How Selberan Makes Fine Jewellery By Hand In A Highly Automated World
Why handmade craftsmanship remains the true measure of luxury at Selberan.
The more automated the world becomes, the more precious the human hand is in fine jewellery. Some traditions remain untouched, where craftsmanship still begins and ends with the artisan. As Amanda Kuan, general manager of Selberan, observes, today’s jewellery landscape has increasingly turned to mechanisation in its processes. Selberan, however, remains grounded in the discipline of European master jewellers, or what the brand defines as European craftsmanship. “What we speak of is about working from A-Z by hand,” Kuan says. “This discipline comes from the way our master jewellers are trained through apprenticeship, which has been passed down and practised consistently.”
A Malaysian fine jewellery division of Royal Selangor, Selberan boasts of many artisans who have grown with it for decades. But one of the greatest challenges today, Kuan notes, is “how we pass this skill down to the next generation, so they can maintain that same level of handcrafted excellence in fine jewellery making”. She adds: “It’s not that it’s unachievable, but whether the generation today has that kind of patience. Apprenticeship takes time and learning the basics alone can take three to five years. To truly master it, some of our artisans have spent their entire careers here.”
Immune to the pull of industry shifts, Selberan continues to look inward for inspiration. Its latest Seraphine collection is a reinterpretation of the house’s own archives and, interestingly, inspired by the silhouette of a horse—expressed through the interplay of soft curves and sharp contours. While the timing seems fitting with the Year of the Horse, Kuan says the connection is purely coincidental. “We’ve always wanted to create a jewellery collection inspired by the horse. It’s not about any auspicious meaning but, rather, the strength and femininity of the horse in general. If you look closely at our Seraphine pieces, you can see a subtle silhouette of a horse’s face.”
How Selberan Makes Fine Jewellery By Hand
1. The process begins with defining the collection’s inspiration and design intent. Through brainstorming and iterative discussions, multiple concept directions are explored before refining a clear aesthetic. Once established, the designs are formalised into precise technical drawings, specifying measurements, proportions, and layering required for production.
2. Calibrated diamonds, gold grains, and other raw elements are gathered and inspected. Even the tiniest 0.01-carat melee stones are sorted for size, clarity, and suitability, ensuring integrity with the design.
3. A master model is then hand-carved with wax to define a piece’s exact shape, proportion, and curve until the desired form is achieved. From this master, the design is being scaled into different sizes and variations.
4. Gold is heated to its molten state using a controlled gas-oxygen flame. The duration, typically within one to two minutes, is adjusted according to volume to ensure optimal casting conditions.
5. Fine saw cuts and notches are made to define joints for assembling the components, allowing the parts to articulate smoothly.
6. Diamonds are individually positioned into their respective settings using a fine positioning tool. This enables verification of fit, level, and alignment before they’re displaced for final setting.
7. Each diamond is set by carefully manipulating the surrounding metal to lock it in place. Unlike traditional prong settings used for larger stones, the Seraphine collection adopts a low-profile pavé setting, where the metal is subtly submerged, creating a clean, continuous line of diamonds.
8. The piece is inspected using a jeweller’s loupe to assess the precision of the diamond setting. Any irregularities in height, spacing, or finish are identified, and, where necessary, corrected at this stage.
9. Finally, the piece undergoes controlled surface finishing using a handheld polishing wheel to refine the metal and edges, and eliminate residual marks, resulting in a clean, uniform finish.
Craft Over Carat
The perception of value in jewellery is often tied to carat size and branded stones. Selberan challenges this notion, placing the integrity of craftsmanship above all else. Diamonds form part of the composition, not its centrepiece. Built to last across generations, some designs have even resurfaced years later as auction-worthy pieces in Hong Kong.
The new Seraphine collection is now available at all Selberan boutiques.
Photography by Law Soo Phye
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