The Difference between Custom and Mass-Produced Jewelry

Jewelry says a lot about the person wearing it and for most people, jewelry has emotional as well as financial value. However, as meaningful and valued as jewelry is, not everyone understands all that goes into creating it. This is especially true with regards to mass-produced and custom-made jewelry and the differences between them. With that in mind, today’s post explores and explains exactly what those differences are.

A basic definition

Mass produced jewelry is produced in large volumes in an ongoing process, and creates identical pieces. The designs are typically based on trends in the marketplace, so that they have popular appeal, but they are not made with the individual’s tastes or style in mind.

In contrast, custom-made jewelry takes into account the individual’s tastes and specific jewelry vision. They are usually one-of-a-kind pieces. People who wear custom jewelry know that their jewelry is uniquely their own; no one else has the same piece. Custom jewelry can cater to specific tastes in gemstones and metals and can even use the stones or metal from previous pieces.

Also, don’t make the mistake of confusing custom-made jewelry with jewelry that has a “customized finish” . Jewelry with a customized finished is when the producer lets you customize the production, by choosing different metals or stone colors or by adding a personal engraving, but the design itself is not customized. Truly custom-made jewelry is designed, not just produced, solely for you.

Image of rings with a customized finish where you can choose different metals or stone colors. This is not a customized design.

Differences in originality

While mass-produced jewelry can be lovely and certainly has its appeal, by definition, it scores very low on the originality scale. When you wear mass-produced jewelry, you’re wearing what everyone else is wearing, which is okay at times, but not when you’re looking to stand out from the crowd. If you want unique jewelry, you have to go with custom made.

Custom made jewelry lets you add your own personal brand to its design so that the jewelry is uniquely yours. You can customize jewelry by choosing the style (perhaps you like a romantic vintage look, or maybe a modern look ), the stones and metals (do you have stones or metals you want to reuse from another piece of jewelry?), and even the color and sizes. In fact, size in particular is an excellent example of how custom jewelry differs from mass-produced jewelry. If you wear a larger or smaller ring size than average, custom-made jewelry can ensure that the ring fits and therefore wears better on your finger. On the other hand, already produced jewelry that is sized larger or smaller by more than one size can result in design flaws and less durability.

With custom jewelry, you work directly with the designer, sending him/ her your sketches or photos that they’ll use to create the jewelry you envisioned.

Differences in final quality

Another difference between custom jewelry and most of the mass-produced jewelry is quality. Custom jewelry benefits from the individual attention, experience and craftsmanship of the designer whereas mass-produced jewelry, as the name suggests, is produced in massive quantities and is usually produced by laborers on an assembly line rather than designed and crafted by a skilled and professional jeweler.

Differences in cost

For the most part, custom jewelry cannot compete with mass-produced jewelry when it comes to cost. Mass-produced jewelry will almost always be less expensive because the design is completed and paid for one time and then mass produced, so there is much less time, effort, thought, and creativity invested in its production. That’s not to say however, that you need to spend a fortune to have custom jewelry. On the contrary, with custom jewelry, you can work with the designer to meet your budget. For example, you can choose less expensive gemstones or metals. There are actually several options available with custom-made jewelry that can help keep costs down.

It should also be noted that while mass-produced jewelry might be less expensive initially, in the long run, it can end up costing more due to design flaws that require more maintenance. It is not uncommon for gemstones to repeatedly fall out of mass-produced pieces or for the pieces to break down more quickly as they are generally designed to be lighter and thinner to minimize production costs.

At the end of the day…

In spite of the cost, we have found that most people find that it is worth it for them to pay a little extra in order to receive a quality jewelry piece that is based on their vision and made just the way they want it. For those special occasions, nothing competes with custom jewelry. It is the final and unique expression of who you are.

In this design, we embedded (we did not engrave) the client’s initials into the design, and we used stones and metals that the client specifically requested.

Ready to become the proud owner of a exquisite, made-to-order, fine jewelry? We’re ready to help.

Start a Custom-Designed Jewelry Project Now