The Jewelry Uses of Gold

Gold's Many Jewelry Applications

From the very beginning of man's history using gold it has always been associated with the beauty of adornment. Wearing jewelry has not only accompanied man through most of his civilization, it may even be his oldest surviving tradition. A gift of gold jewelry has always been the symbol of lasting love and devotion. The simple gold wedding band probably uses more of the world’s gold than any other single type of jewelry. The tradition of the wedding bands began far back in history when the groom placed a gold ring on the third finger of his bride's left-hand believing that an artery ran from this finger directly to the heart. It is a tradition that has come down through the ages and exists almost everywhere on earth. The circlet of gold in closes the world of two loving people.

Through the years gold has continued to be the most desired precious metal for jury. Today, about 100 tons of gold are used annually in the world wide jewelry industry. Traditionally in many parts of the world, the finest pieces of jewelry have been made of 18 and 22 carat gold. In the United States, 14 karat gold is the most widely used, for elegant and timeless fashion accessories. Although almost everyone in the United States owns something made of gold few people are actually aware of the complex process which puts rings on their fingers, chains around their necks and bracelets on their wrists. Even a basic understanding of the techniques used in making jewelry will lead to a greater appreciation of the finished piece by its owner.

In ancient times goldsmiths worked their gold by hand today, some gold jewelry is still handmade, but much of it is machine produced. Italy and the US or the world's two largest producers of gold jewelry. In the US alone, more than 2000 firms produce gold jewelry. Jewelry manufacturers live in a world of special procedures and processes: melting, casting, rolling, drawing and stamping.

Gold in its pure state, is termed a 24 karats pure. At this purity, gold is considered too soft for use in jewelry. It must be alloyed with other metals to increase its durability and workability so they can retain the beautiful shapes that are imparted to it. The word karat derives from the Italian word carato, meaning the full fruit of the carob tree. The seeds of the carob fruit were once used to balance the scales in Wayne gems in gold at Oriental bazaars. As used in jewelry, 18 K gold is 18 parts gold in six parts of other metals; in the same way 14 K gold jewelry is 14 parts gold and 10 parts of other metals. European gold jewelry is marked with a decimal: .750 is the same as 18 K gold, and .585 is the same as 14K gold.

The metals added to make gold suitable for jewelry also affect the color of the gold produced. Gold can be alloyed into a wide range of colors, but only a few alloys have the right combination of strength and beauty and workability to qualify for use in jewelry or most gold jury contains a mixture of at least two other metals to retain gold's natural color and to increase its hardness is alloyed with a combination of copper and silver. Green gold is achieved when silver, and sometimes small amounts of copper or added with zinc. It pink or red 10 results when the gold is allied with excess copper when gold is allied with copper, nickel and sync, white gold is the result.

Jewelry Design and Construction Arts

Designing Your Own Jewelry

A jewelry project can be started in many ways. A special design phase is not always needed, but a little planning can sometimes really go a long way in making a project a lot easier. Think about what you want to create. Do up a simple drawing of the project. Consider how you can make it better. Think about how you will build it and the methods you will use. Make a list of the jewelry supply materials you will need to purchase. In my experience, creating that perfect and special piece of jewelry art is best done in harmony with well thought out a plan and a design. On this webpage, I have put together a discussion of planning out your jewelry design, selecting the necessary tools and techniques and then putting your plans into action. Hopefully, my experiences will prove helpful to you.

First, good design requires knowledge. The better you know your craft, the more possibilities you will be able to envision. I recommend that you read through the various pages of this jewelry making website and get a feel for the possibilities that are out there for creative jewelry design and creation. Read about the gemstones that can be incorporated into your jewelry art work.

Keep an open eye out at shops and shows for inspiration and ideas. Seeing that special work from others can really give you inspiration for your own classy piece of art work. There is no need to plagiarize and copy the efforts of others, but sometimes seeing what others have done can really inspire me to do something new and get me to stretch my artwork in new directions. Consider to the bulk of the work you see – note what styles are popular and desired by others.

One of the first basic steps in design is to think about what sorts of patterns, styles and colors look good to you? What would be special and attractive together? Start with sketches – you don’t have to be the worlds greatest artist to do simple sketches – at this point they are more to help you flesh out your ideas than to really produce and exact drawing. When you are just starting to put together a concept, purposefully try something different: its easy to get into a rut. Be willing to stretch your talents and capabilities.

Once you have a design concept for your new work, think about the skills, tools and other assets you have available for your jewelry project. Certain types of projects require specific tools and techniques, or specific gemstones. If you will need new tools, new jewelry making supplies or gemstones, make a list of what you need to buy and where you might purchase these items.

Finally, always allow the plan to be flexible enough to change as your imagination moves you. Inspiration sometimes strikes mid project and while you may need to make it into another project, if you have the flexibility, you may be able to incorporate it into you current jewelry art project.

Soldering Techniques For Jewelry

Building Jewelry Art Through Soldering Techniques Soldering techniques are a simple and effective way of creating a wide variety of jewelry art. Soldering is actually only one element of jewelry creation, but it can be combined with the whole wide variety of other techniques to produce some very spectacular pieces. For many jewelry artists, soldering is one of the first things that is taught as it is a basic technique for building or repairing a variety of types of jewelry. Soldering is used on both silver and gold jewelry pieces. it can be used to join items that were created by completely different techniques. So as an example, an item created through lost wax casting could be joined to an object that was produced by stamping. In essence, soldering is a technique to join together two different metal items for the purpose of producing one unified piece. The two pieces being joined do not have to be of the same metal, and silver can be joined to gold or copper, silver joined to gold, etc. This technique can be used to reduce some very unique multi-metal jewelry art pieces. The key to soldering is the use of a special alloy which melts at lower temperature than the materials which are being soldered together. The special alloy bonds to both of the pieces joining them together into a single unit. This "special alloy" is of course the solder itself. One of the most important keys to producing a good strong soldered joint is that both of the metals being soldered together must have an extremely clean surface. Dirt and oil or other products can interfere with joining the two pieces together and produce a joint which easily falls apart. Fluxes and other cleaners are used to make sure that the surfaces been joined by the solder are clean. It does take a little bit of practice to learn how to apply just the right amount of heat to melt the solder but not fuse, oxidize or warp the two pieces which are being joined together. Soldering is not however, excessively difficult. A wide variety of different kinds of solder with areas alloy makeup and melting temperatures. These are used for certain specific applications. Both the raw solder and the necessary tools for making jewelry can be purchased through jewelry supply houses. There are a number of these jewelry supply businesses that advertise actively through the Internet and reliably sell everything they jewelry artist would need through the mail. Books are also available to describe a variety of projects that can be created using jewelry soldering techniques. Virtually all turquoise jewelry of the American Indian style is produced through a variety of soldering techniques. There are a number of excellent books available which teach jewelry soldering methods and techniques, and specifically the special techniques which are used in creating American Indian style turquoise jewelry.

Setting Your Own Gems In Jewelry

Prong Folding In Pre-Made Jewelry: Setting Your Own Gemstones

One of the easiest ways in which its possible to make your own jewelry is to simply buy Pre-notched settings and set your own stones. Suppliers of “ready to set” jewelry items include such companies as Hoover and Strong, Rio Grande, and Tripps. All three suppliers have product ordering facilities set up to work through the Internet. It is easy to get one of their catalogs and see what types of settings they have available. There are a number of jewelry supply stores, but those three are my favorites. The empty settings are known as findings in the industry.

I don’t know why, but for some reason people seem to ignore this possibility, in spite of the fact that it is probably the easiest of all “make your own jewelry” methods. All you are doing, is folding down prongs to hold the gemstone in place. If you like custom jewelry with unusual and rare gemstones, here is the easiest way to acquire that special jewelry, just the way you want it, with rare or “one of a kind” type stones. It also works well for unusual combinations of stones not often seen together.

It is possible to buy gems at various gem and jewelry shows, directly from jewelry equipment suppliers like Rio Grande and Tripps, or from independent gem dealers. This type of arrangement gives you, the jewelry making artist, the greatest degree of freedom of choice. Jewelry items of all types, earrings, rings, pendants, bracelets, etc. are all available in pre-notched and polished forms. Having catalogs from various jewelry supply companies will give you as the artist the greatest degree of flexibility in your selections.

The tools needed for this type of operation are really fairly simple. The most critical tool is a pair of gem setting pliers. These are special pliers made for folding down jewelry mounting prongs. They are available from the jewelry supply catalogs and normally cost about $25 to $30 dollars. I also use a set of needle nose pliers that are smooth faced – that is the little gripping notches on the inside of the pliers are ground away or smooth to begin with. A small vise and some rubber in which to safely grip the jewelry item is also handy to have.

You will also need a good pair of calipers to measure your gemstones. I suggest you buy the stones first, and measure them carefully. Then buy the proper setting to match your gemstone. It is not hard at all, but it does take a little practice to get good with the jewelry setting pliers and fold the prongs down straight over the stone so that the setting looks proper. Take a look at settings done professionally in your local jewelry store, then do a few practice pieces on your own with inexpensive materials. Take your time and see what a nice looking job you can do. Some of the jewelry supply stores offer videos or books on gemstone setting. These can also help you get started. Wait until you have done some before you try to mount stones in a piece with loads of little side stones.

Setting your own gemstones is not a particularly difficult task when using pre-notched pieces. Be sure to get pre-notched items as some supply stores sell both types – notched and plain. A whole set of tools and skills are required to make the proper notches for setting a stone, and I recommend that you simply skip that and get settings that are all ready to mount your stone into. I have done this for years and it is possible to produce some very top quality jewelry that looks perfectly professional at a great and significant savings.