Questionhello Thomas. I hope u had great holiday and a happy new year. Thank you for trying to help me out by searching for the earring that I was trying to replace. Looks like I am going to try and get it made from the old one left. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Such as what jewelers would replicate an earring, about how much would it cost me? ( I know it all depends on materials and how much they would charge for making a piece but a rough estimate would be fine). and also how I should go abouts asking a jeweler if they would make a duplication. She paid about 30 dollars for the earrings but the were her favorite and I would like to replace it for her. thank you again Thomas, and happy new year
AnswerAaron, I will be back with you tomorrow. Right now, it is zzzzzzzzztime for me! After work tomorrow I will be back with the answer. One note, the cost will be a lot more than was paid for the earrings originally.
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Aaron, here is your answer. You will need to go to a jeweler who does custom work and casting. The earring you showed appears to have been cast of silver with the inlay section later filled with the stone. Ask if the store does the work "in-house" to be sure they do not farm out the work. Ask for a full price quote before committing yourself since prices can vary a lot on this work from jeweler to jeweler.
The jeweler will either want to make a wax pattern like the original. Some will suggest making a mold from the original then casting from the waxes made from the mold. I believe to have it done in wax originally will likely be best and best assure both earrings are the same size. This should also cost less.
Ok, confused? The earring was made using what is called the lost wax method. A pattern is made in wax, then this is placed in a steel cylinder of perhaps 4" by 3", with a rod of wax attached to the wax pattern of the earring. Plaster is poured into the cylinder and allowed to harden. Then this is placed in an oven(burn out oven) and heated to about 1250f. The wax melts and runs out the path now opened from where the wax rod(sprue) melted away. The wax melts and evaporates..poof, it is gone. Inside the plaster is a carbon copy of the wax, a hollow mold. While still hot but cooled down a little, metal is melted and forced into the plaster mold. When cooled, the plaster is broken away and there you have the metal earring with a metal rod attached, instead of a wax earring with a wax rod. The wax disappearing is why this is called "lost wax" casting.
This is a rough casting and the rod is removed and the earring is sanded and finished by buffing. Then, all to do is get the stone and inlay it into the earring and add the earwire.
To make a mold instead of an original wax means the remaining earring is put into a machine with rubber to make a mold in the rubber. Then wax is forced into the rubber mold to make a wax earring then all is cast as already described. To do this will ruin the inlay in the earring and that would have to be replaced. Also, there is shrinkage in the process and the copy would be slightly smaller than the original.
The earring you want to duplicate is of a simple but lovely design and a competent jeweler should be able to carve one directly out of casting wax in a short while. This avoids the rubber mold process altogether.
I suspect prices will vary a lot. The cost for the labor will be the same no matter if casting gold or silver. Then the cost of the metal is added and labor to do the inlay.
I think you might be looking at close to $200 to have it done. That seems high. Actually, that is not high compared to some wax working and casting prices. We have done some wax models to be cast and the intricate design cost the customer up to $400 for that work alone! Then we added $125 to cast and finish out plus the cost of the metal.
Don't be discouraged by the prices. You might decide to try to find a match before putting so much money into a replacement, or perhaps a pair she will like as much, even if not the original. That is a thought.
Let me know how you decide to go on this one. That would be appreciated. Best wishes.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas. January 10, 2007 9:37PM
