Becoming a Jeweller - Where To Start?

You will need to learn the different techniques used in jewellery making and what makes jewellery good or not. You will be able to spot defects in manufacturing because you will know what techniques were used. You don't need to be a goldsmith or setter to know that but you need to learn their techniques and that comes with many years of experience.

You do not need to be a designer, but experience will teach you how to instruct a designer to translate your ideas on paper. You will be able to spot weaknesses in designs presented to you because you will know where the flaws are. This is a pretty tough path to take, requires lot of effort and above all you need to get the experience from real jeweller. You will also need to know about gemstones and diamonds and you need to see a lot of real qualityjewellery and a lot of gemstones and diamonds also.

Self teaching can be done but you need to have a very good artistic capability like drawing or painting, then you can pretty much catch up with jewellery design by reading a few books. Your best bet will be for you to enroll in a jewellery design course like the one offered by GIA. You will learn how to do basic design but in the end, don't expect to be Rene Lalique because if you don't have the gift of a designer, you will not be able to create anything artistic. However, taking a jewellery design course will help you understand a design if it is good or not when presented to you.

It is also very important to have a design that is as much as accurate and technically doable as possible. You cannot simply design anything and produce it in jewellery. First the design must be doable and for you to design something that can be produced, you need to understand jewellery making techniques. So the course you take in jewellery design has a basic course (you will learn the basics, course of 2-3 months) and advance (where you will learn jewellery making techniques, which can take up to 4 years).

My personal observations of the jewellery design process:

Step 1: Concept - few very rough drawings of the jewellery piece. Usually for some specific stone or gems parcel.

Step 2. Colouring - selected design detailed drawing including overall dimensions, colours and comments of the gems.

Step 3. 3D Rendering - final design drawing made in 3D in 2 versions. One is CNC file for rapid prototyping and another with full shadering, for the goldsmith's review.

Step 4. CNC file sent to the rapid prototyping machine for preparation of a plastic model. This model used to test jewellery design, and in most of the cases some modifications applied to the 3D design.

Step 5. Final CNC file sent to the milling machine for the wax model.

I would suggest taking a course in gemstones and diamonds, and even in basic jewellery design. Then your best bet would be to be a retailer that can resell jewellery and if you don't want to be just another retailer, then you will need to be very selective on the jewellery that you will sell.

Make a name for yourself, sell quality jewellery that you can produce by ordering as per your requirements and you might do well.