Modern Simple, a Sydney handmade ring crafted in solid 9ct Gold. 3.8 grams of 9ct Gold in the above handcrafted Modern Simple ring.
One of the factors in making anything from raw material is wastage,and while that wastage is unimportant in the matter of manufacturing items in, e.g., wood or base metals, or even in Silver, that wastage becomes highly relevant when the raw material is as costly as Gold. Before the 1940s it was not uncommon for a workshop making items in high carat Gold to have the workshop’s carpet treated/refined every few years, to extract the Gold wastage.
Nowadays, a bench jeweller takes that inevitable Gold wastage into account by adding a percentage to the weight of Gold in the finished item. 10% is the commonly accepted amount of Gold wastage in any given handcrafted Gold item of jewellery.
The 3.8 grams of 9ct Gold in the above Modern Simple ring, when reduced to a lump or small nugget of 9ct Gold, will fetch, as of mid 2025, almost $300 as scrap from one of Sydney’s precious metal refineries.
Add to that $300 the cost of wastage, the value of the skill and time required to handmake a ring as stylish as this, the cost of the beautiful Ruby gemstone and its professional Sydney setting by a master gemstone setter. Many factors are involved in the creation of a fine item of personal jewellery.