Platinum is all about image...
More than ever platinum is gaining its strength in the market place, and it makes sense. The well-informed customer feels good about platinum not only for looks alone - but also by the fact that it has incredible substance. 

I have been a retailer for nearly 30 years and was fortunate, as a designer, to gage a consumer response in my store. Today, nearly eighty percent of the product featured in my store is in platinum. In doing this I have also discovered that not every piece of jewelry I had produced in gold could be produced in platinum and translate into wearable pieces that would fit nicely into a women's wardrobe. Therefore, my focus quickly became that of creating lighter pieces of 'wearable' platinum jewelry.

Wearable platinum jewelry, in my mind, is very understated and elegant. The sheer beauty of the metal - the metal itself - created the richness of the piece. Diamonds need not be intensive in platinum to have a rich product. The consumer awareness about platinum product and its magic astounded me. Comparing platinum to gold or silver jewelry is the same, to me, as comparing the beauty of a Bentley to that of a Ford. If we must compare finished platinum product, first we must realize the intensity of the technical work involved to produce platinum product. No other product requires the finishing that platinum does. It can take four to five times as long to finish platinum as gold or silver. Technical aspects that require partial casting and partial hand made finishes. There are no shortcuts for platinum. The finish is labor intensive - but the rewards are phenomenal.  Accepting the hard work that goes with manufacturing platinum and the challenge of what that entails is something I believe every true designer must face.

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How To Make Wearable Platinum Jewelry
Michael Bogosian
Michael B

This is an abbreviated version of the original work. For full technical details, please consult the original paper.