Greetings!
I am Csongor Fogaras, the owner/founder of Fogaras-Design. My business specializes in designing and manufacturing unique style jewelry. While I primarily offer solutions to businesses for building their own brand, the opportunity to purchase custom jewelry is also open to individuals.
The capacity of my workshop allows for the production of approximately 5000 rings per month. Every step of the process, from design to the finished product, takes place in-house. These processes include 3D design, 3D printing with state-of-the-art castable polymer resins, precision metal casting - in bronze, gold, silver - surface treatment, and electroplating.
Please read the document where I strive to provide answers to all essential points:
- About Me Briefly
- About the Workshop and Technology Briefly
- What Does Fogaras-Design Offer You?
- Collaboration in Practice
- Before and After Production
- Quotation example
- Closing Thoughts
About Me Briefly:
I was born in Pécs in 1988, and I currently reside here. I began my career in tourism; however, in 2015, I started learning jewelry making autodidactically. Since then, it has been a hobby, a job, and eventually a vocation for me, but since the beginning of this year, I consider it my mission. Though nobody taught me, over the years I managed to overcome every difficulty because I am guided by visions, not plans. Visions are not influenced by adverse circumstances, while plans may fail because they are based on circumstances. This obsession gave birth to my business, which not only sells jewelry but also shares this tremendous energy with other companies, which I feel when I can make jewelry. Just as tools have their purpose, I am not suitable for many things, but I am among the few fortunate ones who have realized what I am good at - what task I am most suitable for. I have always stood out because my style began to develop quite early, uninfluenced by current fashion trends. At one point, I wanted to build motorcycles, then I was interested in fashion design until one day I wanted to buy a skull ring, but everywhere they offered ones that I thought were not really good. This bothered me so much that I decided to make one myself instead. I quickly realized that this was meant for me, and since then, I have only lived for this. Therefore, it was obvious that I could even sell my dedication, so others can benefit from my enthusiasm for jewelry.
About the Workshop and Technology Briefly:
The model to be manufactured is first digitally sculpted using a 3D program. These designs are then printed with a general resin after approval, making them wearable so we can ensure that everything looks as desired. If the model passes the test, the production of the master copy can begin, if it is templatable. There are geometries that cannot be templated nicely, so their production tends to be more expensive because a special burnable resin must be printed as many times as we want to manufacture pieces. Templating, on the other hand, is a great solution for mass production. We line a metal frame with raw rubber or silicone, with the master piece in the rubber. After vulcanization, we get a silicone/rubber block with the master piece "baked into" it. By cutting this block in half, we can remove the master piece, leaving behind a perfect imprint. Joining the two pieces and filling the void inside with wax using a wax injector gives us the wax copy. This wax model is then soldered onto a sprue and placed in the center of a "cup." We pour plaster into the cup, which is then burned out. As part of the process, the wax model burns out of the plaster, allowing us to fill the void with molten metal under vacuum. Wax casting has the advantage that up to 500 pieces of jewelry can be made at once with one casting. After casting, we remove the sprue, and the raw rings are prepared for further processing in a magnetic tumbler. Bronze jewelry can be given a patina, giving it a very distinctive appearance, but galvanization can also provide a very thin layer of gold or silver coating on the jewelry. These are the so-called plated jewelry. These micron-thick noble metal coatings provide the jewelry with a very elegant appearance, although they may wear off over time.
What Does Fogaras-Design Offer You?
If you are reading this, you are likely involved in jewelry business in part or in whole, or you are present in the fashion world in some other form, but it may also be that you represent the automotive-motorcycle culture. These are primarily the businesses I seek to engage with the goal of drawing attention to those who want to expand their range. With Fogaras-Design, you can create your own brand of jewelry collection, which will be exclusively available through you worldwide.
I offer products that are manufactured according to your ideas, without compromise. Unlike suppliers from the Far East, I am european, which facilitates communication, shipping, replenishment, further negotiations, and of course, saves you customs costs. Quality cannot be questioned when the primary essence of a product is to be beautiful!
Collaboration in Practice:
If -based on the above- you have entertained the idea of having your own jewelry collection, all you have to do is contact me! In the first step, we discuss the direction of your ideas, then determine the size and elements of the collection. Once these are fixed, we document them in a contract, and then I start designing. You can find the cost of this below the prices because there are cases where we can completely waive the design fee. In most cases, it is necessary to pay the first half of the design fee upfront, and then the work begins. Design is a service that includes not only modeling but also:
Actual Design: I create a rotatable 3D model with a 3D software, which can be placed in a "live environment" by rendering it in a photo.
Printing: A printed copy of the envisioned jewelry, which will be made of a harder resin, allowing it to be tried on and ensuring that it meets the desired specifications. After this, the jewelry design can still be modified because the purpose of the trial print is to reveal how the object will look, which we had only seen on a monitor until then.
Templating: This is also part of the design because these would not be one-time products but rather pieces of the collection that we want to use multiple times. The template can be a file or a physical template. A rubber template cannot be made if there are closed geometries inside that cannot be cut physically or only with difficulty, which involves manual repair. To ensure that the replicas are perfect, we decide this only when we see what the planned jewelry will look like.
"Design" is therefore a package that ends with a series of producible products designed according to your unique requirements. Of course, I will not sell these models; they will be your property.
The next step is to determine the quantity and composition:
With the help of the templates, jewelry can be reproduced in almost unlimited quantities, so the scheduling of production depends mainly on how much your market can absorb and how long it takes to recoup your investment. This is a very important question because for a larger quantity, I can provide amazing discounts, which, -considering the price per piece- is the best decision, but obviously this requires a larger investment and takes longer to pay off. For a smaller quantity, it is worth considering how much profit you can make selling the jewelry at a higher cost price within a reasonable time frame, despite the higher cost of entry. So it is important to realistically assess your market, needs, marketing tools, and available capital. We do not earn money when we sell something but when we buy it.
Composition refers to how many types there will be, how many pieces you want to order of each type and in what size, and what proportion should be gold-silver or have a natural finish.
Production:
Following the fixation of the desired quantity, another commissioning contract will be prepared, which will specify the details and the delivery deadline. In this case as well, work begins after paying the 50% deposit.
You can inquire about the status of your order at any time, and there is also the option for me to continuously send you the already finished products.
In the case of bronze, I always use CuSn12 bronze due to its casting properties. This is a very hard alloy, also used for machinery (such as bushings), making it a perfect choice for jewelry. This needs to be patinated without galvanization, which gives the rings an interesting, rustic appearance. This is necessary because copper reacts with the air and salts found on the skin, which would otherwise discolor it. By doing this preemptively, we can avoid the relatively long process until it occurs naturally, during which time the surface would not appear as patina but as dirty.
Therefore, I prefer plated jewelry, which are also made of bronze but first receive a few microns thick coating of palladium, then a layer of gold or silver. Gold and silver are also soft metals, so it is natural that over time, the coating may wear off. When this happens, it is advisable to take it to a jeweler, where they will polish it for a few bucks and repeat the plating process.
Products made of noble metals can also be ordered, which receive their hallmark from NEHITI (Precious Metal Testing and Authenticating Institute), but my experience is that in the case of mass production, fashion jewelry (non-precious metal-based) is more popular.
The same applies to stones. I use cubic zirconia for my products, which costs only a few bucks per piece, compared to the occasional multi-thousand USD of diamonds. Cubic zirconia is slightly inferior to diamonds in hardness but has an equally beautiful shine.
After Production:
I hope the initial collection will start to diminish quickly, so we will remain in constant contact afterwards.
Replacement of the set can be done in increments of at least 20 pieces.
I provide the same price to all my partners for subsequent orders as for the first order!
This is necessary on my part because if you ordered the initial set in large quantities, you expect to be able to maintain your prices. If I were to offer subsequent replacements at list price, it would not be feasible.
So the larger the amount of the first order, the cheaper you can buy the replacements.
Furthermore, replacements are added to the company's total order, so the more you buy, the more favorable price range you will fall into.
Quotation:
The cost of the design package is a fixed 85,000 HUF per piece of jewelry, but if you order more than 1000 rings, the full amount will be deducted from the price of the jewelry.
The chart below serves as an example with two of my products. In each case, I calculate a unique price for new models, but the percentages and quantities for the price ranges are fixed. Prices are in US Dollar.
Closing Thoughts:
I hope I have managed to make a favorable impression, and my inquiry achieves its goal, leading to a long-term and fruitful business relationship for both of us!
With Respect: Csongor Fogaras