[MUSIC PLAYING]
Shenzhen has played such an important role
in the development of manufacturing in China.
It's strategically positioned just across from Hong Kong.
So when China opened up, Hong Kong businessmen naturally
moved manufacturing to Shenzhen for all types of products.
Visiting the jewelry manufacturing factories
you can see what a powerhouse Shenzhen
is for the global jewelry manufacturing industry.
So many types of jewelry and so much production
comes out of Shenzhen.
It gave me such a feeling of how important it was
and how important it was to witness this manufacturing
center and what it's doing for the global industry.
My visit to Lorenzo Colored Stone Cutting and Jewelry
Manufacturing Factory took me through
the entire manufacturing value chain
for colored stone jewelry starting
with sorting rough and then sorting pre-formed stones.
The sawing department was very well
set up and equipped to make sure that the dust from sawing
the stones was kept in an enclosure
and vacuumed out so that the cutters wearing masks
were protected from breathing any material in that
might harm their lungs.
In the pre-form department the cutters
also all wore masks and water was incorporated
in the grinding process to help keep the dust from the gem
from getting into the air and then into the workers lungs.
The faceting used a two lap setup
where the larger lap on the left was used for the faceting.
And the smaller lap on the right was used
for applying the final polish.
This enabled fast cutting and moving to final polish
by the same cutter.
After cutting and polishing a facet,
the cutter could change angles quickly to the next facet.
The speed and accuracy of the system
was impressive as was the variety of colored stones being
cut and polished.
Lorenzo cuts all variety of colored stones,
focusing on those other than ruby, emerald, and sapphire
in their cutting operation.
This lapidary system was also custom built for Lorenzo
for left-handed cutters.
Most of the cutting industrial in Shenzhen
is designed for right-handed cutters.
So this makes the common custom of hiring away
experienced cutters from companies
more difficult to do from Lorenzo as they focus
on training left-handed cutters from the beginning
of their careers.
The jewelry design process starts
with hand-rendered drawings of new designs.
They always start out with a hand-drawn sketch.
A variety of templates are incorporated
in the hand drawing process.
The next step is to scan the hand drawing so that they have
a document file and then to enhance or clean up
the sketch using Microsoft Paint program.
The original hand drawing is turned into a digital 3D
model using CAD/CAM and then approved
by the vice president of design.
From there it goes to a 3D laser printer
to be turned into an actual wax model.
From the drawing that you saw, the designer
draws the some of the style.
OK.
Once reviewed by the VP for the individual team,
if they think it's reasonable to go ahead,
then they will pass all the designs
to this CAD drawing department.
We call it model making department.
Then it turns from the hand drawing design
to electronic copy as you saw just now over
by using a CAD 2000 software.
From the electronic copy they send to this machine,
we call it fast photocopy machine.
Then it runs for six hours by laser printing.
This are laser printing.
Then you can come out with the first rubber
mold, as you can see.
Under six hours.
Then from here we cast to get our first silver mold.
Then from here we got the first mold
for this particular design.
Then we can have the mass production.
The colored stones Lorenzo cuts in their factories
along with source stones like sapphire, pearls, and diamonds
go through rigorous quality control and matching procedures
during selection for jewelry.
Numerous waxes are created by injecting the wax from a wax
pot into a rubber mold and then carefully removing.
Each one of these young ladies will
create around 2000 waxes a day through this process.
The waxes are then attached to a tree in preparation
for casting into gold.
This young lady is setting small diamonds into the wax
before casting so that the stones will be set in place
once the piece is cast.
Lorenzo does this with diamonds and some colored gemstones
for saving labor cost.
As with many modern jewelry manufacturing factories
in Shenzhen, Lorenzo uses microscopes for setting stones,
especially with intricate settings and small stones
like used with micro-pave.
The magnification makes a significant improvement
when using a beading tool to set very small diamonds.
The jewelry polishing department impressed me
as did the other departments in that it
was set up for efficiency, worker safety, and production.
Numerous pieces came through to be
polished on the wheels charged with tripoli and rouge.
Lorenzo has a retail division called ENZO, which is strictly
for domestic sales in China.
They also exhibit at the Hong Kong Gem and Jewelry Fair
and have a wide variety of colored stone jewelry for sale
from this mine to market company.