Manufacturing

Many believe Black Hills Gold is a certain type of gold mined. But it actually refers to a design of South Dakota Jewelry made in the Black Hills.

The manufacturing of black hills gold jewelry pieces require more than 40 different steps, making it one of the most labor intensive styles of jewelry in Today's market. A new design starts with a skilled artisan handcfrating a master wax model. Cutting, scraping and polishing will be carefully exceuted on the model as the final jewelry created will be duplicated exactly. From a model wax, the silver model and a production model are produced. Also a rubber mold is made out of which the design is reproduced many times. The rubber mold is pressured with hot molden wax. Once cooled the wax models are fused to a tree inside a stainless steel can. The can is filled with liquid Plaster of Paris surrounding the trees. The plaster is made to harden by "lost wax process" by leaving the cans on a klin for an overnight burnout cycle allowing the wax to melt completely.

The cavities in the plaster are filled with melted alloy and gold mixture. The Gold in its purest form is soft in nature. So it is alloyed with other materials - mainly Silver and Copper. Once the gold hardens after cooling, the plaster is removed and the gold casts are cut from the tree. These gold designs are tumbled for polishing. All our black hills gold jewelry pieces are produced with 12 carat rose and green leaves mounted on 10 carat frames. Gold and silver rich alloys with a small amount of copper tend to be green in color. Gold and copper rich alloys tend to be rose in color. The leaves are wriggled to give a frosty finish and engraved with cuts for a shimmering look. Leaves, grapes and other jewelry components are then soldered to the cast design. After soldering, the jewelry goes through additional polishing through the tumbling process. Polishing and buffing is done with great care in order to enhance the natural karat gold sheen. The jewelry is then thoroughly cleaned and coated with a special solution in order to protect and preserve its beauty. For gemstone jewelry, precious and semi precious stones are set as per the design specifications.

Each piece is made with great care and meticulously inspected to meet the high quality standards.