Handcrafted in Prague
From the first sketch to your hand
Every piece in our collection is designed in-house and made entirely in our ateliers in Prague's Old Town.
From the first sketch to the moment a piece is ready for sale, the process takes between ten and fifteen months. For a new design, development alone can take up to two years.
01 · Design
Form follows feasibility
Every piece begins in our atelier. Design and production work side by side. A form we cannot execute to our standard never leaves the drawing board, however refined it may appear.
"For me, minimalism doesn't mean simplicity for its own sake. It's purity of form, considered detail, and room for a personal story that the piece will carry with it."
Zuzana Kálová, Designer at KLENOTA
02 · Review
Nothing scales without approval
Each design is sculpted in 3D before metal is ever touched. A prototype is printed to prove its proportions and architecture. Only when every detail is resolved does the piece advance to a precision wax, and then to the casting.
Before production begins, every new design is reviewed by our team. We assess it on four things: how it looks, how it sits within the collection, what it should cost, and whether it can be made to our standard. What does not hold up is reworked, or set aside.
03 · MATERIALS
Selected with intent
We work exclusively in 14-karat gold (585/1000) — its colour, whether white, yellow, or rose, is determined by the alloy, specified at source.
Stones, pearls, and gold are sourced directly by our team at international fairs in Vicenza, Basel, and Hong Kong, with coloured gemstones examined in hand in Thailand.
Our diamonds come from suppliers at the Antwerp Diamond Bourse, with origin verified under the Kimberley Process — we buy fair trade.
04 · CASTING
The lost-wax method
Our primary production method is lost-wax casting. A rubber mould produces a wax model of the piece. Multiple models are assembled onto a wax tree, encased in plaster, and the wax is burned out. Molten gold is then cast into the resulting cavity under centrifugal force, filling every detail of the original model.
What emerges is a raw casting. The work is only beginning. Wedding bands and certain other pieces are made differently, assembled by hand from gold wire and sheet, bent, soldered, and shaped into form. Two methods, one standard.
05 · THE GOLDSMITH'S BENCH
Seven to ten pairs of hands
From the casting, the piece moves to our workshop, where it is refined, assembled, and finished. Each stage has its own specialist, and a single piece passes through seven to ten pairs of hands before it leaves us.
Stone setting is done in-house, by master setters we have worked with for years. Pavé is among the most demanding techniques we do — stones sit tightly against one another, with almost no metal between them, and each seat is drilled by hand. Pearls are strung and knotted by hand. We check the piece at every stage, not just at the end.
06 · HALLMARK
Marked, registered, witnessed
Every KLENOTA piece carries our maker's mark — KLE — alongside the official Czech state hallmark, struck by the Assay Office (Puncovní úřad). Together they certify the gold's origin and purity.
It is a guarantee unchanged in form since the nineteenth century. A quiet reminder that what you wear is officially recognised.
07 · THE FINISHED PIECE
Individually checked, uniquely crafted
After final polishing and ultrasonic cleaning, each piece is inspected once more before it leaves the atelier.
Small variations between pieces are not flaws — they are the nature of something made entirely by hand.