Prägen, Stanzen, Guillochieren

Embossing, punching and guilloche engraving are techniques that have almost faded into oblivion. These trailblazing manufactory production methods were crucial to the rise of Pforzheim’s jewellery industry in the nineteenth century. Today they are experiencing a new lease of life in contemporary jewellery. The ‘Manufactory-Style Jewellery Design’ project fosters the passing down of experiential knowledge through the collaboration of artisans and designers from three generations. In 2005 the German Commission for UNESCO recorded the project in the German Register of ‘Best Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage’. This book presents an excerpt of this success story by means of archive material and interviews with former masters, explains how the machines work, and illustrates many examples of how these traditional techniques can be put to use in contemporary art jewellery.