How People Are Starting REAL Jewelry Businesses From Home With $200 Printers

People are starting real jewelry companies from home with $200 resin printers. And I'm not talking about fake jewelry. I'm talking about real gold and silver and jewelry you'd expect to see in a luxury store. And they're making it at home with a $200 resin printer. Most people think you need years of experience and expensive tools to create high-end jewelry. But the truth is, you don't need any special skills, and many are using a different process which simplifies everything and saves a lot of money. They're starting these businesses with a small amount of money and are building real brands. And I'm going to show you exactly how they do it in this video. Let's get right into it. Before we talk about how people are starting businesses with these printers, first, let me show you guys the process of how real jewelry is made with these machines. It's actually a pretty cool process, and we can make different types of jewelry with them. So we're going to make this custom pendant as our first example. We're going to send it straight to the printer and create the first physical version of the piece. The printer uses UV light to cure the resin and turn it into a solid model. Here's the printed model, and here's the bail for it. The supports which hold the model are cut, and you're left with the exact model which is going to be churned into a real piece of jewelry. And that's the next step. We're going to take this 3D print to a casting service. We made this in sterling silver, and this piece costs us around $60. Next, we're going to get lab diamonds for the piece. These only cost about a dollar per stone. This is going to be a two-tone piece, so we're going to get white and black diamonds for it. And next, we're going to drop the piece off at the bench jeweler, and he's going to churn it into an actual piece of jewelry which shines and sparkles. This is actually cheap and only costs about $25 for a piece like this. He's also going to set diamonds into the piece, which costs about $1 per stone. And I'm going to show you how you guys can make jewelry to avoid this charge in a second. And after everything is done, the piece will be plated in black rhodium, and you guys see the inside part? He plated it in regular white rhodium. And this piece is finished. So we just created a high-quality custom piece of jewelry with ease. So this piece costs us around $300 to make, and we can sell it for around double. And don't forget, this was made with real lab diamonds. Now, I want to show you another technique which many people are using to save money on diamond setting, which is by pre-setting the diamonds into the resin themselves before casting, and casting with the stones set in the resin. But first, let's make this next custom piece so you have a better understanding of why this process is so popular. So let's say a customer wants to make this Tyra pendant, and they want to add purple enamel around the letters. We're going to have a 3D designer make the 3D file for us. Here it is right here. And this only costs around $25. Again, we're going to print this resin with a 3D printer. Here's the bail. We're going to cut off all the supports. And here's the finished piece. You guys see the bail perfectly fits into the piece. Again, we're going to cast this into silver. The bench jeweler is going to prepare and polish the piece, set stones into it. And this is where the problem comes in. I'll explain in a second. Here's the finished, polished, and plated piece. The inside parts where the enamel is going to be does not need to be polished because we're going to add enamel to it. We're going to add enamel to the empty parts, and the wall that the designer made is going to hold it in place. The piece is finished. And here it is. As you guys see, it came out perfect. Now here's where the problem in all of this is. When you first start your jewelry business, especially if you're on a budget, a lot of the pieces you're going to make are going to be cheaper pieces made out of silver for clients on a budget. And setting stones is going to cost a lot of money. So we need to figure out a way to decrease the cost of making these pieces. So let me show you guys what people are doing to avoid paying for any diamond setting. They're setting the stones themselves in the resin first, and then casting with the stones set in place. Let me explain how this works. First, we need to print the file with a special resin. There are generally three types of resins you can make jewelry with. You can't use regular resin because it won't burn out during casting. You can use regular cheap resin like ceriotec for basic pieces. You can use a resin which has a high wax content so the resin burns out similar to wax. And you can use a resin which can print highly detailed filigree. Filigree means very high detailed thin parts. And many of these types of resins are specifically made for pre-setting because the resin is flexible. So this is exactly what we're going to use to make this. Before making a pre-set piece, the prongs need to be designed correctly to hold the stone in place so it doesn't fall out. So you have to create a diamond seat in the 3D program when designing the file. So let's print this piece and we're going to use a resin that's made for pre-setting stones. All we're going to do is use a diamond setting tool and push the stones inside each hole. And the prongs now hold the stone in place. Let's use a loop so you guys see it better. You guys see all the prongs perfectly hold all the stones in place. Now let's talk about what kind of stones you can do pre-set wax settings with. You can do pre-set wax settings with natural diamonds, lab diamonds, moissanites, CZs, and rubies and sapphires. Now you cannot do this with all diamonds. You cannot do this with diamonds that are not high quality and have inclusions because that will crack the stone when the metal is put over it because of the heat. And you can't do this with certain HPHT diamonds because some of them are magnetic and the metal heats up and expands and will crack the stone also. So now that we're talking about lab diamonds, I want to address a common lie that's circulating in the jewelry world. And that is that CVD diamonds are better than HPHT diamonds. This is completely not true. First of all, not all HPHT diamonds are magnetic and contain metal in them. Let's do a magnet test and you guys will see this. I'm going to use a powerful magnet called an earth magnet. Let's do the test and you guys see with the majority of these stones nothing happens. But there is one stone that moves and it is magnetic. And the stones become magnetic when tiny microscopic metal parts get trapped in the growth process. If the growth process is clean, it will not trap any metal and the stone will not be magnetic. I know it sounds funny, but when you guys deal with wholesalers or when you're walking the JCK show, take an earth magnet with you so you can test the stones. If you're dealing with clean HPHT stones, they are not worse and are even better than CVD stones. Here's why. First off, about 75 to 90% of all CVD diamonds have a brown tint when they're made. And they actually go through an HPHT treatment to remove the brown color from them. So the majority of CVD diamonds go through an HPHT process. And HPHT stones grow colorlessly. A very rare amount of HPHT diamonds have a bluish tint to them, but this is extremely rare. Also, CVD lab diamonds are made layer by layer, kind of like a 3D printer. And this could make the stone look a little bit blurry sometimes. And if the stone is grown fast, which many stones are, this can create structure defects. HPHT diamonds grow in many different ways. And HPHT stones mimic exactly how diamonds are made in nature. So if anything, HPHT diamonds are better than CVD diamonds. You can ask ChadGBT to verify this if you don't believe me. This whole thing is a marketing tactic created by jewelers. Now, let's talk about the pros and cons of preset settings. If you're making silver custom pieces for people on a budget, or if you're making silver pieces like chains and other pieces that have tons of stones in them, it doesn't make sense to drill them individually. Because it will simply be too expensive. But you shouldn't make gold jewelry with this process. Because it can make the jewelry slightly lower quality, and also it can introduce porosity. I'm not going to make this piece, but I will show you a better way to do wax setting in a second. Now let's do our next item, which is these earrings. The process is slightly different and requires an additional step. We're going to buy the file, print it, cast it in rose gold, the bench jeweler will prepare it and polish it, and the next step is to buy posts and backings for the earrings. These are the sticks and lock behind the earrings. We're going to go to a finding store and get these, bring them back to the polisher, he's going to use a laser machine and laser attach them onto the earrings. He's going to do a finishing polish, and our earrings are done. As you guys see, the quality is top-notch, and they look like they came out of a jewelry store. So you can make very high quality jewelry with these printers. We can also make all kinds of jewelry like rings, we made this Rolex Datejust ring made out of gold and silver, and you can even make things like custom grills. But the real question is, should you start a jewelry business or make jewelry with a resin printer? And the answer is, you shouldn't. Let me explain why. There are several problems when it comes to making jewelry with a resin printer. The first problem is the resin doesn't come out as clean as wax. I want you guys to look at this bail right here on top, which was made with wax, and look at the bail on the bottom, which was made with resin. You guys see how smooth and flawless the surface of the top bail is, compared to the bottom one. The one on the bottom has rough spots from cutting the sprues, and it also has holes. And when you have a hole, you have to shave off a good amount of the metal. This is extra work for the polisher, so they will charge you extra for this. And if you're dealing with gold, you're going to lose money when this is cleaned up. And if you try to go around the process, and try to use a minimal amount of supports like I did on this ring, your resin will come out slightly warped. I don't know if you guys see it, but the hole on this ring is uneven, and you don't want to make defective jewelry. If you want to make high quality, flawless jewelry which is easy for your bench jeweler to work with, you have to make it with wax. This is the industry standard in making high quality jewelry. There are two types of waxes for jewelry. The standard blue or purple wax. This wax is very fragile. And there's also red wax. Red wax is durable and it's flexible. And it's made specifically for pre-setting stones. Printing wax is even cheaper these days than it was before. Using this wax is the best way to pre-set stones. You can cast them in silver and make the pieces for cheap. And just for reference, I want to show you guys how much it cost the printers to print these waxes. It costs almost nothing. The next problem with resin printing is that this process is extremely time consuming. It takes hours to print the piece, and then cutting the supports is also a hassle. And another problem with resin printing is that the fumes from all of these resins are dangerous for your health. When I was making these pieces, I started having throat pain, so it's not worth risking your health. If you look at the back of these bottles, they have a bunch of spelling errors and typos. So who really knows what they put in the stuff. Also, if people find out you're making jewelry with a resin printer, they just look down on it and don't take you as a serious brand. Anyone who's serious about starting a real jewelry business should not be printing themselves, casting, or polishing. All of this is very inexpensive and should be left to professionals. If you start doing all this stuff yourself, you're just going to get frustrated and you're going to make starting this business much harder for yourself. Manufacturing jewelry is one of the easiest parts about this business. You can use manufacturers who are located in the United States, and they can make the jewelry for you for cheap. If you want to learn how to start a jewelry business step by step, check out the course in the description under this video. It's a master class, and it will teach you everything you need to start a successful jewelry business. Let me know what questions you guys have about this business in the comments, and I'll see you guys in the next video.