Cast-in-place? What's that all about?

The Alchemy of Cast-in-Place Jewellery

Cast-in-place (often called stone-in-place casting or casting with gemstones in place) is a technique in which gemstones are set directly into a wax model, and then metal is cast around them — essentially merging the stone setting and casting steps into one.

Over the past few decades, large jewelry manufacturers have adopted this method (at least in part) to reduce labour costs and streamline production. In high-volume settings, they may use precise mould systems, tree patterns holding many identical pieces, and powerful casting machinery to mass produce jewellery with minimal finishing and setting labour.

But for me, the appeal and meaning of cast-in-place lie in the intimacy, uncertainty, and organic union of metal and stone.

Where It Meets—and Differs from—My Method

I don’t use industrial trees or pre-moulded waxes. Instead, I hand-craft each wax model, nestle each stone carefully, and cast usually just one piece at a time. The stakes are higher, but so is the reward.

My process embraces a tension: preparing the stone for survival under heat and pressure while surrendering control to the material itself. After burn-out, metal flow, solidification and cooling, pulling the casting from the flask and seeing what has happened is almost ritualistic. It is a moment when the invisible becomes visible.

I favour designs that complement this unpredictability — fluid, curved, textured, with little “imperfections” celebrated rather than erased. If the metal laps a stone’s edge or a wax texture shows through, I don’t fight it. It’s part of the story — the metal and stone revealing something of their own will alongside mine.

Framing the Process: Why It Resonates

So why persist in this mode when it’s technically challenging and risky? Because, for me, cast-in-place speaks to a deeper philosophy of making:

• The moment of uncertainty: There’s no guarantee how stone and metal will interface until the flask is opened. That “reveal” is visceral, full of surprise and delight.

• Collaboration with materials: I consider the stone and metal as co-creators. I prepare conditions; they respond. The imperfection — a slight shift, a softened edge, texture showing through — is part of the piece’s voice.

• Simplicity in act, complexity in outcome: Unlike injecting wax, pressing pre-made moulds, or modularizing the setting and casting steps, here the craft lives in the moment, in the tension, in the slow & careful dance.

• Aesthetic unity: My designs flow, curve, rise and fall — not rigid, symmetrical boxes of gemstones. The organic forms echo the unpredictability of cast-in-place, and I design with the process, not against it.