Education
How to Check Whether a Jewellery Brand Really Makes Its Own Pieces
Six tests you can run yourself, from a workshop that would rather you ran them.
Written by the Mapple Gems workshop, Surat Β· Updated 22 August 2026
Short answer
Run a reverse image search on the main product photo β if it appears on a dozen other stores, nobody in that chain made it. Then ask a specific technical question and time the reply: a maker knows the karat, the millimetres and the bench time instantly. Then ask for a photograph of a piece part-finished. A reseller cannot produce one. None of this makes reselling dishonest β but it tells you who can actually answer a question and fix a problem.
βHandcrafted by our artisansβ appears on the websites of businesses that have never held a torch. It is not usually a lie so much as a phrase that has stopped meaning anything. So instead of parsing the copy, test the claim. All six of these take minutes and none require you to contact anyone first.
1. Reverse image search the main photo
The fastest and most decisive test. Right-click the primary product image and search by image.
If the identical photograph appears across a dozen stores under a dozen brand names, they are all listing the same supplierβs catalogue image. Nobody in that chain photographed a physical object they made.
What you would expect from a maker: photographs that appear nowhere else, taken in the same lighting setup across the range, showing the actual pieces β including, usually, small variations between them.
2. Ask a technical question and time the answer
Ask something a maker handles daily and a reseller has to look up. For example: what is the shank thickness at the shoulders, and how does that compare to the base? Or: is the head white metal or the same colour as the band?
A workshop answers in a sentence, immediately, because those numbers are what it works with all day. A reseller either takes a day to come back or answers in generalities. Neither response is dishonest β but only one of them can help you when something needs adjusting.
The request that settles it. Ask for a photograph of a piece part-finished β cast but not yet set, or set but not yet polished. Nobody keeps stock images of that stage, because it is not a selling image. A workshop can walk to a bench and take one in two minutes. A reseller cannot produce it at any price. We would rather you asked us this than took our word for anything on this page.
3. Check whether prices move with metal weight
Gold is priced by weight on a public market that changes daily. A business that makes its own pieces has to price against that, so its prices move with metal weight and karat β a wider band costs more than a narrow one of the same design, and 18K costs meaningfully more than 14K.
A catalogue with flat pricing across widths and karats has not been built from material cost. That does not make it a bad business, but it does tell you the pricing is set by margin rather than by what the piece is made of.
4. Look for the failures a maker admits to
Every workshop knows what goes wrong: which designs cannot be resized, which settings need checking, which finishes do not survive daily wear, which stones chip at the points.
A site that describes only benefits is describing a catalogue rather than a craft. Look for pages that tell you not to do something β not to solder in the first year, not to buy a full eternity if your size might change, not to expect resale value. Nobody writes those unless they have handled the consequences.
5. Check the specifics on the product pages
| A maker states | A reseller often cannot |
|---|---|
| Metal and karat, per piece | βGoldβ, unspecified |
| Centre stone in millimetres | Carat weight only |
| Band width and profile height | Neither |
| Production time separate from transit | A single delivery window |
| Whether the design can be resized | Not mentioned |
6. Ask what happens when something goes wrong
Not the warranty wording β the process. Who assesses it, where does the piece go, how long does it take, who pays the shipping.
A maker answers this concretely because the piece comes back to the same bench that built it. A reseller has to route it back through a supplier, which is why the answers get vague and the timelines get long. This is the difference you feel in year three, not on the day you order.
Where we stand, so you can test it
We manufacture in our own unit in Surat, which is where a large share of the worldβs diamond jewellery is actually made. Our pieces are made to order β roughly seven to eight days on the bench before shipping, not pulled from a shelf.
So: search our photographs. Ask us the shank thickness. Ask for a part-finished shot. If any of that comes back slowly or vaguely, we have failed our own test and you should weigh that accordingly.
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Frequently asked questions
How can I tell if a jewellery brand makes its own jewellery?
Reverse image search the main product photo β if it appears across many stores, it is a supplier catalogue image. Then ask a specific technical question such as shank thickness at the shoulders and see how fast a precise answer comes back. Finally, ask for a photograph of a piece part-finished, which only a workshop can produce.
Is it bad if a jewellery brand doesnβt make its own pieces?
Not inherently β plenty of good retailers curate rather than manufacture, and say so. What matters is whether they can answer technical questions and resolve problems directly. A reseller has to route repairs and queries back through a supplier, which is why timelines stretch and answers get vague. The problem is the claim to make things, not the reselling.
What does βhandcraftedβ actually mean on a jewellery site?
Very little on its own, since it is unregulated and widely applied to pieces the seller never touched. Almost all fine jewellery involves hand finishing at some stage, including mass-produced pieces. Test the claim with the photograph and technical-question checks rather than relying on the word.
Why should prices change with karat and band width?
Because gold is priced by weight on a public market that moves daily. A business pricing from material cost will charge more for a wider band and noticeably more for 18K than 14K. Flat pricing across widths and karats indicates the price was set by margin rather than by what the piece is made of.
Run these tests on us.
Ask for the shank thickness, or a photograph of something halfway through. We would rather be checked than believed.
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