How to Make Your Own Jewelry from Scrap Gold

People make their own jewelry as a hobby and for special occasions. Handmade jewelry can also make a unique gift for a family member or friend. Some people can also make jewelry to sell. Making gold jewelry is possible by recycling old, broken scrap jewelry. Scrap jewelry can be melted down quickly into liquid form. Once the liquid form is ready, it can be poured into a mold to make rings and necklaces.

Step 1

Buy a mold to make your jewelry. Use a ring mold for gold rings, and a separate mold for making necklaces. Gather together old scraps of gold jewelry that you wish to recycle, and put them in a pile in your workspace to make new gold jewelry. Make sure your workspace is on a non-flammable, flat table surface, and cleared for space.

Step 2

Melt gold by using a small, low oxygen, hand-held torch made for melting gold. Torch gold over a melting dish, until it turns liquid. Pour the liquid into casting mold, and let cool. Once the mold is completely cool, take jewelry out. Necklaces are easiest to make. Once the necklace is finished, clip off the ends, and file with a smoothing tool. Add necklace attachments, such as a hook and clasp. Solder the hook and clasp to either end of the necklace.

Step 3

Place melted gold, if there is no ring mold, through a jewelry press machine made for flattening and stretching out melted gold, once cool. These machines have a hand cranking mechanism, which will pull the gold through the machine, stretch it, and flatten it. Apply torch a few times over the gold being flattened to make the ring, then put piece back into the machine, and pull through a few more times.

Step 4

Once the ring metal is pliable, take needle nose pliers, and begin bending the ring. You may want to take a white marker made for marking gold, to see how much of an edge should be clipped away while bending. Make sure the gold is completely cool, and pliable enough through reheating to bend into shape. Once the shape of the ring is formed, use a professional cutting machine to cut off excess.

Step 5

Carefully continue bending gold, until the ends are closed. Make sure the gold has no indents from the pliers. This is accomplished by continually moving the ring counterclockwise while bending. Use a jewelry filling agent to fill in the gap where ends connect, and genuine gold foil around the filler. Apply the torch to solder the ends together. Use a low flame.

Step 6

Smooth rough edges or points on newly molded jewelry with smoothing tools made for rings and necklaces. File the piece gently, until rough edges or bubbles are smoothed away, and then polish gold with a soft, dry cloth. Things You'll Need

• Jewelry molds
• Old scrap gold jewelry
• Low oxygen hand-held torch
• Smoothing tools
• Necklace attachments
• Jewelry press machine
• Needle nose pliers
• White marker
• Professional cutting machine
• Jewelry filling agent
• Genuine gold foil
• Soft, dry cloth