Using Silver in Your Jewelry Making
Posted by Eri
Often people will purchase silver jewelry feeling that it is a good alternative to gold and perhaps in many cases less expensive. Although good quality silver jewelry is not cheap, a piece of jewelry made with silver would likely be less expensive than its gold counterpart. Silver like gold has been around for centuries and is used in making jewelry to the same degree gold is.
There are different qualities of silver but that which one classes as almost pure or being 99.9 pure is called fine silver, however it is not the best for silver jewelry aside from the cost. The most common form of silver jewelry is sterling silver. This usually has a silver content of at least 92.5%.
Silver needs to be mixed with another medium or alloy to strengthen it. The most common is copper. Interestingly although copper has such a distinct color it does not seem to affect the color of silver as much. It is the perfect choice for strengthening the silver to make it appropriate for silver jewelry making.
When it comes to your home jewelry making ideally once you have perfected your technique you are going to want to use better quality materials to enhance your work. The silver jewelry you make should be of the best quality that you can afford. It’s fruitless to design exquisite jewelry using fine stones and then cheat the piece with inferior silver.
One thing that you may want to do if you are serious about your jewelry making is educate yourself on the various types of metals that are used in the industry. By having some knowledge you can make informed decisions when purchasing your jewelry supplies, often referred to as findings.
If you do this in addition to finding a trustworthy wholesale supplier of jewelry findings then you will feel confident that when you are making your purchases you are getting good quality.
One of the things you will learn is that most often silver jewelry is plated. This means it is covered with another type of alloy or material to prevent the silver from tarnishing.
