Jewelry Making Process

Peter and Leesa revel in the hand fabrication process and that is just what you will find in their store. For Peter and Leesa, the old way of hand building is the only way. Once modern technology and computer assisted machinery are embraced, the old ways of handwork die. Their goal is the preservation of hand fabrication, the way your great grandparents knew their jewelry to be made.

Each piece of jewelry the couple makes is made once. Most designs are one-off, although there are some staples of the store that are repeated. Still, each piece is made by hand, one at a time. Every piece is different.

These skills they have honed over the years allow them to build what you desire using your old / family gold or using the same process with newly recycled pure gold - as "green" as it gets! We blend the color and karat of gold we want, then get to work. We use pure metals to alloy our golds and create our colors (yellow, green and rose). We do use a factory alloy to make our white gold blend, as pure gold never really wants to be white. We use an ultra-white alloy that does not need rhodium plating or "dipping".

Every day Striking Gold hand builds jewelry. Much of what they do, in addition to repair, is fabricating with customers old gold or platinum. Keeping those memories contained in a piece or pieces of new jewelry one will love and wear daily is the driving factor for many. For others it is more of a price point. It is generally so much less costly to pay labor only than to have a labor bill in addition to the other raw materials one would not own.

Every day, Peter makes metal. From flat bars to round wire and anything else he needs, he accomplishes it right on-site at the shop in Ellsworth. People are always amazed to see the small area Peter produces so much out of! Stop in and have a look... it really is a sight to behold!

Our metals are melted at the bench, then rolled by hand through steel plates (rolling mill) to produce flat stock or square stock. The square stock will be filed to a point on one end, then pulled through a tungsten draw plate. Each holes descends in size, allowing Peter to pull his desired gauge of wire.