At Kirk's we are thrilled to assist you in creating a custom made piece of jewelry or redesign your exisitng family heirlooms and gems, into a new piece, designed by you! We also have a wide selection of loose gemstones to help with your new creation.
Inspiration for jewelery design can come from a variety of sources, our gallery houses hundreds of pieces to inspire your new design, or bring in a sketch, a picture, or a general idea.
Our designers will be thrilled to talk with you about your design and help create just the piece you want. We will draw out a sketch of your inspiration, then forward that sketch on to our in house jeweler to start the wax process.
The Lost Wax Process
The origins of the lost wax process are shrouded in antiquity, but it has been used for thousands of years to produce objects in metal which could not be produced any other way, due to the complexity of their form. It permits anything that can be modeled in wax to be transformed into metal, and is still used today for fine jewelry, dental restorations, sculpture and even certain industrial parts.
Kirk's Jewelry custom design work uses the lost wax casting process. This ancient process offers you a chance to view your design in wax before it is cast. The wax model we carve is then customized to your size and taste; the piece is then cast in the metal of your choice, and the mold disappears as the cast piece is cooled.
Steps of the Lost Wax Casting Process:
Our in-house jeweler hand carves your jewelry design piece in wax giving the jeweler a chance to work with a very forgiving material, with good flexibility for design detail.
When the design is perfected to your taste and it is approved by you, the jeweler then flows wet casting investment around the wax model. After the investment dries, the wax is burned out leaving an exact mold of your piece. Molten metal is forced into the mold. In the cooling process, the mold is destroyed.
The finishing process includes setting any gemstones that you chose for the design and polishing the piece. Your one-of-a-kind piece is now ready for you to enjoy!
