Production Evidence
From your file to your finished piece, stage by stage
Six stages, each with a gate your piece must pass before it moves on. We read your design, confirm the model, build the structure, weld, set, finish and inspect — and the bench builds what you signed off.
Why the gates exist
A process with gates, not a production line
Most jewelry failures are decided early. A wall a fraction too thin, a stone seat cut at the wrong angle, a stress point sitting exactly where two members join — none of these are visible in a rendering, and all of them are cheap to fix on screen and expensive to fix in metal. A process without gates discovers them at the end, when the material is already cut, the stones are already set, and the only remaining options are scrap or compromise. We would rather find the problem while it is still a conversation.
So the work moves through six stages, and each stage ends at a gate: a specific check the piece must pass before it advances. The gates are not bureaucracy — they are the points where a senior craftsperson stops, measures or examines, and decides whether the piece is fit to continue. If it is not, the piece goes back rather than forward, and you hear about it from us with what we found and what we propose. This is how a small senior bench holds the same standard on the fortieth piece of a run as on the first: the gate is attached to the piece, not to the calendar, and the same senior hands apply it with the same gauges every time.
It also means the process is honest about where the difficulty lives. Complex pieces fail at predictable places: joins in thin sections, seats that have to hold stones under daily wear, surfaces that must read evenly under magnification. Our gates are positioned at exactly those places, and the equipment that serves them — the laser welders, the measuring tools, the setting benches — is chosen for the checks that matter rather than for the capacity they advertise.
A gate is a promise that a mistake gets caught where it is still cheap to fix — on screen, at the bench, under magnification — never in the box.
The six stages and their gates
Review & feasibility
We read your CAD, sketch or sample and flag wall thickness, stone seats and stress points before metal is cut. If a wall is too thin to hold its shape through finishing, or a seat will not hold its stone, you hear it here. Gate: feasibility notes agreed with you before anything is cut.
CAD & 3D confirmation
The model is built and confirmed on screen — proportions, tolerances, stone sizes and seat depths agreed in the file, where changes cost nothing. You approve the model, and the bench builds what you signed off. Gate: your written sign-off on the model, which becomes the reference for every later check.
Fabrication & structure
Components are cast or milled, then assembled. Where the structure demands it, the piece is built in sections by hand — openwork and complex forms are made in parts that can actually be worked, then brought together. Gate: dimensions and wall thickness verified before setting begins.
Laser welding & join
Two 200W laser welders do the joining: cleaner, stronger, and with far less heat stress than soldering, which is what keeps thin walls and fine openwork true to the model. Every join is examined under magnification. Gate: joins pass inspection before the piece moves to the setting bench.
Setting & finishing
Stones are set by hand — pave, prong and bezel work at the setting bench — and surfaces are finished to your specification: high polish, matte, brushed or satin, worked by hand rather than batched through a machine. Gate: surface checked against your reference before the piece leaves the bench.
Inspection & ship
The finished piece is checked against your approved reference — dimensions, stone security, surface and balance — and only then is it packed, so it arrives as it left. Gate: final inspection passed; a piece that misses the bar is reworked before it moves on.
What this means for you
QWhat do you need from me to start?
A CAD file, a hand sketch, or a physical sample you want matched or adapted — any of the three is enough for the feasibility review. We read the geometry, check the walls, seats and joins against what the bench can build well, and come back with notes before any metal is committed.
QCan the design change after CAD sign-off?
Changes are normal before metal is cut — that is what the confirmation stage exists for, and a revision on screen costs nothing. After sign-off, the approved model becomes the reference the bench builds to and inspects against, so a change restarts the affected stages rather than quietly diverging from them. It is always cheaper to settle a design on screen than in metal.
QHow do you keep tolerances through six stages?
By verifying at each gate instead of trusting the end: dimensions and wall thickness are measured before setting, joins are examined under magnification after welding, and final inspection measures the whole piece against the file you approved. An error is caught at the stage where it is still cheap to correct, not at the stage where it becomes scrap.
QWhat happens if a piece fails a gate?
It is reworked before it moves on — we flag, not hide. You hear from us with what we found and what we propose, and the piece does not advance until it passes. A gate that lets a marginal piece through is not a gate; it is decoration, and we do not keep decorations in the process.
QDo you work from a sample I already own?
Yes. We measure and read the sample — proportions, weight, finish, stone layout — and use it as the physical reference alongside your file, so a remake or a variation lands where you expect it. Samples also teach us things files cannot: how a clasp has worn, where a finish has held up, which join has started to complain after a year on the wrist. If the sample has a flaw worth correcting, we will say so rather than faithfully reproduce it.
See it connected
The process, stage by stage, in the workshop
The stages above are not an abstract flowchart — each one happens at a specific bench, with specific tools, and is documented on the pages that follow. The openwork flower ring in our case archive passed through all six.
Stage 4 happens here
The joining stage runs on two 200W laser welders — the reason thin-walled and section-built structures can be assembled without torch heat distorting the form. The equipment page explains what each tool makes possible.
See the equipmentStage 3 is verified here
Dimensions and wall thickness are measured before setting begins — the first hard gate after metal exists. The quality control page shows the four checkpoints that stand between your file and the finished piece.
Read about quality controlStage 5 happens here
Setting and finishing are hand work at dedicated benches. The inspection page shows what the finished piece faces before it leaves — dimensions, stone security, surface and structure.
Read about final inspectionA process you can hold us to
Send us your design — a sketch, a CAD file, or a sample — and the first thing that comes back is a feasibility read, not a price. From there the gates above are the standard we work to, and the standard you can hold us to at every stage. You will know what is checked at each gate, what is measured, and what happens when a piece misses — because a process you cannot inspect is a process you have to take on faith, and faith is not what an evidence page is for.
- Feasibility before metal — walls, seats and stress points flagged at review, while the fix is still a conversation.
- Your sign-off is the reference — the model you approve is what the bench builds and what inspection measures against.
- Gates with teeth — a piece that misses a bar is reworked before it moves on; the almost version never ships.
- Documented stages — review, CAD, fabrication, welding, setting, finishing and inspection, each visible on the pages linked here.