceedings of the 2016 Santa Fe Symposium on Jewelry Manufacturing Technology. The […]

How Hot Isostatic Pressing can make porosity disappear By Teresa Fryé Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted from “Platinum Alloys in the 21st Century: A Comparative Study,” a paper by Teresa Fryé and Joerg Fischer-Buehner that was publised in the proceedings of the 2011 Santa Fe Symposium on Jewelry Manufacturing Technology. Even the most talented […]

Tips for improving casting quality Compiled by Tina Wojtkielo Snyder (Originally Published August 2011) Editor’s Note: Every jewelry caster has his or her own set of procedures and guidelines for turning a model into a precious metal casting. The routine in your shop might involve a combination of tried-and-true practices, passed down through generations, and […]

Sprue design quiz: test your knowledge on getting optimal fills when casting By J. Tyler Teague Many factors must be taken into consideration when designing a sprue or feed system for a model, the most important of which is the alloy you are casting. Platinum group alloys are typically considered the most difficult to cast […]

Tips for casting success By Shawna Kulpa During these hot summer days, the last thing you want to think about is the cold winter that’s just a few months away. But as you’re sitting on the beach working on your tan or catching up on the latest bestseller, you’re probably already thinking about the designs […]

Tips for avoiding a meltdown when having your pieces cast By Kate Wolf You’ve carved a few waxes or made a piece in metal that you want to mold and have cast. Now what do you do? If you’re new to the business or this is just your first time working with a caster, it […]

Case studies in casting lightweight and hollow jewelry designs By Shannon L. Brown and Tina Wojtkielo Snyder It’s no wonder that as precious metals prices have risen to new heights over the past few years, jewelry castings have gotten thinner and lighter to maintain reasonable price points. It’s not uncommon today for impossibly thin or […]

A fabric cleaner doubles as a de-vesting tool By Gary Dawson Before you get ready to set stones or detail a casting at the bench, you have to ensure the cast piece is free of all remaining investment. My friend Gary Swank of Gary Swank Jewelers in Portland, Oregon, introduced me to one of the […]

How Jewel-Craft discovered the root of a casting problem by going backward By Tina Wojtkielo Snyder Editor’s Note: Jewelry casters are trained to look for potential problem areas in a casting—sections that go abruptly from thick to thin, sharp-edged cutouts, microscopic intricate details. But sometimes, casting challenges aren’t so obvious. They masquerade as ordinary straightforward […]

Best practices from industry experts Compiled by Shawna Kulpa These slow, quiet days of summer are always a good time to review your shop practices before the busy holiday season kicks into high gear. To help you prepare to successfully cast all of the pieces you hope will be big sellers this year, we’ve compiled […]

Unconventional tips to ensure complete fills and quality castings By J. Tyler Teague, JETT Research Casting has always been a mix of art and science. Occasionally, though, casters allow the art to overshadow the science, creating traditions borne of misguided beliefs. Over the years, J. Tyler Teague has taken great pleasure in debunking these beliefs. […]

Good team communication leads to a casting victory By Shannon L. Brown Anyone who’s played a team sport knows the value of good team communication. Without it, no matter the skills of the players involved, victory is more difficult to achieve. And designer Paul Klecka of Paul Klecka Inc. in Carlsbad, California, knows that when […]

RW manufactures personalized jewelry using a modern approach By Tina Wojtkielo Snyder Editor’s Note: Jewelry casters are trained to look for potential problem areas in a casting—sections that go abruptly from thick to thin, sharp-edged cutouts, microscopic intricate details. But sometimes, casting challenges aren’t so obvious. They masquerade as ordinary straightforward CAD designs that you […]

Where the water goes in gypsum-bonded investments, and why it matters By J. Tyler Teague Most folks in the jewelry industry use gypsum-bonded investment to cast gold and silver items. In this Tech Sheet, J. Tyler Teague delves into the material science behind how the investment sets, and how that chemistry can affect your casting […]

Testing Blue and Purple Gold Alloys By Linus Drogs Editor’s Note: In this online exclusive, Linus Drogs of Au Enterprises in Berkley, Michigan, presents the results of his experiments casting blue and purple gold. A related study, aimed at improving the crack resistance of 14k blue and 18k purple gold alloys, was summarized in the […]

Tips for making great molds By Chuck Hunner Developments in CAD/CAM technology for the jewelry industry over the past two decades have led to a slew of new model and mold materials hitting the market. All require specific temperatures and procedures to achieve the best possible results, but some basic mold-making practices hold true regardless […]

Casting an 18k white and 18k yellow band By J. Tyler Teague It is possible to co-cast metals that don’t metallurgically bond if a mechanical bond is sufficient. To achieve a mechanical bond, a bi-metal piece must be designed with interlocking parts that, once cast, hold the piece together as one unit. Here is an […]

Casting lighter weight, heirloom-quality platinum designs By Platinum Guild International and Jurgen Maerz (Originally published August 2010) As Platinum Guild International (PGI) USA looks to the future of platinum jewelry in the U.S., it has identified an incremental business opportunity for more accessibly prices “entry platinum.” By broadening the availability of lower prices platinum bridal—including […]

Working with resin-based models By Shawna Kulpa You’ve been doing this for years. A wise and grizzled expert, you’ve been casting wax jewelry models since the Eisenhower days. But lately you’ve been getting more and more calls from jewelers investing in these so-called 3-D printers, creating models from this plastic-like resin material. The price of […]

Creating jewelry from natural objects By Daniel Grandi Designers often based their designs on nature—a leaf, a starfish, a seashell—and some take the next step and actually cast those objects. Casting natural objects poses challenges, but it can also be rewarding—if the designer knows enough about the casting process to see the problem areas nature […]