What Is Lost-Wax Casting in Custom Jewelry?
Direct answer
Lost-wax casting is the standard way a custom jewelry design becomes metal. A wax model — usually 3D-printed from your approved CAD — is encased in a plaster mold, the wax is burned out leaving a cavity, and molten metal is poured or vacuumed in. The plaster is broken away to reveal a rough casting that is then filed, set with stones and polished.
The steps your piece actually goes through
The name says it: the wax is lost, and the metal takes its place. It starts from the CAD model you already approved — a resin or wax version is printed at the exact dimensions of the final piece. That model is mounted on a wax 'tree' with other pieces, invested in a heat-resistant plaster, and the whole thing goes into a kiln where the wax burns away completely, leaving a perfect negative cavity.
Then the metal pours. Molten 14K or 18K gold — or silver — is forced into the cavity, either by vacuum or centrifugal force, and cools into the exact shape the wax held. The plaster is broken away, the rough casting is cut from the tree, and what you get is a dull, slightly rough version of your jewelry that still needs hand work: filing off the sprue, stone setting under a microscope, polishing to a clean surface.
Why this matters for a custom client: the approval gate. Because the whole process starts from a CAD model you already confirmed, nothing gets poured until you have approved the exact geometry. The wax step is cheap to repeat; the metal step is not — which is why changes belong in CAD, not in metal.
This is part of our guide on How We Serve.
More questions on this
Does every custom piece use lost-wax casting?+
Most do — it is the standard for replicating a CAD design into metal. Some pieces are instead built by hand, but casting is the common route for a 3D-designed piece.
Why is it called 'lost-wax'?+
Because the wax model is burned away — lost — and replaced by metal. The wax is a sacrificial copy of your final piece.
Is the casting the same as my approved design?+
Yes — the wax is printed from your approved CAD, so the cast metal matches the geometry you confirmed before anything was poured.
Have a question we didn't answer?
Send it with your idea — a real person at the factory replies, usually within a business day.