What actually happens inside a jewelry manufacturing unit in Jaipur (925 silver, start to finish)
Been meaning to write this for a while. I run a small manufacturing setup in Jaipur that makes 925 sterling silver jewelry for export (mostly EU/US), and people are always surprised how many hands and steps a single piece goes through before it ships.
Rough breakdown for a stone-set piece:
**• CAD/wax stage** — every design starts as a 3D file, then gets printed in wax or resin for casting
**• Casting** — wax trees go into investment plaster, get burned out, then molten silver is poured in (lost-wax casting, basically unchanged for centuries)
**• Filing & fitting** — casted pieces come out rough and oxidized; filing removes sprues and cleans up joints by hand
**• Stone setting** — this is where moonstone/gemstone pieces get their bezels or prongs set, almost always manual for anything semi-precious
**• Polishing** — multiple stages, from tripoli to rouge, before it even looks “finished”
Plating — rhodium or gold vermeil goes on last, and this step alone has a whole compliance world behind it (nickel-release limits, micron thickness rules) that most buyers never think about
• QC + packing — checked for stone security, plating uniformity, and finish before it’s boxed for export
The part that surprises people most: a “simple” silver ring can pass through 8-10 different pairs of hands before it’s done. Nothing about it is automated end to end — even factories with CNC and casting machines still rely heavily on manual finishing and setting.
Happy to answer questions if anyone’s curious about any specific step (casting, setting, plating compliance, whatever).
