Most buyers who source 925 sterling silver jewelry ask about price, MOQ, and delivery time. Very few ask about how the silver is actually made. That is a gap worth closing, because understanding the manufacturing process helps you judge a supplier's quality claims, spot shortcuts, and ask the right questions before committing to an order.
This is how we make silver jewelry at our Surabaya workshop, from raw material to finished piece.
What Goes Into 925 Sterling Silver
Pure silver is too soft for jewelry. A ring made from 99.9% silver would bend out of shape the first time you wore it. The solution, refined over centuries of silversmithing, is to alloy the silver with a small percentage of another metal.
925 sterling silver is 92.5% fine silver and 7.5% other metals, typically copper. The copper adds hardness and spring without affecting the appearance or hypoallergenic properties of the silver. The 925 hallmark — stamped on every Artistica piece — is the internationally recognized mark of this composition.
Some manufacturers substitute zinc or nickel for part of the copper to reduce tarnishing or cut costs. We do not. Our alloy is copper-only, which is why we can certify our pieces as nickel-free and safe for sensitive skin.
The Casting Process: Lost-Wax Casting
The majority of our production uses lost-wax casting, the same technique silversmiths have used for over 5,000 years — now combined with modern CAD design and precision casting equipment.
The process works in stages:
1. Design and CAD modeling. Every new piece starts as a 3D digital model built in CAD software. For standard catalog items, we design the piece ourselves. For OEM orders, we model from the client's sketch, photo, or reference sample. The CAD model lets us check proportions, wall thickness, and stone seat dimensions before cutting a single gram of silver.
2. Wax pattern production. The approved CAD file goes to a 3D wax printer or a skilled wax carver. The result is a wax replica of the finished piece — hollow, fragile, and exact. This is the stage where design problems are cheapest to fix.
3. Investment casting (the "lost" part). Multiple wax patterns are attached to a wax tree — a central sprue with the pieces branching off like fruit. The tree is placed in a steel flask and surrounded with investment plaster. Once the plaster sets, the flask goes into a kiln. The heat burns out the wax completely, leaving a perfect negative cavity in the hardened plaster. This is where the "lost wax" name comes from.
4. Silver casting. We melt the silver alloy in a crucible and inject it into the hot flask under vacuum or centrifugal force, driving the liquid silver into every detail of the cavity. After cooling, the plaster is broken apart to reveal the silver tree. The individual pieces are cut free and sorted.
5. Finishing and polishing. Raw castings come out of the flask with sprues attached and a rough surface. Silversmiths grind, file, and sand each piece through progressively finer grits, then move to rubber polishing wheels and finally high-gloss buffing compounds. This is the most labor-intensive stage — a simple ring might take 20 minutes of hand polishing to reach a mirror finish.
Hand Fabrication for Complex Pieces
Not every piece is cast. Some designs — particularly those with thin wire work, chain links, or structural elements that casting doesn't handle well — are fabricated by hand from silver sheet and wire.
Hand fabrication involves cutting silver sheet to shape, forming it by hammer and mandrel, and joining sections with silver solder. Our silversmiths learn this craft through years of practice. A good fabricator can achieve tolerances and textures that a casting machine cannot.
Many of our pieces combine both methods: a cast body with fabricated findings, a cast bezel with hand-formed prongs, or a stamped band with a cast crown. The choice depends on the design.
Stone Setting
For pieces with gemstones — whether natural stones, CZ, or lab-grown — stone setting is its own specialized skill. Our setters work with prong, bezel, pavé, channel, and tension settings, chosen based on the stone shape and the piece's intended use.
Stone setting is done after polishing, because the setter's tools would scratch a finished surface. After setting, the piece goes back for a final light polish and inspection.
Quality Inspection
Every piece at Artistica goes through three inspection points: immediately after casting (checking for porosity and dimensions), after polishing (checking surface quality and finish), and a final piece-by-piece inspection before packing (checking everything together against the approved sample).
We weigh random samples from each batch. A piece that is significantly lighter than spec usually means the alloy was diluted or the casting was incomplete. Both would fail our inspection.
What This Means for Buyers
When you are evaluating a silver jewelry supplier, the manufacturing process tells you a lot about the quality you will receive.
A supplier that casts and polishes by hand, maintains their own wax and investment casting equipment, and employs full-time silversmiths has fixed costs that constrain how much they can cut corners. A supplier that outsources casting to unknown sub-contractors and inspects only at the final stage has far more places for quality to slip unnoticed.
We make everything in our own Surabaya workshop. If you want to see it before you order, we offer video calls where we walk you through the workshop and show you a piece in progress.