Posted by Alicia E. Staz on September 6th, 2006 — Posted in Jewelry Materials
The jewelry you are wearing is only worth the wire it is strung on. If the designer scrimps and doesn’t use a high quality beading wire, it will eventually break, scattering your beads wherever you happened to be at the moment.
So what do you need to know about beading wire to make sure your jewelry piece lasts? Here are the basics:
Diameter of Beading Wire
Not surpisingly, the larger the diameter, the larger the wire. A small diameter is .014 inch. It’s great for lightweight items such as pearls, tiny gemstone beads and seed beads. The larger the diameters (.019 and .024 inch) work better for larger and heavier beads or those that might have abrasive edges.
Number of Strands in the Beading Wire
The number of strands is directly proportional to the diameter of the wire. The larger the diameter, the more strands. So it follows that the higher number of strands is going to be better for larger and heavier items. Also, if you know you will be wearing a piece daily, it is a good idea to just start with a higher strand count to be on the safe side. 21 strand wire is very lightweight and delicate. It is good for stringing seed beads and freshwater pearls if you don’t plan to wear the piece on a daily basis. 49 strand wire is the better choice for heavier beads or heavier wear. Just a note…49 strand wire is 7 individual wires that each have 7 strands of stainless steel woven together. As you can imagine, this is pretty tough stuff.
Coating on the Beading Wire
I use Soft-Flex 0.019 inch 49-strand wire at Beaded Royalty because it is marine quality. On top of the fact that the wire is 49 strands of stainless steel wire, it is coated with nylon and can be worn in and out of salt and fresh water. Several other brands exist that may or may not be up to par with Soft-Flex. Some wire is merely coated with colored plastic. Other wire is not even coated. I have restrung bracelets where the wire was rusted…a disaster waiting to happen.
Bottom line - make sure your beaded jewelry pieces are strung on high quality wire. Cheap wire leads to a bracelet that is not worth much…no matter how much you paid for it.
No Comments »
Posted by Alicia E. Staz on September 4th, 2006 — Posted in Jewelry Materials
I am a scientist by education (I graduated from Messiah College with a Premed degree in Biology) and have always been facinated by the chemical elements. My business is making custom jewelry out of sterling silver beads, but there is so much more to silver. Here are a few interesting tidbits:
Physical Properties
- Chemical symbol: Ag
- Atomic weight: 107.870
- Atomic Number: 47
- Melting Point: 1761 degrees F or 960 degrees C
- Specific gravity: 10.5
Little Known Facts
- It can be hammered into sheets so thin that it would take 100,000 of them to make a stack an inch high.
- These sheets are so thin that light shines through them.
- It can be drawn into wire finer than a human hair.
- It is the best conductor of heat and electricity among the metals, but its greater cost and tarnishability prevented it from being used in place of copper for wiring.
- When melted, it can absorb as much as 20 times its own volume of oxygen.
- Pure silver is too soft to stand up under constant wear, it is usually mixed with copper to form an alloy (sterling silver) before it is made into commercial articles.
- It is stable in pure air and water, but ozone and sulphur cause it to turn black (tarnish).
- The words for “silver” and “money” are the same in at least 14 languages.
Uses
- Its principal use is as a precious metal.
- Its salts, especially silver nitrate, are widely used in photography (which is the largest single end use of silver).
- Despite its cost, it is used in electrical and electronic products which need its superior conductivity.
- It is used in mirrors which need superior reflectivity for visible light. Common mirrors are backed with aluminium.
- It is used in the manufacture of jewelry and silverware, which are traditionally made from the silver alloy Sterling Silver, 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.
- It is awarded as medals in competition denoting second place.
- It is used in dental alloys for fittings and fillings.
- Silver fulminate is a powerful explosive.
- Silver iodide has been used in attempts to seed clouds to produce rain.
- Silver oxide is used as a positive electrode (cathode) in watch batteries.
- Colloidal silver is an antibacterial/antibiotic treatment used in alternative medicine.
- It is used as the basis for many monetary systems. Its value as a precious metal was long considered second only to gold. In Ancient Egypt and Medieval Europe, it was considered more valuable than gold.
No Comments »
Posted by Alicia E. Staz on September 2nd, 2006 — Posted in General
So which is better…solid sterling silver or silver-plated? I think the answer is obvious enough, but aren’t silver-plated beads much cheaper? The answer is yes, they are cheaper. But as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. Silver-plated beads are - exactly as they sound - some other material coated with a very thin layer of silver. That layer of silver can (and does) wear off over time. How long it takes to wear off depends on several factors:
What is underneath the silver? This is known as the “base” of the silver. The best material to have underneath is brass. Silver with a steel or aluminum base is not as valuable and will feel noticeably lighter. This is easy to determine if we are talking about a silver serving tray, but not so easy if we are talking about a 4mm silver bead.
The next factor is the coating over the base between it and the silver. If the piece is coated with a combination of nickel, copper and zinc, it will accept (or bond) to the silver better. There is no way to determine this, so you just have to hope the person who did the plating knew what they were doing and didn’t cut too many corners.
The final factor is the thickness of the silver coating. Silver tarnishes over time…that is a fact of life. It will happen whether your piece is solid sterling silver or silver-plated. The difference is what is revealed underneath when it is polished. When you polish silver, you are removing the layer of tarnish and revealing the “fresh” silver underneath. In a way, it is like peeling an onion. If your piece is solid sterling silver, you will never find anything besides more silver. If it is silver-plated, eventually the silver will wear off and you will get down to the base material - usually not very pretty.
So how thick is thick enough? A cheap piece will be coated with 1-3 microns of silver plating. It will only take a few polishes for the silver to wear away completely. If the piece is coated with 8-10 microns, you should be in good shape. 25 microns is about as thick as silver plate gets.
With beads there is no way to tell what is underneath. It could be brass, aluminum or even plastic. AND, if the material wasn’t coated properly before being plated, the silver will come off in flakes and you will have a real mess on your hands. I decided when I started making jewelry that I would never use anything but the best. All of my jewelry is made from solid sterling silver. I intend for it to be worn and passed down to the next generation.
No Comments »
Posted by Alicia E. Staz on September 1st, 2006 — Posted in Jewelry Materials
Bali is a small island in the string of islands that make up Indonesia. From the air, it looks like a tropical fish. It has been voted the most enchanting travel and holiday destination in the world due to the wide variety of attractions, the physical beauty of the island, and the year-round comfortable climate. Bali is also known for its highly developed arts including dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalwork, and music.
In Bali, certain communities specialize in the art of metalwork that dates back thousands of years. The techniques get passed down through succeeding generations. Although the Balinese have traditionally worn gold jewelry, in the 1970’s they began to make silver beads for export. Extremely reasonable prices assured their success and quickly gave them a global reputation for intricate designs in granulation and wire work, hence, the name Bali silver!
Working with silver is an extremely labor-intensive process. It requires tremendous skill and a large amount of patience. An unsteady hand can ruin a design instantly. A moment too long under the torch can cause an intricate pattern to crumble. The artisans who create Bali silver use very simple tools, but with them achieve works of art. They begin with pellets of pure silver that are mined in Indonesia. The silver is mixed with a small amount of borax to help the metals melt when heated with a torch and to burn off impurities. A small amount of copper is added to make the silver stronger. The result is 92.5% pure silver or “sterling silver.”
Liquified silver is poured into molds to create sheets or wire. Square molds are used to make sheets and round molds are used to make wire. After the molds solidify, the artisans feed the square blocks through progressively thinner slits in the same machine, continually adjusting the rollers, until they have acheived thin sheets of silver called plate. The round bars are fed through progressively smaller ridges in a rolling machine (similar to a pasta maker) and then pulled by hand through round holes in a metal stencil.
Once the silver is made into plate and wire, it is cut into various shapes and sizes and used to form beads. Some designs are created by cutting holes in metal plate (with a tool called a plong), soldering wires, and applying granulation. Other designs are made by placing silver plate between metal caps (pronounced “chops”) that come in male and female halves to mold the silver as it is sandwiched between them and hammered. To make filigree designs, artisans solder wire together in iron bowls. The curve of the bowl determines the curve of the finished piece. To hold the design together, they use a paste made from red beans called sego telik.
After Bali silver beads are formed, they are cleaned with insides of a tamarind fruit, and dipped in another solution which turns them black. The beads are then polished leaving the deep grooves filled with dark color (called antiquing) and the high points shiny. The number of designs created using this method is staggering. Literally thousands of Bali silver bead designs exist. I have chosen a few to use in my designs at Beaded Royalty and have shown them below.
No Comments »
Posted by Alicia E. Staz on August 30th, 2006 — Posted in Jewelry Materials
Even though I use Bali beads in my designs at Beaded Royalty, I have always wondered what Hill Tribe silver beads were. What makes them different from Bali silver beads? Here is what I found…
During the last decade, artisans from the several of the Hill Tribes in Thailand have gained a wonderful reputation for their unique silver beads. The term ‘Hill Tribe’ refers to ethnic minorities who live in the mountain regions of northern Thailand. Their origin dates back nearly 2000 years, when most migrated to Thailand from Tibet, Burma, China and Laos. There are 6 main Hill Tribes: the Mien (also known as Yao), Karen (Thai Gariang), Akha (Thai Egaw), Lahu (Thai Musay) Hmong (Thai Meo) and Lisu (Thai Lisaw).
Each tribe has their own characteristic dress, customs and styles of ornamentation, but all of the tribes do silversmithing. They employ traditional tribal methods that have been passed down from generation to generation. Hill Tribe silver beads are amazing works of art, each made by hand, with little or no machinery. No two pieces are exactly alike. Some beads are hammered and etched, while others are literally sculpted. Hill Tribe silver beads come in an endless array of shapes and sizes, often emulating objects in nature such as: ladybugs, butterflies, fish, shells, leaves, and flowers.
The silver content in Hill Tribe silver beads is 95-99% rather than the 92.5% of Bali beads (sterling silver). The higher silver content is softer and is therefore easier to shape into the countless designs that are available. Many Hill Tribe silver beads are made from Indian and Burmese silver coins that have been melted down. After the silver is melted with torches and poured into moulds, very small pieces are shaped by a long process of tapping. The process is very similar to that of the Bali artisans, but the style is uniquely Thai.
1 Comment »
