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The weekly jewellery journal

The Bench Journal

The weekly journal for the jewellery industry: craft, AI, and CAD/CAM. Written from the bench, not the marketing desk.

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LatestThe Ledger

How to check an AI has really finished a job

Do not ask the AI if it is done. Write a check that fails now and passes only when the job is truly finished, then run it yourself.

1 November 2026·3 min readRead the article →
Four steps from a check that fails today to you running it again, ending in still three or none, above three limits: a stop, a cap and a proof.
An empty recording table with eight columns, six question types above it and the three labels named, cited and absent below.
Tool of the Week

Is ChatGPT recommending your jewellery business? A monthly check you can run yourself

Run a monthly check of whether ChatGPT and Gemini name or cite your jewellery business: a fixed question list, a recording sheet, and how to read the gaps.

1 November 2026·8 min read
The Blender add-on showing a ring with a wheat pattern on its outer face above the same face laid flat as a gridded guide strip.
The Bench and the Model

How to wrap a flat pattern round a ring in Blender

Draw the pattern flat at true size, flow it onto the ring, then measure where marks land. How it worked in Blender, how it failed on a bent band, and the fix.

8 October 2026·6 min read
One ring drawn three ways: a lumpy mesh sculpt, an exact model with control points, and the cast piece.
Tool of the Week

Is Rhino or Blender Better for Jewellery Design?

Rhino for anything going to a caster: exact NURBS surfaces, real tolerances, mature jewellery plugins. Blender for free sculptural exploration and rendering.

27 September 2026·4 min read
A ring drawn half as exact curves with control points and half as flat triangles, with an export arrow that runs one way only
The Bench and the Model

STL vs 3DM: Which File Format for Jewellery CAD and 3D Printing

Work in 3DM for as long as the design can change. Only export to STL once it's locked. Converting early costs you editability; converting late costs nothing.

27 September 2026·4 min read
Five kinds of option listed on the left, each with its own shape, and five questions to ask any provider on the right; no names and no scores.
Tool of the Week

Best Jewellery CAD Courses UK: An Honest Comparison

A plain look at the UK options for learning jewellery CAD: a resource curator, a Rhino reseller, a trade body, Udemy, and where a one-to-one course sits.

20 September 2026·7 min read
A file with a small gap in a ring, then two routes: online, where nobody sees it and it becomes a habit, and in person, where the instructor catches it in the session.
The Bench and the Model

Can I learn Rhino jewellery design in an online course?

Yes. The core Rhino skill transfers well to a screen. What online cannot do is watch your file in real time. Here is what online gives you and what it cannot.

12 September 2026·3 min read
A staircase of four steps rising left to right: foundation at about 24 hours, working at 3 months, fluent at 6 months and fast at 12 months.
The Bench and the Model

How long does it take to learn CAD for jewellery making?

A practitioner's honest timeline: from first session to fluent enough to model a client brief. The software is the easy part.

12 September 2026·3 min read
Four walls in section, from thin to thick, with the two thinnest cracked and each thickness marked in millimetres.
The Bench and the Model

How to 3D print jewellery from a Rhino file

Export a watertight mesh, respect wall-thickness minimums, then choose an in-house printer or a casting bureau based on volume and turnaround.

12 September 2026·5 min read
A cast pave-set disc seen through a bench microscope, with each stone and its setting sharply resolved.
The Bench and the Model

Claws in CAD, or left to the setter?

Should claws and stone holes be modelled in CAD or cut by hand at setting? The answer looks like craft, but time and cost make it a business decision.

11 September 2026·4 min read
A path from real data through the same logic that stops before publish and prints what it would post, with three faults flagged: wrong month, duplicate story, broken link.
Tool of the Week

Why a dry-run flag catches what your tests miss

Two passing test suites missed three real bugs in a scheduled automation. A --dry-run flag that showed what it was about to do caught all three in one pass.

6 September 2026·4 min read
Four steps to reach an extension's permission list, then four permissions from all websites to none, each with four page tiles lit by how many it can reach.
Tool of the Week

What browser extensions can actually read, and how to check in thirty seconds

Check exactly what any browser extension is allowed to read on your computer, in about thirty seconds, using a screen you already have.

17 August 2026·4 min read
A grid of 128 squares by format, and bars of median reach: reels 105.5, carousels 20, still images 10.
Tool of the Week

I measured 128 Instagram posts. Here is what the data told me to stop.

128 posts, five metrics, one discovery: 77% of posts were the format that reaches the fewest people. Here is how to read your own account before posting again.

16 August 2026·6 min read
A stone held by hairline prongs in an AI image and by thick prongs in the CAD file, above three stages: image tools, Rhino, image tools.
Tool of the Week

The best AI tools for jewellery designers (workflow-tested)

Not a list of what exists. A map of where AI actually earns its place in a jewellery studio, tool by tool, and where it does not belong.

9 August 2026·4 min read
A line of six numbered steps from brief to optional production approval, each with a small icon and one line of what happens.
The Bench and the Model

How to run your first bespoke jewellery commission

What happens between a client's first message and an approved design: the stages, the common mistakes, and how to protect both parties.

9 August 2026·5 min read
Five panels in a row: a mesh ring file, a wax ring, a casting flask, a ring with a stone set, and a ring with a hallmark.
The Bench and the Model

How to start a jewellery design business in the UK (CAD-first)

The CAD-first model for a UK jewellery design business: toolset, production route, legal setup, and what it looks like in practice.

9 August 2026·7 min read
A silver pendant beside bars that build its cost into a wholesale and then a retail price, with labour the largest cost
The Bench and the Model

How to Price Handmade Jewellery: A Method You Can Actually Use

A worked method for pricing handmade jewellery in the UK, from true material cost through to the wholesale multiplier, with a silver and a gold example.

6 August 2026·8 min read
A task enters a decision shape asking if it repeats more than twice: yes sends it to four AI jobs, no keeps three jobs with you.
The Bench and the Model

How AI actually helps jewellery designers with their workflow

Not a round-up of design tools. A real breakdown of where AI enters the jewellery design and production workflow, step by step, and what it does not help with.

5 August 2026·5 min read
Four panels in order: curves, surfaces, solids and transform, each with a small drawing and the commands that belong to it.
The Bench and the Model

How to learn Rhino 3D for jewellery making

The real learning order for Rhino in a jewellery context: what to start with, what to defer, and why most beginners learn it backwards.

4 August 2026·5 min read
Three rows of boxes, one for each job: designer-maker, CAD designer and design lead, with the steps you do yourself tinted.
The Bench and the Model

How to Become a Jewellery Designer in the UK (Without a Degree, and With No Experience)

The real UK routes into jewellery design, what a portfolio needs to contain, and why the job splits into three very different careers.

3 August 2026·7 min read
Four dashed boxes of rented marketplaces and apps with arrows pointing to one solid box, your own channel.
The Bench and the Model

How to Sell Handmade Jewellery: Where to Actually Sell It, and What It Pays

Every marketplace suits a different kind of handmade jewellery. Here's where each one fits, what it costs you, and what the work is actually worth.

3 August 2026·7 min read
An image file with a C2PA record that triggers a made-with-AI label, and the same file with that record stripped and no label, its pixels unchanged.
Tool of the Week

How to stop your AI images being flagged as AI on Instagram and LinkedIn

Instagram and LinkedIn read metadata baked into every AI-generated image and show a 'made with AI' badge. What it is, what you can strip, and what you cannot.

3 August 2026·6 min read
A round stone seen from above and two side profiles of the same diameter, one cut deeper than the other
Tool of the Week

How to Estimate a Gemstone's Carat Weight From Its Measurements

A stone's weight depends on its species as much as its size. Why a single formula gets it wrong, and how to estimate it before you set, buy or insure a stone.

26 July 2026·4 min read
A ring seen from above with a US number scale and a UK letter scale that do not line up, and thin and wide bands on a finger.
The Bench and the Model

US vs UK Ring Size: Why the Charts Never Quite Agree

Two US-to-UK ring size charts rarely say the same thing. Here is why the systems don't translate cleanly, and what actually gets a ring to fit.

26 July 2026·3 min read
A bangle, a chain and a cast shadow numbered one to four with the four faults to check, and a hazy opening visible on grey but hidden on white.
Tool of the Week

How to remove the background from jewellery photos (without destroying the piece)

Background removal quietly ruins gold. Here is why the usual trick fails on jewellery, the method that works, and the licensing trap nobody mentions.

22 July 2026·7 min read
Five struck-through samples of AI copy, one per tell, above a single specific line set in a box.
Tool of the Week

How to write luxury brand copy with Claude (and avoid the 5 tells that give it away)

Your customers can tell when copy was generated without a proper brief. The five patterns that mark AI-generated copy, and how to prompt your way out of them.

12 July 2026·4 min read
A request and a scheduled job going to one router that reaches plain text files and helpers, with irreversible steps waiting behind a gate for a person to say yes.
The Ledger

The AI System That Runs My Business (I Wrote It Up as a Research Paper)

Almost everything in my business is run by one AI system I built on a normal laptop. Here is what it does, in plain language, and the research paper behind it.

22 June 2026·6 min read
Ten casters narrowing through five criteria to a top two, a loop to double-check them, and a box where you make the call.
Tool of the Week

How I Use AI to Compare Jewellery Suppliers (Without the Spreadsheet That Never Gets Finished)

Stop losing half a day to supplier comparison spreadsheets. Learn how to use AI to score casters, stone vendors, and more against your own criteria.

17 June 2026·6 min read
A flame-fusion boule with curved growth lines beside a cut stone marked with four treatments: heat, oiling, fracture filling and irradiation.
The Bench and the Model

Synthetic Gemstones and Treatments: What CAD/CAM Jewellers Need to Know

How synthetic gemstones and treatments impact CAD/CAM jewellery design, from setting decisions to ethical disclosure.

26 April 2025·4 min read
A softer stone in a closed bezel that blocks impacts beside a harder stone on open prongs that let light in.
The Bench and the Model

Foundations of Gemstones: Gemmology for CAD/CAM Jewellers

How gemstone properties shape every setting decision in digital jewellery design.

25 April 2025·3 min read
A line of five stops from shells and bones to CAD/CAM, with a shell at one end and a ring with control points at the other.
The Bench and the Model

The Timeless Art of Jewellery Design: From Ancient Origins to Modern CAD/CAM Techniques

Tracing jewellery's 100,000-year journey to today's CAD/CAM techniques.

15 April 2025·3 min read
Four steps from design on screen to a finished piece, and the cast step drawn in section three times.
The Bench and the Model

Learn How Jewellery is Made Using CAD/CAM

What CAD/CAM is, how it has transformed jewellery making, and the careers it opens up.

14 April 2025·5 min read