Dies are used to make more copies of a unique object. It is so possible to pay off the costs of the primary model. In our job they are very useful in realizing modular jewels, such as kettles or armlets, of which we can carve the model of a single link.

There are two kinds of die, completely different one from the other:

   For making a plaster die we realize a thick plate with this material and then we carve on its surface, using specific tools, the shape we need. It is useful for flat models, such as medals, plates for armlets and every other kind of plates.

   The difficult, in this work, is that we are carving at the negative. So, during the working, we often control the result of the figure at the positive by pressing some plasticine in the hollow.

   The rubber die, differently from the plaster one, is not created in an artistic way. It is only used to take the shape of a metallic object already done. A jewel done from the carving of wax and then cast in metal, can be directly refined in a unique piece, or we can take its die in order to realize some other pieces from the same model. It is very useful in creating kettles: we carve in wax a single link, melt it in gold, take its die with the specific rubber from which we can obtain all the wax links for the length needed. Then we have to cast all them, refine and ensemble together. The rubber die is useful, no doubt, but the working of a kettle is anyway a long job.

   We want to notice that, being our a little productive reality, the use of dies is rather restricted. From every single die we produce a small quantity of pieces that, besides, we try to make different by using stones etc. In factories, from a single die, they produce thousands jewels equal each other; in our case we certainly can speak of limited copies (not more than ten pieces each die).