Abstract:
A method of making jewelry from precious metals, such as gold, platinum, etc., and their alloys, comprises starting with a rectangular strip of wire mesh, (known in the trade as ''''milanese''''), adding additional wire coils of progressively shorter length to opposite margins, placing the loosely woven mesh into a shaping press to progressively compress the mesh into a circular or oval shape, coating one face with molding wax, electroplating the other side with copper, annealing and scouring the first surface, hammering the surface to crush the wires into a denser mass while retaining its circular, or oval, shape, reannealing and re-scouring the mesh, coating the hammered surface with wax, repeating the copper electroplating step on the back, placing the plated surface in contact with a die having the desired design, hammering the first face again while the coppered surface contacts the die and removing the copper by acid etching.