Rebecca Zemans Jewelry Blog — Metal Work

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...

We have been busy preparing for the upcoming One of a Kind Show at the Merchandise Mart, which will take place December 6 -9. The One of a Kind Show is our biggest show of the year, and we always get very excited during the weeks leading up to it. Because this is always such a benchmark show, we bring out a couple of new styles every year. This year, we have decided to "glam-up" some of the pieces from the Satellite Collection by adding 23 karat gold-leaf to the inside of the satellites. YES, it looks as awesome as...