Jewelry Making Techniques - Granulation

The history of granulation is somewhat unique among jewelry making techniques. The method of attaching hundreds of minute granules of gold in intricate patterns to another gold surface was devised early on in human culture, at least five thousand years ago

Granulation - Ancient Jewelry Making Techniques

After being passed on from one society to another, granulated ornamentation flourished as a fashion among the Etruscans c.600 BC. Although the jewelry making techniques for creating granulation effects were lost, over a thousand years later these Etruscan jewelry pieces had become the center of an archaeological discovery that had an amazing impact on European lifestyles.

The Castellani family were already goldsmiths in the 1700's and Fortunato Pio, born in1793, followed in his ancestors trade. Archeological finds of Etruscan jewelry influenced the style of Fortunato's work by 1830. He and his son Alessandro amassed such an extensive and thorough collection of these beautiful works of jewelry art that the British Museum acquired it for their exhibit.

Jewelry Making Techniques - Granulation, Then and Now

There is a great story about how the Castellani sought out a remote village where the last remaining goldsmiths, that had an unbroken tradition of these granulation jewelry making techniques from the ancient source, gathered.

An excellent story to sell a line of jewelry based on the ancient Etruscan designs but more than likely it was Alessandro's technique of hard soldering that involved arsenite flux and extremely fine solder. The results are not as refined as the ancient granulation jewelry making techniques but it was demonstrated at the Exposition Universelle in 1867 and was used to create a very popular line of jewelry.

Ancient Jewelry Making Techniques Rediscovered

About ten years later, 1877, the original method that was the backbone of ancient granulation jewelry making techniques was re-discovered by Littledale. He eliminated the solder altogether by using copper carbonate mixed with glue as a flux.

Under a reducing flame, the carbon and oxygen is eliminated as carbon dioxide and the metallic copper essentially alloys with the granule and the surface of the jewelry. This happens at approximately 1634 degrees F (860 degrees C) so the higher the karat gold you work with, the larger the difference in melting temperature of the metal and the fusion temperature of the copper, giving a bit of leeway during manufacture.

The connection of the granule to the surface is almost invisible to the naked eye and the resulting jewelry is comparable to the best produced by Etruscan jewelry making techniques. View some beautiful, modern examples of granulation and a video of a modern jeweler using granulation and a number of other jewelry making techniques to create her silver jewelry;

http://www.jewelrybirthstoneswizard.com/granulation_jewelry_making_techniques

Specialized Jewelry Making Techniques

Granulation jewelry making techniques are still popular in India but it has become a bit of a specialty skill practiced by a few devotees elsewhere.

It can take as many as forty hours to make one piece of jewelry by these methods and the commercial nature of the jewelry industry makes labor intensive jewelry making techniques, such as granulation, suitable for designer jewelry.