Karigar
The craftsman who actually makes the jewellery, usually working for the jeweller rather than for the customer.
Indian jewellery retail generally separates the shop from the workshop. The karigar makes the piece and the jeweller sells it.
Skills are concentrated regionally: Kolkata for fine chain and filigree, Rajkot and Coimbatore for machine work, Hyderabad for pearl stringing.
Making charges are the line on your bill that pays for this work, which is why they vary so much between a cast chain and a hand-strung satlada.
When you are buying
When you ask a jeweller whether a piece is handmade, you are asking how much karigar time is in it. That is the honest basis for judging a making charge.
Making Charges
What you pay for craftsmanship on top of the metal, charged either per gram or as a percentage.
Lost Wax Casting
Carving a design in wax, encasing it in plaster, melting the wax out and filling the cavity with metal.
Filigree
Lacework made from fine twisted wire, soldered into openwork patterns. Light for its size.
Stringing
The thread a strand is built on, and the craft of assembling it.
Granulation
Tiny metal spheres fused to a surface to build texture and pattern, with no visible solder.