Do you know how we make our handcrafted jewels in Joidart?

Jun. 23, 2022 · Artesania

For more than 40 years, since 1981 to be specific, Joidart has been devoted to jewel creation. Many things have changed, but the methodology we use to make our pieces has not. It started out as a completely handmade process, and it continues that way. If there is anything that makes us stand out, it is that we make our pieces in a local and conscious way, following environmentally-friendly processes as much as possible. As the years have passed and technological progress has advanced, we have evolved and included modern techniques, but we have made sure to never forget our origins.

All of our pieces are made by hand in our workshop located in the middle of nature, in a small town in the Guilleries Massif, near the magnificent Costa Brava and our beloved Mediterranean Sea. We defend what is known as the slow craft methodology in which every manual process -soldering, polishing, engraving, varnishing- is performed slowly, allowing the pieces to rest for the time needed to achieve the desired finishes. If you would like to find out more about our work, keep reading; we can’t wait to share it with you.

There are many different techniques used when creating jewels: melting, cutting, soldering, cold connections, filigree… It is precisely the symbiosis between them that enables us to create Joidart pieces with our characteristic quality and detail. But at Joidart there is one technique we especially like: the lost-wax casting method. Using this technique, we have brought life to many of our collections, such as Umbrella, Medes, Stardust, Eclat and Còdols, among others.

The first step consists of creating the piece in wax using a rubber or silicon mould. We place them on wax trees that we then put into limestone moulds before putting them in the oven. The heat of the oven makes the wax trees leave a negative of the jewel in the cylinder, which will subsequently be filled with liquid metal. When it cools, the metal trees move onto the finishing phase: our favourite phase. We carefully hand cut each of the pieces. As a final touch, we apply the finish the designer has chosen: shiny, matte, manual engraving or varnish.