You can make jewellery out of just about anything. Metal, plastic, glass, stone, paper, clay and on and on. This week I want to focus on some of the different metals you can use.
Metals come in two common categories, base metal and precious metals. Precious metals include gold, silver and the platinum group. Base metal is a catch-all term for anything not precious. So this will include copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, steel, titanium and others.
I don't want to get into every different kind of metal available, so let's just talk about the most common ones you'll use.
The most common base metals used are copper, brass and bronze. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Different percentages of metals used in the alloying process will give the metals different colours and attributes. These metals are inexpensive and easy to find, which is why many artisans use them to experiment, learn and perfect new ideas and techniques. It is much easier to accept a failure in copper than one in silver or gold. Many jewellers turn their noses up at base metals, considering them not worth the effort. However base metal jewellery is gaining popularity, and I have seen many stunningly beautiful pieces in copper, brass and bronze.
Precious Metals
Silver and Gold are most commonly used, but they both come in many different forms. First, let's take a look at gold.
Gold
When most people think “gold”, they visualize a soft yellow metal. They're not wrong, that is indeed what pure gold looks like. But most can't afford to work in pure gold. It's very expensive right now, around $1400CAD per troy ounce ($46CAD per gram). And that's the lowest it's been in years!
I'm sure most of you have heard of 14 karat, 18 karat or 24 karat gold, but what exactly does it mean?
A karat is a unit of purity for gold alloys and it's usually it's abbreviated to kt or K. It shows how many parts of gold and how many parts of other metals it is alloyed with. Pure gold is 24 K, or 24 parts gold. So 18 K gold is 18 parts gold and 6 parts something else. 14 K gold is 14 parts gold and 10 parts something else and so on. Besides being too expensive, 24 K gold is usually considered too soft to work with, the most common alloy to work with is 14 K gold.
Since anything other than 24 K gold is mixed with a different metal, the colour of the gold can be changed depending on which metal you use as an alloy.
For many artisans, solid 14 K gold is too expensive at first. The alternatives are gold plated metal, or gold filled metal.
When something is gold plated, it means there is a very thin layer of gold electroplated onto another metal, usually copper. The thickness of the layer is not regulated and usually runs from .15 to .25 mm (6/1000 – 1/100 of an inch) thick. Now that is pretty thin, and gold plating is very easy to damage or chip. Just polishing it or cleaning it can take off the gold. Wearing it will also erode the plating. The option I prefer is gold filled.
Gold filled (GF) is similar to gold plate, but instead of electroplating the gold onto a filler metal, a thick sheet of gold is applied to a base metal like jeweller's brass. This sheet of gold is 50 to 100 000 times thicker than gold plating. The amount of gold in GF metal is regulated and must be a minimum of 5% gold by weight. GF metal is much more durable, though care still needs to be taken when polishing or cleaning.
Just a quick note, gold itself does not tarnish, so if your gold is looking tarnished, it could be the alloy metal. If it is gold plated or GF metal, the gold layer might have been damaged or worn away, and the tarnished area is the base metal showing through.
Silver
Silver is another very popular choice for jewellery makers. Like gold, there are a few different types, but I want to focus on the top three.
Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver. Like pure gold, it is very soft, and the most expensive of the silver options.
Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. Sterling silver tarnishes much faster than pure silver because of the alloys, but it is usually very easy to clean. Silver prices have dropped sharply over the last little while, down to $19CAD per ounce ($0.65CAD per gm) today, from over $30 per ounce a year or so ago. There is now a silver filled option as well, just like the gold filled that I explained earlier.
The third type of silver I wanted to touch on is Argentium silver. Like sterling, it is 92.5% silver, but the 7.5% alloy is germanium. This gives Argentium silver working attributes that aren't found in sterling. Also, Argentium is tarnish resistant.
There is one last thing I wanted to say about the metals used in jewellery making. You hear more and more about people having reactions to the metal jewellery they wear. Most of these reactions are caused by nickel present in the metal. Most manufacturers no longer alloy with nickel, but it can still be found in places. I'm very careful when I order my metal, to be sure it is nickel free. There are also some misleading names out there, such as nickel silver, or German silver. These are alloys of nickel, zinc and other metals and don't actually contain any silver.
Next time we'll have a look at some of the different forms these metals come in and we'll start discussing some techniques used to make jewellery!
Metals come in two common categories, base metal and precious metals. Precious metals include gold, silver and the platinum group. Base metal is a catch-all term for anything not precious. So this will include copper, brass, bronze, aluminum, steel, titanium and others.
I don't want to get into every different kind of metal available, so let's just talk about the most common ones you'll use.
- Definition
- Alloy – noun – a metal made by mixing two or more metallic elements
- Alloying – verb – mixing metals to make an alloy
The most common base metals used are copper, brass and bronze. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Different percentages of metals used in the alloying process will give the metals different colours and attributes. These metals are inexpensive and easy to find, which is why many artisans use them to experiment, learn and perfect new ideas and techniques. It is much easier to accept a failure in copper than one in silver or gold. Many jewellers turn their noses up at base metals, considering them not worth the effort. However base metal jewellery is gaining popularity, and I have seen many stunningly beautiful pieces in copper, brass and bronze.
Precious Metals
Silver and Gold are most commonly used, but they both come in many different forms. First, let's take a look at gold.
Gold
When most people think “gold”, they visualize a soft yellow metal. They're not wrong, that is indeed what pure gold looks like. But most can't afford to work in pure gold. It's very expensive right now, around $1400CAD per troy ounce ($46CAD per gram). And that's the lowest it's been in years!
I'm sure most of you have heard of 14 karat, 18 karat or 24 karat gold, but what exactly does it mean?
A karat is a unit of purity for gold alloys and it's usually it's abbreviated to kt or K. It shows how many parts of gold and how many parts of other metals it is alloyed with. Pure gold is 24 K, or 24 parts gold. So 18 K gold is 18 parts gold and 6 parts something else. 14 K gold is 14 parts gold and 10 parts something else and so on. Besides being too expensive, 24 K gold is usually considered too soft to work with, the most common alloy to work with is 14 K gold.
Since anything other than 24 K gold is mixed with a different metal, the colour of the gold can be changed depending on which metal you use as an alloy.
- Yellow gold - alloyed with silver and copper
- White gold - alloyed with 10% to 20% nickel, plus copper, tin, and sometimes platinum or manganese
- Green gold - alloyed with silver, sometimes cadmium and zinc
- Red or Pink (often called Rose Gold) - alloyed with copper
- Blue Gold - alloyed with iron
For many artisans, solid 14 K gold is too expensive at first. The alternatives are gold plated metal, or gold filled metal.
When something is gold plated, it means there is a very thin layer of gold electroplated onto another metal, usually copper. The thickness of the layer is not regulated and usually runs from .15 to .25 mm (6/1000 – 1/100 of an inch) thick. Now that is pretty thin, and gold plating is very easy to damage or chip. Just polishing it or cleaning it can take off the gold. Wearing it will also erode the plating. The option I prefer is gold filled.
Gold filled (GF) is similar to gold plate, but instead of electroplating the gold onto a filler metal, a thick sheet of gold is applied to a base metal like jeweller's brass. This sheet of gold is 50 to 100 000 times thicker than gold plating. The amount of gold in GF metal is regulated and must be a minimum of 5% gold by weight. GF metal is much more durable, though care still needs to be taken when polishing or cleaning.
Just a quick note, gold itself does not tarnish, so if your gold is looking tarnished, it could be the alloy metal. If it is gold plated or GF metal, the gold layer might have been damaged or worn away, and the tarnished area is the base metal showing through.
Silver
Silver is another very popular choice for jewellery makers. Like gold, there are a few different types, but I want to focus on the top three.
Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver. Like pure gold, it is very soft, and the most expensive of the silver options.
Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. Sterling silver tarnishes much faster than pure silver because of the alloys, but it is usually very easy to clean. Silver prices have dropped sharply over the last little while, down to $19CAD per ounce ($0.65CAD per gm) today, from over $30 per ounce a year or so ago. There is now a silver filled option as well, just like the gold filled that I explained earlier.
The third type of silver I wanted to touch on is Argentium silver. Like sterling, it is 92.5% silver, but the 7.5% alloy is germanium. This gives Argentium silver working attributes that aren't found in sterling. Also, Argentium is tarnish resistant.
There is one last thing I wanted to say about the metals used in jewellery making. You hear more and more about people having reactions to the metal jewellery they wear. Most of these reactions are caused by nickel present in the metal. Most manufacturers no longer alloy with nickel, but it can still be found in places. I'm very careful when I order my metal, to be sure it is nickel free. There are also some misleading names out there, such as nickel silver, or German silver. These are alloys of nickel, zinc and other metals and don't actually contain any silver.
Next time we'll have a look at some of the different forms these metals come in and we'll start discussing some techniques used to make jewellery!