Hand-Made V/S Machine-Made Jewellery – Which one is Better?

Which One is Better Hand Made Jewellery Or Machine Made Jewelry?

While purchasing jewellery there are many questions which comes in your mind as which type of jewelry (as plain gold, diamond jewellery or Kundan, Polki jewelry), what to buy what not to buy, which Indian Jewellery brands to go for the purchase, better return option for investment etc.

One such question we will try to reply which help us to land us to a decision of jewelry purchase, the question is the differentiation between hand made and machine made jewellery, and during the discussion, we will find out the answer to questions in your mind as: –

• How“Hand Made Jewelry”b is being made?
• What is“Machine Made Jewellery”?
• How“Machine Made Jewelry” is made?
• Which products to look for in “Machine Made Jewellery” and “Hand Made Jewelry”?
• Which type of jewellery “Hand Made or Machine Made” is better for investment?

Before taking the discussion further let’s first understand the basic steps in the jewelry making process which are standard for both“Hand Made and Machine Made Jewellery”:-

1. Jewellery Designing
2. Base Making (Ghat in Hindi)
3. Filing or smoothening of metal surface
4. Stone Setting
5. Polishing (Smoothning of the metal surface)
6. Plating

Now, Let’s understand basic of each step and while discussing each step we will try to find out the difference in process on each step for“Hand-Made” and “Machine Made” Jewellery and answer to our four questions above lies in this discussion.

Designing

Jewelry designing is the first and most important step in the jewellery making process, it can “Hand-Made” or“Machine Made” Jewelry designing has its utmost importance. The outcome of final jewellery which you wear is depend on this step, a perfect design lead to the finest of beautifully attractive jewelry piece which mesmerizes you at first look.

This step involves designing a product as a neckpiece, pair of attractive earrings which can be a stud or dangler, wrist ornament as bracelet or bangle can be a haathphool also, then after the theme of jewellery is planned as per budget, market and customer requirement which can diamond jewelry, Types of gold jewellery or jadau jewelry.

Sometimes, designing is done keeping in mind for Hand Made or Machine Made jewellery as for hand made jewelry there is need of good sketch and for machine-made sketch can be just guideline because then machine-made designs are sent to CAD for three-dimensional design to get it printed on a 3D machine which is further sent for casting.

Metal Base Making

Once the design is ready, they are sent to model making department to make the metal base which is done with hands using some basic tools for “Hand-Made” jewellery and using casting technology for “Machine Made” jewelry.

Jewellery like plain gold, Kundan polki, jadau jewelry is hand made and diamond jewellery mostly made using 3D printing technology as discussed above followed by metal casting for the final outcome.

There is also a difference in time taken in making both types of hand made and machine made jewelry, the first will take weeks depending on the intricacy of design while machine-made take 24-36 hours to come out of the machine as metal casted piece.

So, now here we come to a point that intricate design whatever type of jewellery is there can be achieved “Hand Made Jewelry” while on the hand machine-made jewellery is more commercially viable and can produce cheap standard designs.

And ladies you don’t want designs seen worn at other pieces, so uniqueness lies in hand made jewelry which is natural and original hand created for you only.

Filing or metal surface smoothing has its more importance for machine-made jewellery as sometimes machine-made casting give rough surface required to smoothen up, while for hand made jewelry there isn’t any filing step because hand made ghat or base is smoothening done while making.

Stone Setting

This step adds shimmer, shine and glitter to your favourite jewellery with beautiful coloured stones and diamonds. Here, a lot of precision and perfection is required to achieve a perfect outcome.

For hand made jewelry stones are set using hand tools which require experience and expertise, but can set any shape and size of stone in the metal base while in machine-made jewellery stones can be set in a casted metal piece or before casting in 3D printed design piece which can be used for designs with a large quantity of stones.

Mostly jewelry like Kundan Polki has diamond Polki studded using hand tools while diamond jewellery can be studded with hand tools either in 3D printed metal piece.

Polishing

This is the second last metal surface smoothening step in the jewelry making process and can be done with basic tools for both hand made and machine made jewellery types. The step is important in terms of How to clean Jewelry and shiny smooth metal surface for the better-finished jewellery piece.

Plating

Lastly, precisely stone studded jewelry piece needs to be dipped in chemical for perfectly clean jewellery piece with rich colour layer on a metal surface.

As prongs and some other parts/motifs of jewelry pieces are plated with a certain chemical to avoid tarnish and addition of more colours to it for the beautiful design outcome.

Last most important question, which is about investment aspect of both jewellery types, but answers to this question in the material used in making both types of jewelry and is irrespective of jewellery making techniques, as gold can be used to manufacture both hand made and machine jewelry.

Finally from the above discussion, it can be easily concluded that “Hand Made Jewelry” is better in terms of intricate work, precise stone setting, better finish achieved at the time of metal base making and amazing original and rich beauty which can be achieved with hand tools while“Machine Made Jewellery” is more mechanical in terms of technological involvement in its making.