The Story Behind Our Brass Stampings: Two Centuries of French Craft
At Volgara, each piece of jewellery begins with a piece of metal crafted using a traditional French process
Even before becoming a necklace or a ring, every Volgara design has existed for a long time. It lives on in the form of a hand-engraved steel die, kept in our French supplier’s workshop—and some of these dies were engraved before the invention of photography.
Here is the story of this craftsmanship, and how it gives rise to your jewellery.
What exactly is a " brass stamping"?
Die used for butterfly our brass stampings
A " brass stamping " is a bas-relief design created by striking a sheet of brass between a die and a hardened steel punch, both of which are hand-engraved. It is this original engraving—sometimes created nearly two centuries ago—that gives the final design its exquisite detail—a level of precision that no industrial casting can replicate exactly.
The process takes place in several successive passes. The metal is positioned on the die, then struck repeatedly—up to four passes for the most intricate designs—to gradually bring out the relief, openwork, or embossing. Each piece is then trimmed and openworked by hand.
A family-run workshop that has been passed down through seven generations
A step in the process of creating a playbrass stamping
The dies we use at Volgara come from a French company founded in 1840, which is now based in its workshop in the Paris region. The company preserves and maintains the tooling for several historic collections, the oldest die of which dates back to 1829—a heritage now recognized under the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (EPV) label, awarded by the French government to recognize excellence in craftsmanship.
A rarity in the industry: this company has always been passed down through the women of the family, generation after generation, up to the current seventh generation of leaders.
Craftsmanship that has shaped French fashion
Stamping isn't limited to jewellery. The same process has been used to produce buttons for military uniforms, window displays for luxury fashion houses, settings for Limoges porcelain, and stage costumes. The workshops that craft our designs have thus supplied some of France's most prestigious fashion houses.
It is this fusion of heritage and contemporary design that defines Volgara: breathing new life into motifs engraved by artisans from a bygone era, in jewellery designed for today.
A traditional craft facing extinction
French inventory of tens of thousands of stamping dies
Traditionalbrass stamping s now face competition from faster and less expensive industrial techniques: metal injection molding, which cannot produce openwork designs, and laser cutting, which floods the market with simple, flat parts.
These processes allow for rapid, mass production, but they fail to reproduce either the openwork relief or the fine detail characteristic of traditional “brass stamping .” The French workshops that still carry on this craft—at the cost of meticulously maintaining tools that are sometimes two centuries old—can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
When you choose a piece of Volgara jewellery, you’re not just wearing a design—you’re wearing a testament to rare French craftsmanship, which will only survive if we continue to keep it alive.
From the stamped blank to the finished piece of jewellery
Once crafted, each brass stamping piece is sent to our workshop in Nice, where it is assembled by hand: plated with 24k fine gold, sometimes set with semi-precious stones and natural pearls, and always guaranteed to be nickel- and lead-free.
It is this two-step process—the traditional " Craftsmanship " by the "brass stamping," followed by handcrafted assembly in our workshop—that gives each piece its unique character.
Discover our necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, and body chains, or browse our iconic pieces.