There are two ways to start a jewellery design business. The first is the craft route: learn metalwork, buy tools, make pieces by hand, sell them at markets and online. The second is the CAD-first route: build your designs in 3D software, send files to a casting house, and sell the results as made-to-order or bespoke pieces.
Neither is better in every situation. They are genuinely different businesses, and most advice about starting a jewellery brand conflates them. This guide covers the second route.
What CAD-first actually means
CAD stands for computer-aided design. In the jewellery industry, it means working in NURBS modelling software to produce a mathematically exact 3D file of your piece. That file is sent to a casting house, which produces a physical object through investment casting or direct metal printing.
The key word is exact. A casting house works from geometry, not from a photograph. The ring shank is 2 mm wide because the file says it is 2 mm wide. The stone seat is the right depth because the file carries the correct dimension for a flush bezel. The prongs clear the girdle by the right amount. That precision is what makes a CAD file the foundation of a piece a stone setter can work with.
This is different from mesh sculpting tools like ZBrush, which suit organic, clay-like forms. NURBS modelling is precise and parametric. Change the ring diameter and the geometry updates. That matters in a made-to-order business where every piece must fit a specific measurement.
The core toolset
Rhino 3D is the industry standard for jewellery CAD. It runs on Windows and Mac and is taught by Authorised Training Centres and online. The learning curve is real. Expect two to three months of regular practice before the commands stop requiring thought.
The commands that do most of the work in jewellery are a small subset: InterpCrv, Sweep1, Sweep2, Revolve, Loft for building forms; BooleanDifference and BooleanIntersection for cutting and combining; Scale1D and ArrayCrv for repetitive elements like prongs and pave settings. You do not need to learn every command before you can produce a castable ring. You do need to understand the Boolean operations thoroughly, because almost every setting involves them.
Grasshopper, the visual programming plug-in for Rhino, is worth learning once you have a foundation in Rhino itself. It allows you to build parametric designs that resize or vary on a slider, which matters when a client asks for the same piece in a different size or metal.
Render software is essential for showing clients what they are commissioning before it exists. KeyShot, Blender, and Cinema 4D all work with Rhino output. Renders are where your product photography comes from if you are selling made-to-order pieces before casting them.
AI image tools (Google Imagen, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney) are useful at the brief stage for generating visual directions to present to a client. They are not a substitute for CAD: AI-generated images contain decorative geometry that cannot be sent to a casting house. Use them for direction-finding, not for production.
The business model choices
CAD-first businesses fall into three broad shapes.
Made-to-order means you design the pieces, photograph or render them, list them on your site or a marketplace, and produce them only when someone buys. No stock held, no capital tied up in finished goods. The piece is designed once and can be produced repeatedly from the same file. This model suits designers who want to build a range without the risk of unsold inventory.
Bespoke commissions are jobs designed to a specific client’s brief. The client describes what they want; you design it. Lead times run longer than made-to-order, eight to fourteen weeks for most pieces, and each job requires dedicated design time. Margins are higher to reflect that.
Production runs apply when you need a quantity: event pieces, branded items, collections sold at volume through retailers. You pay tooling costs upfront and per-unit costs fall with volume. This model usually follows one of the first two, not precedes them.
Most studios start with one direction and add the other as the practice grows.
The production route
Once a design is approved, the route from file to finished piece runs:
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Export from Rhino as an STL or OBJ file. Check for closed polysurfaces (no gaps in the geometry) and correct wall thickness. In gold, minimum wall thickness is typically 0.8 mm for non-structural elements and thicker for anything bearing load.
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Print or wax at the casting house. For a bespoke piece, this stage gives the client a physical model to approve before the metal is poured. For made-to-order pieces in a design you have already proofed, this step is skipped.
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Investment casting: the print or wax is surrounded by plaster, burned out in a kiln, and molten metal poured into the cavity it leaves. Platinum, gold, and silver all cast well. Casting fees vary by metal and casting house.
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Finishing and setting: the raw casting needs filing, polishing, and stone setting. Some casting houses offer finishing as a service; others return the rough casting for you to finish yourself or send to a specialist setter.
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Hallmarking: this is not optional. Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, any article of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium sold in the UK above the prescribed weight thresholds must carry a hallmark from one of the four UK assay offices. For gold, the threshold is 1 gram. Send the piece with a completed submission form; the Birmingham Assay Office, the largest in the country, typically returns hallmarked pieces within a few working days.
Setting up as a business
Legal structure. The simplest option for a sole designer is operating as a sole trader. Register with HMRC, file a Self Assessment tax return each year, and register for VAT once your taxable turnover exceeds the annual threshold. If you want limited liability or plan to bring in other people, a limited company through Companies House is the alternative. Both are workable at the start; the choice depends on your circumstances and is worth a conversation with an accountant.
Insurance. Pieces under commission are your responsibility until they are delivered. Public liability insurance and cover for work in progress, whether at your studio, a casting house, or in transit, are standard requirements for a working studio.
Location. The UK has established jewellery districts: Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter has the highest concentration of casting houses, stone dealers, and specialist setters within walking distance of each other. Proximity to these trades reduces the logistics cost of running a job through multiple specialists. Remote working with a local casting house relationship works, but knowing your casting house personally saves time when a problem needs solving quickly.
Workspace. A home studio works for CAD work, client calls, and light finishing. For casting and setting, you either build or access a fitted workshop, rent bench space in a shared studio, or outsource entirely to specialists. Many CAD-first designers outsource all production work and keep only a computer at home.
What the model asks of you
CAD-first jewellery design rewards people who enjoy precision more than spontaneity. The satisfaction is in a file that is exactly right before any material is spent. The feedback loop is slower than bench work: you cannot hold the piece until it comes back from casting.
If you prefer to work with your hands, to feel the metal, to discover the form through the making of it, the craft route will feel more honest. Both are real businesses. The one to pursue is the one that matches how you actually like to work.