A new profession being introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. Players will be able to make rings, trinkets, necklaces and more, as well as jewels for socketed weapons and armor. Special for any Jewelcrafters are Figurines which are Bind on pickup.
At this time, Blizzard has confirmed their plans to allow those who have not purchased the expansion to be able to use items and material created by Jewelcrafting, although they state that only those having purchased the Burning Crusade will be able to learn the Jewelcrafting profession itself.
Jewelcrafting allows a player to craft rings and necklaces but also cut gems recovered from mineral ores (copper, iron, mithril, et cetera) via Prospecting. The results are gems that add stats to a slottable item, and they can also be pretty powerful. Five points to defense, eight to agility, 1% increased chance to hit -- that sort of thing. Kaplan says that this skill will stay distinct from enchanting, however, and that one craft would have perks that another could not provide, like the riding glove enchant. The example weapon, with three slots, was en epic 1-handed mace called The Hammer of the Sun. 74.5 DPS, 2.0 second swing, 80 additional armor, and four points each to strength, agility, and stamina. And ten points each to fire and shadow resistance. And +1% chance to crit. The stat bonuses might not seem impressive for an epic, but keep in mind that they can be boosted impressively with gems. And that DPS ain't too shabby either. The most powerful weapon currently in the game does 80.0 DPS, is Legendary level, and is two-handed. A slotted gem can be replaced by a new gem if you find something better, but that will destroy the original gem. Each cut gem has a color type (such as red or blue), and certain socketed items will have colored sockets and a kind of "set bonus" that can be activated if gems of the appropriate color are placed in all its sockets. source
Secondly, and thankfully, there's a much more comprehensive list of craftable items implemented to substantiate this -- you'll be able to make necklaces and rings that didn't look too shabby. One necklace -- the Arcanite Sword Pendant -- granted +40 to attack power. Meanwhile, the Band of Natural Fire granted +29 damage to both Nature and Fire spells. There were plenty more items craftable by the level 62 characters that were playable in the demo, ranging from low-level greens that add a single point to a single stat, to rares like the abovementioned. source
It's worth noting that, unlike the enchanting profession, you won't be able to apply jewelcrafting to just any old weapon or piece of armor you're toting about. New socketed items will be added to the game, across a variety of levels. It's possible that some current items may be tweaked and turned into socketed items, but our guess is that this probably wouldn't be done for more than a small handful of items, if at all.
Of course, Jewelcrafting is ultimately all about the actual gems that you'll stick into sockets. One of the high-level characters had one of their bags packed with gems which conferred onto their owners various types of magical enhancements when plugged into open sockets on equipment. There were many varieties, and their stats follow: one granted three mana every five seconds, on top of a +5 bonus to intellect; one gave a +11 bonus to healing spells and +5 bonus to intellect; another conferred +9 damage to spell damage; a few gave +8 to a single stat; one increased the chance for critical strikes with spells by 1%; and one increased the user's defense stat by five. It's worth noting that all of these were of the uncommon (or green) rarity level. The Blizzard rep mentioned that it's likely that other levels of rarity would exist.
Jewelcrafting
{source: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/jewelcrafting.html }
Jewelcrafters learn the art of creating beautiful jewelry and trinkets from metals and rare gems. By processing the raw ore mined from the various deposits and mineral veins, jewelcrafters can extract gems from the ore which they can then use for their craft. Although miners sometimes find gems while gathering ore, jewelcrafters mostly rely on their prospecting skills to get more of the precious stones.
Jewelcrafters work with gems in many different ways. If a jewelcrafter uses gems to create jewelry, he usually only needs the raw, uncut stones for his work. These rings, amulets, and trinkets function just like those that can already be found in the game, with a few notable exceptions. For example, jewelcrafters can learn to create gemmed figurines that they can carry in their trinket slots. While these figurines all provide passive benefits, they can also be used to provide the player with a short buff – just enough to give you that little damage boost or maybe that quick burst of extra healing power you may need in a tricky situation. These figurines will bind when picked up, so only jewelcrafters will be able to use their powers.
Another way jewelcrafters can use gems is by cutting them, preparing them to be used in socketed items. Gems come in many different colors and shapes. Different types of gems have different basic properties, and a gem's cut also determines the effect this gem will have. Jewelcrafters can learn several types of cuts for each kind of gem: the Azure Moonstone, for example, can be cut into a lustrous, stormy, solid, or sparkling Azure Moonstone, and each one of these cuts offers different bonuses when used in a socketable item. Placing cut gems into an item's sockets will add the bonuses of these gems to those of the item, allowing players to customize their equipment to better suit their individual play style or the different roles their class can fulfill.
At higher levels, socketed items and specially cut gems become an important part of an adventurer's "bag of tricks". Both armor and weapons can have sockets. Some socketed items can be found in dungeons, but the expansion will also introduce a lot of new recipes for all the professions, including many recipes that let leatherworkers, blacksmiths, and tailors create socketed items. Socketed items can be of uncommon, rare, or even epic quality. An item's sockets can also have a specific color; if you put a gem of a matching color in each socket, the item will reward you with a special stat bonus beyond the gems' regular effects. However, you can also put gems of a different color in these slots if you would rather have a specific gem's effect instead of the added bonus.