Method of creating fingerprint-imprinted jewelry

Abstract

A method of creating fingerprint-imprinted jewelry which includes the steps of applying a lubricating oil to a fingertip and providing an amount of precious metal clay sufficient to generally cover at least a portion of a fingertip. The amount of precious metal clay is then formed into a fingerprint-receiving shape such as a generally flat disk or plate and a fingertip is then pressed into the precious metal clay such that a fingerprint of the fingertip is formed and retained on and within the amount of precious metal clay. The amount of precious metal clay is then air-dried to initially set and retain the fingerprint and then is fired within a kiln to ablate substantially all of the organic binding material within the precious metal clay thereby leaving only the precious metal having the fingerprint formed thereon which is thus available for use as a piece of jewelry.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PROVISIONAL PATENT [0001] This application claims priority based on a provisional patent, specifically on the Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 544,058 filed Feb. 12, 2004.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Technical Field [0003] The present invention relates to jewelry and, more particularly, to a method of making fingerprint imprinted precious metal jewelry which includes the steps of applying a small amount of lubricant to the finger providing the fingerprint impression, providing a small amount of precious metal clay (PMC), forming a generally spherical ball with the PMC, rolling or pressing the ball out to form a generally flat plate of PMC, pressing the lubricated finger into the clay, permitting the PMC to air dry, then firing the PMC in a kiln to ablate the binding materials in the PMC, thus leaving only the precious metal having the fingerprint formed therein to form the fingerprint imprinted precious metal jewelry. [0004] 2. Descripti...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0014] The present invention thus provides a method of creating fingerprint-imprinted jewelry which is not found in the prior art. For example, all uses of PMC which are currently found in the art use a “lost-wax” or other such process to transfer identifying indicia to the PMC, and the inventor is unaware of any other process used which transfers fingerprints or the like. Furthermore, because the present method can be used by many different individuals up until the firing step, it is possible to send the PMC to the purchaser to get their fingerprint(s) instead of requiring them to come to the jewelry manufacturer. With the present invention, however, once the fingerprint is inserted into the PMC by the purchaser, the imprinted PMC can be returned to the manufacturer for firing thereof, thus streamlining the process and permitting expanded use of the method of the present invention. Finally, because the method of creating fingerprint-imprinted jewelry of the present invention does not result in nearly the same amount of waste of PMC when compared to those methods found in the prior art of using PMC, the present method is far more cost-efficient and thus is superior to those methods. It is therefore seen that the present invention provides a substantial improvement over the prior art.

Problems solved by technology

Obviously, the chance for a piece of jewelry to be unique increases with the cost of the piece and the number and types of precious stones and metals used in connection with the piece of jewelry, but it is also clear that very few people can afford this type of personalization of their jewelry.

Furthermore, the mere addition or substitution of various types of gems and / or metals in a piece of jewelry will not always result in the type of personalization which the owner of the piece of jewelry wants.

However, the methods of production for these pieces of jewelry are laborious and often don't produce the quality of result necessary to ensure that the resulting piece of jewelry is usable by the purchaser.

It should be clear that this method includes many different opportunities for the process to break down and produce an inferior product, including obtaining an off-center imprint in the wax, obtaining a poor or blurred imprint in the wax due to the inexperience of the purchaser in imprinting the wax or adding the molten metal too quickly to destroy the imprint in the wax prior to transfer.

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