Why so much of India's silver is made in Jaipur

Jaipur was planned in 1727 with quarters set aside for specific crafts, and the jewellery trades were among them. Artisan families were brought in and settled together, and the skills stayed in those families — gem cutting, setting, engraving, enamelling — passed down rather than taught in schools.

That concentration compounds. A city where thousands of benches sit within walking distance of one another can support specialists: a workshop that does nothing but polish, another that does nothing but set stones, a third that only does meenakari enamel. A single piece of jewellery can pass through four workshops before it is finished, which is not efficient in a factory sense but produces work a factory cannot.

The word is used loosely online, so it is worth being specific about what happens to a 925 sterling silver piece between molten metal and a finished band.

• Sculpting. A design is either carved by hand in wax or modelled digitally and then grown into a wax master. Both are normal; the carving skill is in the finishing either way.
• Casting. The wax is invested in plaster, burnt out, and molten sterling silver is cast into the cavity left behind — the lost-wax method, essentially unchanged for millennia.
• Filing and setting. Sprues are cut away, surfaces filed true, and stones set by hand under a lamp. This is the slowest stage and the one that separates good work from cheap work.
• Polishing. Several stages, progressively finer, before a final buff. Oxidised finishes are applied after polishing and then selectively rubbed back.
• Hallmarking. The finished piece goes to a BIS-licensed assaying centre, is tested for purity, and is marked.

The city's reputation attracts sellers who trade on it without the substance. A few checks cover most of the risk:

• Look for 925 and a BIS hallmark, not the words “silver finish”, “silver plated”, “German silver” or “oxidised metal”. Those last three contain no sterling silver at all.
• Check whether the price moves with the silver rate. A seller quoting the same price all year is either absorbing swings or not selling much silver.
• Ask for the weight in grams. Genuine sellers publish it, because the metal cost is calculated from it.
• Expect a certificate in the box, and an invoice that states the purity.

Our prices are calculated from the live silver rate and the weight of each piece, and every order ships with a purity certificate — more on how we work here.

Our studio is at D-35 Shanti Nagar, opposite NBC Parking, in Jaipur. We see customers by appointment rather than keeping a shop counter, which means you get the bench rather than a display case — useful if you are commissioning something or having a piece resized or re-polished.

Call or message ahead on +91 95492 58382, Monday to Saturday between 10 AM and 6:30 PM, or write to us and we will find a time.