Gold plating and casting companies

Hello there

I'm new to the forums although I am guilty of lurking for a while 😁

I'm mostly self taught and love to hand fabricate pieces from sheet and wire. These pieces are usually botanical and fairly small. A customer has recently asked if she can buy a gold plated item as she mostly wears gold. I have no idea how to go about this so I would love some advice.

Do I have to make batches of items to gold plate or can I send individual pieces? Also can anyone recommend good companies who I can contact.

Second question is it possible to cast from hand fabricated silver pieces or would I have to make the pieces in wax first and then have them modelled? Is it even possible to cast from these pieces? Sorry if this is all obvious! I'm still quite a new maker.

I have included photos of these pieces to give you an idea of what I'm talking about!

Hi, Cat and welcome to the forum. In answer to your questions:

There is no problem in sending individual pieces, for plating or casting and if you google them online, the ones located near jewellery quarters, such as Hatton Garden are generally OK.

As these are peculiar times you will have to phone them to find out whether they are still working and details of price and individual requirements.

For gold plating you can specify the colour. For casting you can have one off or multiple copies from your original piece, or wax, or resin.
Deep items like your flower, will lose definition and become more shallow.

A potential problem with sending away original work, is that you could lose it and have to make it again.
West1 Castings Hatton Garden has been mentioned favourably here. https://www.west1castings.co.uk/ Dennis.

Thanks so much for your advice Dennis. Very much appreciated, I will do some ringing around.