3D-Printed Jewelry Ditches the Lab for the Boutique

In college, when Mario Christian Lavorato and his brother started making jewelry to sell, they quickly learned that the business had kept one foot in the Middle Ages. They designed their beads and charms out of clay, then molded the finished products by hand. Peers they met at trade shows used blowtorches to meticulously craft each piece for weeks.

That heavy labor is a big factor in the slim profit margins of the typical U.S. jewelry store, which hover around 4.6 percent, according to researcher IBISWorld. The Tiffanys of the world have U.S. margins of about 20 percent. But Lavorato, 32, studied architecture in college, and he knew how to use 3D printers. Daniel Christian Tang, his three-year-old Toronto business, claims a 40 percent profit margin, though Lavorato wouldn’t disclose revenue.