Tutorials on platinum jewellery fabrication and repairs

by Jurgen Maerz, technical director for Platinum Guild International.

Given its increasing popularity, most jewelers will sooner or later find themselves working in platinum. In recent years it has been Jurgen Maerz’ job to help them do it successfully - to show jewelers that working with platinum is not difficult, just different. To prove this he has written a series of platinum jewelry fabrication and repair tutorials. The lessons provide step-by-step information and accompanying illustrations on how to successfully complete a variety of fabrication and repair projects. Many of those projects also include valuable bench tricks that help to make working with platinum much easier. The tutorials follow a similar format to lessons that have been published by MJSA/AJM Publishing in Jurgen’s books The Platinum Bench and Adventures at the Bench, both available from MJSA

• Introduction
• A guide to platinum alloys
• Preparing for platinum bench work
• Platinum casting for the small shop
• Setting an oval stone in a platinum ring
• Making a custom platinum stick pin with gold trim
• Making a platinum tube
• Making a family tree pendant in platinum
• Replacing a platinum head on a filigree ring
• Making a platinum fold-over wedding band
• Making a platinum puffy heart pendant
• Making a platinum and pearl pendant
• Repairing a platinum and diamond bracelet