How DovEggs make jewelry
CAD
After the customer provides the inspiration and requirements for their piece of jewelry, we start to draw the CAD (CAD stands for Computer Aided Design, and is a blue print image, as shown below). Once the CAD is finished, we send it to the customer to review. After the customer has provided us with confirmation of their approval of their CAD, we 3D print the mould (40-60w in Germany and the United States). The mould is a wax plate (it is exactly the same shape as the piece of jewelry, within 97-99% accuracy). It takes about 5-10 hours to create the wax plate, and to clean the wax plate and other auxiliary materials. Once complete, casting can begin.
Casting
In order to begin casting, we first put the wax plate into a steel container, pour gypsum powder liquid, and then dry the container at a high temperature. Then the gypsum powder becomes a solid, hard plaster, and the wax plate that was originally put in it will be gone. A cavity in the shape of the piece of jewelry remains in the plaster. The metal content (gold + other metals) is prepared in advance and melted into a liquid at high temperatures. Once the liquid hot metal is ready, it is poured into reserved holes in the plaster, and flows into and fills the cavity of the wax plate. After a period of cooling, the plaster is smashed, and the rough shape of the jewelry piece remains.
Mould
After obtaining the rough piece of jewelry, we first clean the "nozzle" (which is a scar left by the pipe that flows into the gold liquid during casting). It is necessary to check if the jewelry is deformed, or if the ring is not round when holding the mould case. Then the jewelry piece is sanded for the first time with 400 grit sandpaper in order to smoothen its rough surface. Then it is sanded for a second time, with 1200 grit, fine sandpaper in order to sand the whole piece of jewelry with precision, including any very fine holes, stone inlays, grooves, and all the details. We sand it all over again very carefully.
Setting the stone
1: Inlay with gravel: We get the ring after holding the mould, then handle the nail position of the inlay, use a tool to find the position of the inlay, and then inlay the small stone under a microscope (which is commonly known as a “micro inlay”), and then inlay it out. The effect: nail fine, stone to stone, compact and full.
2: Set the main stone: After setting the crushed stone, we use the tool cart to fix the position of the main drill claw, then put down the main stone, use professional pliers to stabilize it, cut off the long claw head, and handle the claw head with the tool (yes if the heart shape is round, then handle the circle).
Grinding and Polishing
We use a sander to polish the whole piece of jewelry, up and down, inside and out, more than 3 times. After polishing, the piece of jewelry is as smooth as a mirror, without lines, rough patches, or holes.
After polishing the ring, the whole piece of jewelry is actually dirty, because some necessities (lubricating wax, for example) must be added to polish and increase lubricity.
Therefore, after polishing, the jewelry needs to be cleaned. In order to do this, we put it into a high-power, ultrasonic cleaning machine to clean up any residue of auxiliary materials that are hidden in the angles and crevices.
We then wash the clean jewelry, blow dry it, and spray it with steam, so that no dust or dirt are left on the jewelry. This step is necessary to prepare it for electroplating.
Electroplating
Only after the jewelry is completely cleaned can it be electroplated, otherwise there will be partially yellow marks or stains on the jewelry after electroplating.
For electroplating, we first put the ring in the electroplating glass cylinder, turn it on, heat it up, and wait for a few minutes. An originally yellowish, 18k white gold piece of jewelry turns even more white with electroplating. Electroplating is actually very fast! The work done in the early stages of electroplating takes more time. If the preliminary processes are not handled well, the effect of electroplating will not be good. If this occurs, it is necessary to go through the previous processes again. It is not possible to directly perform the second electroplating. The original first electroplating layer must be cleaned before the second electroplating, otherwise the electroplating will not be completely white. For example, if an after-sales piece of jewelry is sent back to change its size, the same scenario is true. After the size is changed, the previous processes must be done again before replating can occur.