Industry
Jewelry
Jewelry is the category where a quote has a commodity inside it. Metal is weighed, plating is measured, and each design carries its own master and mould — so cost is driven by grams and tooling rather than by labour hours or fabric.
Priced in grams, judged on the finish
A jewelry quote is really three numbers stacked together: the metal, the labour, and the finish. The metal part moves with a traded commodity, so a price without a metal-price basis and a validity date is not a price you can rely on next month — and a design that is a gram heavier than intended is permanently more expensive to make. That is why weight targets belong in the specification from the beginning rather than emerging from the first sample.
Then the finish, which is what customers experience as quality and what generates the returns. Plating is a specified thickness over a specified base, sometimes with an intermediate barrier layer, and the thickness is the single biggest determinant of how long a finish survives wear — skin contact, perfume, sweat and friction all shorten it. Two pieces that look identical on arrival can behave completely differently after a month, and the difference was decided in a plating specification nobody read.
Tooling is per design, not per range. A cast piece needs a master model and a rubber or metal mould; a stamped piece needs a die. So twelve designs are twelve tools, and a small change to a shape after tooling is a new tool rather than an adjustment. This is why development in jewelry runs on CAD and a physical master before anything is committed, and why the cost of a range is heavily influenced by how many distinct forms it contains rather than by how many pieces are ordered.
Logistics inverts against every other category here. Units are tiny and light, so freight is almost irrelevant while insurance, customs valuation and the documentation for precious metal content are the parts that need care. High value in a small parcel is a different risk profile from a container of homeware, and it is handled differently.
For brands where the piece is small and the details are everything
Situations we see here often, not an exhaustive list.
- Brands replacing a stock supplier because plating quality has become a returns problem
- DTC and ecommerce jewelry brands moving from wholesale stock to their own designs
- Retailers developing a private label fine or demi-fine range
- Fashion and lifestyle brands adding jewelry as a category extension
- Designers who have the drawings and need casting, setting and plating routes
What Library of Trade helps with
The points this category asks for most often, not everything we do.
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CAD, masters and moulds
Product development takes a drawing or a reference piece to CAD, a printed or carved master and a mould, with a target weight per piece agreed before tooling — because weight is cost in this category and it is easiest to change on screen.
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Alloy and plating specified
Base metal, alloy, barrier layer and plating thickness are written into the specification rather than left to the factory's default, so a finish can be compared between suppliers and verified afterwards.
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Matched to the process
Casting houses, chain makers, stamping plants and setting workshops are different suppliers. We match on the process your design actually needs, plus plating capability in-house or contracted, and audit status.
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Metal pricing understood
Quotes are read with their metal basis and validity in view, so you know which part of a price is a supplier decision and which part is a commodity. That distinction is what makes a re-order comparable to the first order.
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Testing where skin is involved
Quality plans include the checks this category is judged on — plating adhesion and thickness, weight tolerance, stone security, and nickel release where a piece is in prolonged skin contact. See supplier quality risk.
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Direct relationships
You contract with the manufacturer directly, keep the mould and master you paid for, and can bring an existing supplier into the network rather than moving away from one that works.
How Library of Trade sources this category
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01
Brief
Piece types and the look, metal and finish direction, the price point the range has to hit, quantity per design and size, and whether the collection needs to repeat.
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02
Product Development
CAD modelling, a physical master model, and a target weight per piece — plus stone sizes, setting type, findings and how the piece is engraved or marked.
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03
Materials
Base metal and alloy, plating system and thickness, stones — natural, lab-grown or cubic zirconia — and the findings, clasps and chain that finish the piece.
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04
Factory Matching
Matching on process: casting, machine-made chain, stamping or hand fabrication, with plating and setting capability, minimums per design and hallmarking practice checked.
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05
Sampling
A master and a first-off from the mould, weighed and measured against target, then a plated and set sample that becomes the reference for finish, tone and stone security.
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06
Production
Casting or stamping, filing and pre-polishing, stone setting, final polishing and plating — with piece-by-piece handling, because the run is many small identical objects.
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07
Quality
Cosmetic inspection piece by piece, plating adhesion and thickness, weight against tolerance, stone security and colour match, clasp function, and testing where skin contact requires it.
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08
Logistics
Small, light and valuable: insured air freight rather than sea, customs valuation and precious-metal documentation, and packaging that protects the finish in transit.
Materials, processes and supplier types
A selection of what comes up in this category, not a complete list. If your material, process or supplier type is not here, name it in your brief.
Materials
- Brass and bronze base metal
- Stainless steel
- Sterling silver
- Gold and gold-filled
- Gold, rhodium and PVD plating
- Cubic zirconia and glass stones
- Natural and lab-grown stones
- Freshwater pearls and shell
Processes
- CAD modelling and master making
- Lost-wax casting
- Machine-made chain making
- Stamping and die striking
- Stone setting — prong, bezel, pavé
- Polishing and tumbling
- Electroplating and PVD coating
- Laser engraving and marking
Supplier types
- Casting house
- Chain manufacturer
- Stamping and pressing plant
- Stone setting workshop
- Electroplating facility
- Findings and components supplier
- Assay office or hallmarking body
- Third-party inspection partner
Quality, compliance and risk
The checks that apply here most often. What your product needs is decided per project.
Nothing in jewelry hides. A piece is small, held close and looked at, so surface defects that would be invisible on a bag are the whole product here — which is why inspection is usually piece by piece rather than sampled in the way a garment run would be. Casting porosity, file marks under plating, a stone that sits proud, an inconsistent polish and a clasp that opens too easily are the defects that recur, and each is caught in a different place in the process.
The finish is the durability story. Plating thickness and the presence of a barrier layer determine how a piece survives wear, so both belong in the specification and both can be verified. Adhesion testing on production pieces is worth more than a good-looking first sample, because plating is a bath chemistry that drifts and a batch is only as good as the bath it went through.
On compliance, jewelry is one of the more specifically regulated consumer categories in the EU: REACH restricts nickel release from items in prolonged contact with the skin and restricts cadmium and lead in jewelry articles, so testing is the norm rather than an extra. Hallmarking obligations for precious metals differ between countries, and a piece sold as gold or silver carries assertions about content that must be true. Voluntary schemes exist for responsibly sourced material and are a commercial choice, not a legal one. What applies to a given piece depends on the metal, the coating and the intended market, and should be assessed for that piece.
- Plating system, thickness and barrier layer written into the specification, then adhesion-tested on production pieces
- Weight per piece checked against target, since weight is both cost and perceived quality
- Nickel release, cadmium and lead testing where the product and market require it
- Stone security and colour consistency checked across the run, not only on the sample
- Clasp, hinge and pin function tested for operation rather than appearance
- Piece-by-piece cosmetic inspection, because the unit is small enough to be examined closely
- Hallmarking and precious-metal content documentation verified for the market of sale
Sourcing regions
Regions that often come into play for this category. Not a ranking and not a complete list.
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China
The deepest capability for brass, steel and plated fashion and demi-fine jewelry, with casting, stone setting, plating and findings all available in the same industrial clusters. Tooling costs are low, which matters when a range has many distinct forms, and plating capability is broad — though plating is exactly where suppliers differ most, so it is what to check.
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Thailand
A long silver tradition with strong hand skills in setting and finishing, and a natural fit for silver and gemstone pieces. Costs sit above the volume plated-brass route and the quality of hand work is usually the reason to choose it.
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India
Substantial gemstone cutting and gold work with genuine craft depth and competitive labour on intricate pieces. Consistency across a large run needs closer specification and inspection than a machine-led process would, which is a management consideration rather than a quality verdict.
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Turkey
Notable for machine-made gold and silver chain and for proximity to Europe, which shortens transit on a category where fast repeats are commercially valuable. A sensible route where chain itself is the product.
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Italy
The reference point for chain-making machinery and high-end finishing, with short lead times into European markets and unit costs to match. It suits premium positioning and small runs rather than a price-led range.
Questions about this category
Why does our quote change between the first order and the re-order?
Because part of the price is metal, and metal is a traded commodity. A quote should state the metal basis it was calculated on and how long it is valid; when either changes, the price moves through no decision of the supplier. The labour and finish portion is the part that is genuinely negotiable.
How do we stop plating wearing off?
By specifying it rather than accepting a default. Plating thickness, the base metal, and whether there is a barrier layer between them are the variables that decide how long a finish lasts in real wear. Then verify it: adhesion testing on production pieces catches a drifting plating bath in a way a good first sample does not.
What is the minimum order for a jewelry design?
Minimums here are usually per design rather than per collection, because each design has its own mould or die. That means a range of many shapes carries a higher total commitment than a range of few shapes in several sizes — which is often the cheapest lever a new brand has.
Do we need testing to sell jewelry in the EU?
Jewelry is one of the categories where chemical restrictions apply directly: nickel release from items in prolonged skin contact and the presence of cadmium and lead in jewelry articles are restricted under REACH. Testing is the normal way to demonstrate compliance, and what exactly applies depends on the metals and coatings in the specific piece.
Who owns the mould and the master model?
That should be agreed in writing before tooling is paid for. Because a mould is per design and a design change usually means a new one, ownership and the right to move a mould to another supplier are worth settling at the start rather than when a relationship ends.
Is silver-plated brass a reasonable starting point, or should we go straight to silver?
It is a positioning decision with a real cost consequence. Plated brass lets a range be broad at a low unit cost and puts all the durability weight on the plating specification. Sterling silver removes that risk and moves cost into metal weight, which then makes design weight the thing to control.
Related reading
Related industries
Bring us the brief. We'll build the chain.
Send the designs or the reference pieces, the metal and finish you want and the price point you need, and we will come back with the manufacturing routes that fit.