Rebecca Zemans Jewelry Blog — how to

It has been such an exciting year! As this holiday season approaches, I'm overwhelmed by gratitude for your continuous support. This December 3rd - 6th will mark my eighth and final One of a Kind Show at the Merchandise Mart. Thanks to you, my company has evolved and grown to focus on collaborations to create wonderful custom fine jewelry designs and selling favorites from my jewelry collections all over the country.   To show my appreciation, we're doing a huge holiday sale online and at the show, with items up to 65% off!  Click here for two complimentary tickets to the...

We are continuing our how to series with wax carving, which we use for many of our commitment rings. Wax carving is a very interesting and delicate process. When we carve a ring in wax, we first decide which type of wax is best suited for the design. Blue wax is the softest and therefore best for more organic shapes, the purple wax is the medium and best for intricate designs, and the green wax is the hardest and most brittle which makes it best for for more architectural and machine like designs. Once you decide on the wax you are...

Today we are continuing our 'How To' series with an edition on sawing. Just like the processes described in our earlier posts, sawing is a very important part of how we make our jewelry. In the video below you will see Rebecca saw a round circle, which she then files and will later use to create a Satellite Brooch.  It is surprising how complicated something as "simple" as sawing can be. There are many little things to keep in mind. First, the direction of the blade relative to the saw frame is key. The blade's teeth need to be facing...

Today we will share with you some insight on one of our most important processes - forging. Forging is the process of shaping the metal using force. Forging can be done either hot or cold, depending on the metal. For our silver and gold jewelry, we use the cold forging process after annealing the metal. Meaning, we hit the metal while it is cold after heating it up to loosen the molecules and then cooling it off so we can hold it while hammering it. Hot forging is when you hit a portion of the metal while it is hot,...

Creating jewelry is a much more technical process than most people think. To create certain pieces, we use chemicals, wax, and precious metals or processes such as forging, filing or soldering to create a certain design and effect. We solder almost everyday. It is the process of joining two metals together with a filler. In simple terms, soldering is the process of gluing metals together through heat. Soldering has been around for over 5000 years. There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians knew how to solder gold. The Romans also used soldering and did an impressive job by soldering together...