SPOTLIGHT ON ... ARTICLE
June 2008
Working with Metals
Written by: Charlene Gary
I like working with metals. I like to work with my hands and move and shape metal into interesting new objects. Besides the physical properties of metals, they have had a long mythological and spiritual history. Whether you believe in these legends or not, they are fascinating. It may even help you decide on what type of metal to use in your next project.
Silver
Pure silver has a brilliant white metallic luster. It is a little harder than gold and is very ductile, (easily stretched into very thin wire), and malleable, (easily hammered into thin sheets), being exceeded only by gold and perhaps palladium. It is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when exposed to ozone. The alloys of silver are important. Standard alloy contains 92.5% silver, the remainder being copper or some other metal.
Since ancient times, silver has been closely associated with the moon and lunar influences. Silver is a cool color, and stands as a diametric opposite to gold. Silver is closely tied to Isis and all things flexible, creative, and emotionally intelligent. Silver is even attributed in the ancient chakra system - a system of seven sacred energy centers of the body. Silver is associated with the sixth chakra, often referred to as the "third-eye". In this sense, silver certainly represents the concept of reflection, both physically (all reflective substances are silvery) and as an internal exercise of self-analysis. Silver has always held a value above material and economic considerations. Gifts of silver jewelry in many cultures are given as a symbol of trust, truth, excellence, wisdom and love. Medically, silver was known to be a liver and spleen detoxifier.
Gold
Gold is not only one of the world's most beautiful elements, it is also one of the most useful. It is highly malleable and ductile, both of which allow jewelers to create beautiful jewelry and mints to produce Gold coins. Gold resists chemical changes, which helps it avoid tarnishing.
Gold occurs naturally in nuggets, grains, flakes or dust in alluvial placer, lode, telluride minerals or other metal deposits.
Gold Techniques
There are many different techniques used in goldworking. Some of the more familiar are:
- Electroplating: coating another metal with gold by electric means
- Filigree: welding Gold wire onto the surface of an object to create a decoration
- Granulation: using small balls of Gold to form shapes on embossed metal
- Interassile: piercing designs into gold leaf
- Repoussè: pressing or hammering a relief in a negative mold into the gold sheet
- Rolled Gold: laminating Gold onto a less expensive metal and then heating them to join them together; they are both then rolled into a workable thin sheet for use
Alloys
To keep costs down and make Gold harder, goldworkers often alloy it with other metals, usually Copper or Silver. Mixing Gold with these other metals changes its color. The following are the major types of Gold Alloys:
- Blue Gold: Gold with Iron
- Green Gold: Gold mixed with a higher Silver content than Copper
- Pink Gold (or Rose Gold): 50% Gold, 45% Copper and 5% Silver
- White Gold: Gold with Nickel, Zinc, Copper, Tin and Manganese-Nickel is only used in White Gold because it bleaches Gold
- Yellow Gold: 50% Gold, 25% Silver and 25% Copper
Measuring Gold
Jewelers indicate the amount of gold in an alloy by the Karat system.
- 24kt.: 100% Gold-very soft
- 18kt.: 75% Gold-will not tarnish; softer than 14kt., but with a deeper color
- 14kt.: 58.33% Gold-will not tarnish
- 12kt.: 50% Gold
- 10kt.: 41.6% Gold; less than 10kt. cannot be called Gold in the US or 9kt. in the UK.
Other measurement definitions are:
Aqua Regia: mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids and water to test gold, which it will not dissolve
Fineness: proportion of Gold in an alloy; some nations use Hallmarks to indicate this mark
Gold Filled (G.F.): appears next to the Karat number in some samples, indicating that it is Gold Filled or made by joining a layer of gold to a base metal
Hallmark: stamp on a piece indicating its purity in parts per thousand of Gold
Yellow Gold Filled (Y.G.F.): Gold Filled using Yellow Gold
It is said that Gold can prevent spiritual corrosion, and that Gold adds to the realm of complete understanding and that it can clear away negativity. It can transform energy and negativity. On the negative, it is believed Gold can bring Greed into the soul. Pink Gold can represent spirituality and White can combine the sun and moon's energies. In some Asian cultures, adding gold to statues was part of rituals meant to bring the statue to life.
Copper
Copper's physical properties of conductivity, strength, ductility, malleability and resistance to corrosion and wear, make it a very versatile and highly useful metal. Copper's color is a unique softly reflective brown red to deep brick red. Exposure to Oxygen causes Copper to tarnish and turn a Teal Green as is the case with one of America's most famous monuments, the Statue of Liberty. According to myths, Copper has the ability to conduct spiritual energy back and forth from individuals, crystals, auras, the mind and the spirit world. They also believe it has the power to amplifying thoughts in receiving and sending psychic communication and is used in channeling hoaxes throughout the world. Because Copper is one of the oldest metals used by humans, it has played an important role in mythology. Its primary use has been as a specified metal in rituals, but it has also represented the Greek God Venus and to the Greeks, it could protect against evil and attract love. In the 1970s it saw a surge in use for medicinal purposes.
Platinum
Platinum is an extremely rare metal, and is 30 times rarer than gold. If all the world's platinum reserves were poured into one Olympic-size swimming pool, it would be just deep enough to cover one's ankles. Gold would fill more than three such pools. The price of platinum changes along with its availability, but its price is normally more than twice the price of gold. Due to its rarity, greater difficulty to work with and the need to alloy it with (at the time) an even more expensive metal iridium, platinum was only used in a limited way in jewelry at the end of the 19th century. This changed at the beginning of the 20th century when most diamond ring mountings and most exclusive jewelry were almost completely made of platinum. When pure, the metal appears greyish-white and firm. Platinum's wear- and tarnish-resistance characteristics are well suited for making fine jewelry. In the 18th century, platinum's rarity made King Louis XV of France declare it the only metal fit for a king. Though the metal was used by pre-Columbian Native Americans, The word platinum comes from the Spanish word platina, meaning "little silver".
I'll bet you didn't know there was so much to metal!
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A schooled jewelry artist, I work from home finding inspiration in the every day. I like color and keeping things simple. I like to read, and write, about jewelry in its many shapes and forms. You can check out my blog at www.graygirlstudios.blogspot.com
Design and photo above by Charlene Gary.
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