About Our Jewelry

Customers often question why we reserve 4-6 weeks to complete an order, or why it may take several months to finish a new design. The simple answer is that each piece of Black Feather jewelry is handled between 35 and 50 times between inception and delivery. This section is intended to share our production process with you, and hopefully provide a greater appreciation for the craftsmanship involved.

New Designs

For illustration, let's look at a request that came in a few months back. One of our customers suggested a new Borzoi pattern that would combine the dog's head, a horse and a Russian Cossack. After reviewing the designs we have for the breed, we decided her idea would be a nice addition to the line and put the concept on our work list.

Once we work our way down to it, the first thing we'll do with the concept is go looking for pictures. These may be drawn from books, magazines, contributed photographs, show videos and/or online sources. On rare occasions we'll find a picture that's exactly what we want. In those cases we seek clearance from the artist or publisher to use their image. More often, finding good pictures proves very difficult, so we end up using bits and pieces of many different ones.

Whether working from one image or many, the next step is for Anna to sketch an initial drawing. This is usually twice or more the projected size of the actual piece. Working on that scale allows us to fax the drawing back and forth, keeping sufficient detail to work out bugs and include several people's ideas. The result of this process is a final sketch, which is then reduced on a photocopier to the size we want the design to be.

The next step is to overlay the drawing with a transparent sheet of wax. Using a fine needle, Anna will trace the drawing, producing a thin, flat, wax outline of the pattern. The real artistry then follows as Anna slowly adds melted wax to build up relief, and then sculpts the intricate detail that will bring the design to life. This first wax edition is then cast in silver. We will often produce several copies at this time and send them out for comment. After incorporating the resulting critiques, we now have a new master pattern.

The "Lost Wax" Production Process

When your order comes in, we will of course check our inventory to see if we can fill it from pieces already made. With over 20,000 possible combinations though, it is fairly rare that we have exactly what you want sitting on the shelf. That means approximately 70% of our orders are custom cast.

Production is Bill's specialty, and the first step he'll take in making your pin or pendant is to place the pattern master between two sheets of rubber. He secures the resulting sandwich in a metal frame and heats it for 30 minutes at 300 degrees F. After cooling, the master is removed to leave a rubber mold. Melted wax is then injected into the mold and left to solidify. Once the wax has hardened, the rubber is removed, leaving a wax version of the design.

Bill next places the "wax" in a steel flask and fills the flask with plaster. A partial vacuum is created in the sealed flask to remove air bubbles from the plaster as it coats the wax. The result of this step is an intermediate product called the "investment."

The investment is set aside to harden for several hours. It is then heated to 1,400 degrees to burn out the wax and leave a hollow plaster mold. Once the mold has cooled to 900 degrees, Bill fills it with molten silver over a vacuum table. The vacuum ensures the silver is drawn into all parts of the mold and fills it completely.

After a short cooling period the still hot mold is immersed in cold water. This shatters the investment and dissolves much of the plaster. To remove the rest, the rough casting is tumbled in soapy water for two hours. At that point the piece is ready to be sanded. Bill does an initial sanding with a rough 150-grit wheel, then polishes in the final surface using a very fine 600-grit wheel. He will then solder on pin backs, pendant bales, earring findings, etc., and tumble the piece once again for final cleaning.

Items requested in solid silver finish are then heated and oxidized to a dark grey using a liver of sulfur solution. After cooling, they are polished using a chamois wheel and polishing compound. This returns raised areas of the pattern to a high luster while leaving oxidation in the depressions for contrast. Sterling pieces are then ready for packaging and shipping if they pass a final quality control check. As flaws can be introduced at any point in the process, some pieces are rejected and must be melted down and cast again.

The Gold Plating Process

Approximately half of our pieces are ordered in goldplate or silver & gold two-tone. In those cases the pieces are left unoxidized and washed in a hot cleaning solution. After drying, areas to be left in silver are hand painted with a nonconductive sealant and set aside to dry for 8-10 hours. After a second coat has been applied and dried, a "first blush" of 24KT gold is plated on the piece. At this point the gold is only several microns thick (about the same as you might find on cheap, costume jewelry), but it allows us to see areas where the sealant has bled over inappropriately. The excess sealant is removed using dental tools.

Each piece is then individually hand plated to approximately 30 microns of gold thickness. The sealant is removed in an acetone bath and the piece inspected for flaws. Most will have small areas where the gold has penetrated the sealant. These are polished off with a fine buffing compound. A more serious flaw occurs where missed sealant prevents a desired area from plating. In that case the entire 20-30 hour process must be repeated.

Pieces that pass quality control are then hand polished using Liquid Glass. This brings the gold surface to a high luster and applies a protective coating to prevent wear. They are then ready for packaging and delivery.