If you’re just starting your journey into jewellery manufacturing, “casting” is one of the first words you’ll hear in the workshop. It’s the process behind almost every ring, pendant, and bangle you see in a showroom and understanding it is the first real step toward becoming a skilled goldsmith

What Is Jewellery Casting?

Casting is a manufacturing process in which melted metal is poured into a mould and allowed to harden into a desired shape. In jewellery making specifically, a wax pattern of the design is created, turned into a mould, and then filled with molten precious metal gold, silver, or platinum. Once the metal has cooled and hardened, the piece is removed from the mould, filed, polished, and set with gemstones.

Why Jewellery Casting Is So Widely Used?

Casting is the preferred method for making complex, detailed designs that would be difficult or too expensive to create by hand. Instead of fabricating a piece from dozens of small soldered parts, a jeweller can cast an entire intricate design, like a filigree ring or a temple-style pendant, in one go.

This is also why casting scales so well for production: a single wax model can be duplicated into a “tree” of dozens of pieces and cast all at once, making it ideal for both bespoke jewellery and bulk manufacturing.

The Basic Casting Workflow

1. Design: A jewellery designer sketches or models the piece.
2. Wax pattern: A wax replica of the design is created (by hand or 3D printing).
3. Mould making: A mould is built around the wax pattern.
4. Wax removal: The wax is melted or burned out, leaving a hollow cavity.
5. Pouring: Molten metal is poured into the cavity.
6. Finishing: The cast piece is cut from the tree, filed, polished, and set with stones.

This entire method is often called investment casting, or more traditionally, lost-wax casting, a technique goldsmiths have used for thousands of years, now combined with modern CAD design and 3D printing.

Where Casting Fits in a Jewellery Career

Casting is a foundational skill taught early in any jewellery manufacturing course, because nearly every other technique filing, soldering, polishing, stone setting happens after a piece has been cast. Mastering casting fundamentals gives students a strong foundation for moving on to more advanced techniques such as mould making, tree building, and quality control.

Want to learn casting hands-on? IIG South’s jewellery manufacturing programs walk students through the entire casting process, from wax design to the final polished piece.