Beads and Baubles

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Keeping Silver From Tarnishing

For many people, the show season goes from June to December, so for several months jewelry gets packed away and brought out only occasionally. During this time, and during the height of summer when humidity is a killer, keeping silver from tarnishing becomes a major concern.

The first really important thing about keeping your jewelry from tarnishing is to keep it clean. If you put it away tarnished, the layer of tarnish will continue to deepen when stored.

Many people will tell you that they keep their jewelry in ziplock bags. While that does reduce the humidity, it won't actually prevent tarnish and it can scratch your jewelry unless you use the specifically designed anti-tarnish zipper bags. Before putting the jewelry into the ziplock bag, wrap it in either anti-tarnish tissue or anti-tarnish cloth.

Although you can get anti-tarnish tissue from jewelry supply shops, I get mine from a place that makes it for use with silverware. Generally speaking, it's cheaper that way. Here's one such supplier: Kassoy. I also wrap my pieces in that tissue for sale and make sure to explain to my customers to keep the tissue for that reason.

The most popular brand of anti-tarnish cloth is Pacific Silvercloth. You can buy this in bag form, but it's far cheaper in a roll and if you have any sewing skills you can make your own bags and jewelry rolls. The bags made for jewelry can be very lovely and are great if you are giving the jewelry as a gift.

For extra protection against tarnish in the bags, you can use 3M anti-tarnish strips, which you can get from Rio Grande. The problem with these is that you don't have any way of knowing when they cease to be effective, and they are expensive for a product with that lack of indicator.

Another really good thing to use, especially if you store your silver in large cases like the jewelry cases, either in place of or in addition to the anti-tarnish strips, is Hydrosorbent Silica Gel.

Cabelas, my favorite sporting goods store for those fabulous fly-fishing boxes for storing beads, sells this in boxes suitable for protecting 3 cubic feet of space, which is just about perfect for the standard grey jewelry carrying cases. The stuff is lightweight (so you can just leave it in there even when you carry the cases around) and reusable. When it fills with moisture, you just stick it in the oven and dry it out.

Nowadays, they are also making a variety of jewelry boxes lined with silvercloth. These are good, but I would say that you should find a way to stick some silica gel into them, even if it's just the disposable packets like these: Adorama Silica Gel Packets. (Again, you'll notice I have listed a camera shop rather than a jewelry supply shop because I have found electronics supply places to be generally cheaper.)

For jewelry boxes lined with silvercloth, I have found the greatest variety -- oddly -- at QVC. Most of these are not practical for professional jewelry-makers, but this one has a nifty earring storage system that works for displaying as well as storing. Again, however, I would use dessicant inside instead of just relying on the built-in cloth.

So there you have it -- all the ways I know of to prevent your silver from tarnishing. I hope you find it useful!

Posted by thebeadedneedle on December 07, 2005 at 02:39 PM in Making Jewelry, PMC/ACS and Silversmithing, The Business of Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (1)

Cleaning Your Silver

You know how it is; by mid-summer, every piece of silver jewelry you've made is beginning to look dingy if not downright black.  Humidity takes a harsh toll on silver, and keeping it from tarnishing--or cleaning it once it has tarnished--is part and parcel of making and selling silver jewelry.  (All the following refers to sterling or better; silver plate tarnishes faster, is harder to clean, and is generally not worth spending your money on.)

You can clean most silver with a variety of paste cleaners.  Naturally, there's the silver polish you buy in stores, but toothpaste can be effective, as can a paste made from baking soda and water.  The baking soda paste is also gentle enough for pearls and soft stones. 

Be warned, though -- make sure your baking soda is thoroughly dissolved -- any grit will scratch your silver!

But what about when you have to clean everything because you've done a show by the shore and the the salt water and humidity has turned it all black?  You cannot very well hand-polish each item with paste polishes.

The most obvious thing that comes to mind is the dip polish you can buy in just about any drugstore or supermarket.  This type of dip goes by a variety of names, but it always looks about the same -- a small jar with a basket inside it and a clear, stinky liquid.  This stuff is primarily ammonia.  It does an excellent job of cleaning silver, but it has two major drawbacks:

  1. it will clean ALL the silver.  You won't have any nice oxidation left in the crevices or anything.  It's also not safe at all for dyed stones, porous stones, or pearls.
  2. Rumor has it that items cleaned with dip cleaners will also re-tarnish faster, but I don't know that for certain. 

(Dip polish, however, is the best thing to do with vermeil -- a quick dip, run under warm water and pat dry.)

A second kind of dip polish is Jewel Brite.  Jewel Brite won't take the tarnish off your silver, but it will clean it and make it shiny, and it's safe enough for pearls.  So if things are just looking a bit dingy, give them a swish in Jewel Brite.

If you make jewelry, you probably own a tumbler, which can be used for cleaning silver.  Tumbling is quite simply the best way to clean most silver jewelry.  It is the only process (aside from paste made particularly for silver) that will not damage the silver in any way.  But tumbling also shines, or burnishes, silver.  So if you like the aged look of your Karen Hill Tribe silver, with its slightly matte finish, you don't want to tumble it!  Tumblers come in two varieties: rotary and vibratory.  Both take stainless steel shot, water, and a little blue Dawn dishwashing liquid or burnishing liquid.  The rotary tumblers are less expensive but take longer than the vibrating ones.  (There are a lot of other benefits to tumbling, but I am not going to go into them here!) 

Some people say you cannot tumble pearls, but I do so in my vibratory tumbler regularly.  It's possible that rotary tumblers, which have more movement in them, may not be safe for soft stones and pearls.

Tumblers can clean several items at a time, but they're still not exactly quick.  So what's next?

Well, if you take jewelry to a jewelry shop, they'll probably use a steam cleaner.  You can buy a steam cleaner yourself, but there are things you should know before you do.  Steam cleaning is fabulous at removing tarnish.  It will leave you the oxidized bits you want as long as you do it carefully, and it works fabulously to clean the little crevices around inset stones.  However, you cannot steam anything with glass, pearls, porous or dyed stones, or that has glue in it.  You also have to steam clean one item at a time.

The most popular home cleaning machine is the ultrasonic jewelry cleaner.  Everyone who's used this kind of machine tells me it does a good job cleaning silver, but again it cannot be used with pearls or soft stones. 

Then there's the ionic cleaner.  More specialized, the ionic cleaner tends to be more expensive and harder to find than the ultrasonic cleaner, but it is safe for pearls and soft stones.  I have heard a variety of opinions on this, and though I have ordered one myself it is on back-order til who knows when, so I cannot give it a try and let you know my results just yet.  Here are the things I have heard about ionic cleaners:

  • "Silver takes about 15 seconds, gold 30-35 seconds. The ionic gets rid of grime/dirt and cleans the tarnish from the silver."

  • "I also use an ionic cleaner for thin chains. The Ionic cleaner works well to remove tarnish, but I've found that my chains seem to tarnish much quicker."

  • "sometimes the ionic cleaner blackens the wrapped wire or a few connected links of a chain.  The instructions do mention this but they also say the black is easily removed with any pickle solution. So I tried a homemade solution (vinegar & salt) & it was absolutely useless! I've had to scrub the affected areas with silver dip several times over as well as polish them for ages to remove the burnt areas."

UPDATE: I tried the ionic cleaner.  It did fine on some items, but I did have the nasty blackening reaction in several places, and the parts that turned black wouldn't clean up again with pickle, dip, or any other easy form of cleaning.  I finally got them clean by taking an electronic toothbrush and using it to scrub and scrub using toothpaste.  Then I threw out the ionic cleaner.  More trouble to clean up the black parts than to just lightly scrub the entire piece with the cheapo electric toothbrush and toothpaste.

Then, there's the aluminum foil method:  Line a pan with crumpled aluminum folk, then fill with hot water with washing soda in it.   This is the same as the "museum silver cleaning kit" you see advertised on TV.  This works well and is safe enough for pearls and soft stones.  You just don't want to clean anything that's been glued into place this way.  The tinfoil has to touch some part of each silver bead you want to clean, which is why crumpling it makes the process easier.  (Washing soda should be in the detergent aisle, but it's not so easy to find in many places.  If you cannot find it anywhere locally, Amazon has it.  I personally have not had huge success with this type of cleaning, but some people swear by it.

So that's it, that's what I know about cleaning silver.  If you know something else--because I am sure many of you have had a great deal of experience in this matter--please let me know so I can update this article!

Posted by thebeadedneedle on September 24, 2005 at 06:40 PM in Making Jewelry, PMC/ACS and Silversmithing, Reviews, The Business of Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Attention Wire Workers!

Pendant_1If you like doing wire-work, a new project is about to start that might interest you. It's the "Four Seasons of Jewelry", a project of the Creative Wire Jewelry forum on Delphi.

Essentially, you commit to making one piece of jewelry a week for a season (13 weeks) -- you can do 4 seasons to make a full year, or just do a season at a time. There are full details here.

The Creative Wire Jewelry forum on Delphi is a great resource even if you don't join up with the project. Lots of fabulous artists, all very helpful.

Posted by thebeadedneedle on September 09, 2005 at 03:54 PM in Making Jewelry, Wirework | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Beginner's Guide to Clasps

A Beginner’s Guide to Clasps

By AJ Reardon

There has probably never been a better time to be new to beading. Beads are everywhere, and the market is practically flooded with books and magazines geared towards beginning beaders. Not to mention all of the classes available, and the fact that there’s even a TV show to teach you about jewelry making!

However, it seems as if many of the tutorials geared towards new beaders want to only teach you how to do a specific project, using very specific materials. In my experience, there’s a dearth of material on basic beading supplies and how to use them to make your own stuff. If you’ve noticed the same thing, or if you’re new to beading and not ready to buy lots of books and magazines, then this article is for you!

One question that I hear very often from new beaders is "What clasp should I use for this project?" While for many people (myself included) the clasp will be hidden under their hair and maybe not seem important, a good clasp can make a world of difference! The best clasp combines form with function, being at once attractive and secure.

When choosing a clasp, there are a couple of factors you should consider. First is what sort of piece you’re attaching it to. Some clasps are great for necklaces, but not so good for bracelets. Next is size. You want a clasp that will neither overwhelm nor be overwhelmed by your beads. Another important factor is security vs. ease of use. Some very secure clasps can be difficult to fasten.

Clasps come in a variety of materials, mostly metals. If you’re making jewelry up for sale, I recommend using sterling silver and/or gold-filled or vermeil clasps. Nickel, brass, and cheap plated clasps will all tarnish or loose their plating pretty quickly, leaving your jewelry looking quite dingy.

I’d like to cover the pros and cons of the most common clasp types... after that, we’ll discuss a few other useful findings.

First and foremost - never use a barrel clasp. This is a very common beginner’s mistake. When I was new to beading, I loved barrel clasps. They weren’t too expensive, they were easy enough to fasten, and they seemed quite secure. However, barrel clasps can untwist as they slide up and down your neck or arm, resulting in lost jewelry. Barrel clasps are also sometimes called "torpedo clasps".

Spring-ring clasps are something we’re probably all familiar with - they’re the typical clasp on a standard chain necklace. While they are inexpensive and rather secure, spring-rings can be difficult to fasten. They are also usually quite small, making them inappropriate for bulky necklaces.

Lobster claw clasps (also sometimes called trigger clasps) work similarly to spring-rings. They are more expensive, but easier to use because they have a larger "trigger" and a larger opening to slip the ring or tab into. Both lobsters and spring-rings are incredibly difficult to fasten by yourself on a bracelet... but lobsters are a good call for most necklaces and anklets.

Box clasps have a collapsible tab that slides into a box. They are easy to use, and often very attractive. They start out fairly secure, but over time and extensive wear, the tab can loose its springiness and have a looser fit in the box. Many box clasps have loops for multiple strands - and some fancier styles even have glass or semi-precious stones set in them. Box clasps work well for necklaces, bracelets, and watches.

Magnetic clasps are currently very popular, especially for those who have difficulty fastening more traditional clasps. They tend to be strong and secure, and very easy to fasten. Most are plain, but I have seen a few designed to look like fancy box clasps. There are a few drawbacks to magnetic clasps, however! First, they can interfere with pacemakers and patches. Second, because they are magnets, they can attach themselves to all manner of things - your fridge, perhaps, or a shopping cart. If you use a magnetic clasp on a bracelet, you should stretch a small "safety chain" between the two ends.

Hook-and-eye clasps come in a variety of styles, including the "s-hook" which attaches to a ring on either side. They are very good for necklaces, as the weight of the beads keeps the "eye" settled down on the hook. They are not quite as good for bracelets, as the weight doesn’t come into play as much - and also the hook can catch on things, such as loosely-woven sweaters, long hair, and spiral-bound notebooks. If you are good with wire, you can even make your own hook clasps.

Toggle clasps are another very popular option. They come in a wide variety of sizes and styles. Some even have gems set in them. Like a hook-and-eye, the weight of the necklace helps keep the toggle fastened. Unlike a hook and eye, it’s less prone to catching on things. Toggles are fairly easy to fasten and work well for necklaces and bracelets.

If you’re doing bead-weaving, you can also use a button-and-loop clasp. This is one of my personal favorites, as it tends to add a little more character than a normal clasp. Simply attach an appropriate button to one end of your piece, and a loop of seed beads just big enough to go around the button on the other end. Many bead stores offer vintage and modern glass buttons for sale, and your local craft or fabric store should have at least one aisle of buttons. These clasps work great for bracelets and chokers.

There are many other clasp options out there, including velcro, snaps, and the ball-and-socket clasp. However, since I’ve never played with any of those options, I can’t really write about how effective they are.

When the time comes to attach your clasp, you have a couple of options available to you. If you’re using thread, you can tie it directly to the clasp. If you’re using beading wire, you’ll probably want to crimp it. I recommend crimp tubes, as they’re stronger than the corrugated "crimp beads." If you can afford it, also get a pair of crimping pliers, as they’ll make a smoother, stronger crimp. You can just smash the tubes flat with a pair of chain-nose pliers, but that’s much less professional.

When using crimps, you can cover the exposed wire around the clasp with French wire, also known as bullion or gimp. This is a small coil of very fine wire. It gives a professional, finished look to the piece. Unfortunately, most French Wire is plated, and tarnishes rather quickly. As well, if you’re using thread, you must be very careful not to snag your thread on the end of the wire, or you will pull the coil apart.

You can also use clamshells (also known as bead tips). You can knot your wire inside the clamshell, or use the clamshell to cover a crimp. The clamshell will have a little hook to attach to the clasp. If you’re using thread, you can tie the thread around a little bead inside the shell.

I hope that this helps you pick out the perfect clasp for your projects! Good luck, and happy beading!

Posted by ErtheFae on August 10, 2005 at 12:00 AM in Making Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (3)

La Vida Vintage

Vintage jewelry is always hot. Every year, the magazines show more and more. But what gets hotter and more popular each year is the flashy, rhinestone jewelry. BIG jewelry. Jewelry that, to be honest, most of us cannot wear, or at least cannot wear every day.


Here are some things I found on the web to give you an idea what I mean:
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But what about the more subdued vintage jewelry that hardly gets any attention? At its most basic, the kind of vintage jewelry I am talking about is the classic strand of pearls. And not the big strand of 18mm+ of pearls, either. Some older jewelry was muted, understated, and perfectly appropriate for everyday wear. Naturally, I cannot find so many examples of this type of vintage jewelry on the web.


I did find several of these lovely and understated tortoise-shell bracelets:


And there are lots of delicate, smaller pieces that are simply silver-tone or gold-tone, like this one:


So what to do when you're an old-fashioned girl but you can't find anything that's not big and rhinestone-filled to go with your classic clothes and antique accessories?


Why, you make it yourself!


"Pepper" Mentz, who runs Pepper Mentz Eye Candy, writes a vintage newsletter. In her first Vintage newsletter, Pepper shows a lovely pendant that is partially new and partially old:


But you don't have to start with something old. Even totally new pieces can be created with a vintage "feel". Just pick some colors you like and go to town! Create something new to wear with every classic outfit and you'll be feeling "up-to-date" in your "vintage" look every day. Here are a couple of pieces from my own shop that--although they are very different from each other--both seem to me to have a vintage feel.


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So have fun, and don't forget to show us what you make!

Posted by thebeadedneedle on August 08, 2005 at 10:44 PM in General, Making Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (3)

Swept

Carny Well, here it is. The project I made for the Clean Sweep Challenge.

Last winter, I took a metalsmithing class. I meant to bezel-set a lot of my glass, but I didn't learn how in the class and I toasted the first several bezels in one way or another, then made some I wasn't really happy with, so I gave up for a long time.

I knew what I wanted to do with this cab as soon as it came out of the kiln, but I kept putting it off. So the cab, and a coil of bezel wire, and the little carnelian stars, sat on my bead board looking pathetic until yesterday when I finally got it together. I am not 100% happy with it. I think if I were going to do another one, I would solder a ring to the bottom rather than cutting the back sheet to create the little circle.

Posted by thebeadedneedle on August 04, 2005 at 05:26 PM in Making Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clean Sweep Challenge

I was watching Clean Sweep the other day and they had this guy who had TONS of paper craft stuff. It was EVERYWHERE and there was no way he could ever have known where something was when he wanted it...if he even knew he had it. Even when they were done, there was a fair jumble of stuff, even though it was neatly boxed up.

Now, I am not that bad. But I do have a bead board (ok, two) that cannot really be used for beading because it's covered with stuff I need to put away, need to sort, need to remake, need to...well...deal with. I know I am not the only one with this situation. Lots of us have trays, boards, bowls, containers of one sort or another filled with stuff that's not quite "bead soup" but it's definitely not organized, either.

So here's the challenge: make something(s) using the beads in your "to deal with" pile. A significant number of beads in the item(s) must come from your "to deal with" stash (ie: not just a singe bead from that stash and the rest beads you'll have to put away later)!

If everyone emails their pix to me, I will post them all on a single page so we can all see each other's goodies! Shall we say by August 15 so that those who like to do complex work will have plenty of time?

Who's up for it?

Posted by thebeadedneedle on July 31, 2005 at 02:21 PM in Making Jewelry | Permalink | Comments (0)

What's That Metal?

Metals have so many different names these days that it's hard to keep up. What does it mean when the the lovely necklace you thought was sterling makes you break out? What exactly is "German Silver"? How about "Rolled Gold?" I hope this little primer will help you out.

Silver

Things that get called "silver" are very often not silver at all. If it says anything but "Sterling" or "Fine", or is not marked ".925" or ".999", you may be in for a surprise.

German Silver, Nickel Silver, Alpaca, Alpacca, Mexican Silver, Brazilian Silver, Austrian Silver, etc.
These are not silver at all. They are nickel, or nickel alloys. Loads of people are allergic to nickel, so if you find yourself breaking out like crazy, you may have a nickel piece.

Irish Silver
I've never seen this sold anywhere but Ireland, and it appears to be mostly pewter.

Silver Plate
A thin layer of silver bonded over a base metal -- often nickel.

Sterling Silver
An alloy that is 92.5% silver. In the USA, the other 7.5% must be copper, which is also true in Bali. In other countries, I don't know that the alloy is specified. I do know that a lot of people complain of rashes when wearing sterling silver from India, and I have heard that the alloy often used there is nickel, but I cannot swear to it.

In the 1980's, particularly, bright sterling was the fad and to get that super-shiny look, the silver was "rhodium flashed". The rhodium would prevent tarnishing, but it's also allergenic, so it tended to make people break out. There's less rhodium flashed silver around now than there used to be, but it's still available, especially in big box stores.

Fine Silver
Fine silver is 99.9% silver. It is softer than sterling, but also--oddly--more brittle. It won't tarnish nearly as easily as sterling because what discolors in sterling is actually the copper. Fine silver is gaining in popularity due to the introduction of "Precious Metal Clay", a product that combines microscopic bits of silver with a natural binder in a clay form. Once the clay dries, it can be fired in a kiln to burn away the binder, leaving you with a fine silver piece. This has allowed a great number of jewelry designers who cannot do traditional metalsmithing to work with metals.

UPDATE: Other types of silver: Coin Silver is 90% silver. Sometimes, you'll see silver measured by percentage, so a piece may be identified as Silver:80%, which is self-explanatory, but you may wonder "why would someone do that"? Well, in Europe, you'll often see an 80% silver alloy.

Someone has told me recently that "Mexican Silver", which usually means "nickel" as above, has another version, which is 95% silver. On that one, I cannot speak from experience, never having seen it. If so, I suggest asking someone who knows the particular piece in which you are interested to be sure what the silver content is.

Thai Silver: If it's actually hand-crafted Karen Hill Tribe silver, the silver content is higher than sterling but lower than fine silver. There's no exact measurement because it varies from piece to piece. These pieces are made with a higher quantity of silver because the copper alloy makes the silver harder to work with the hand tools used by the smiths.

Gold

Pure gold is 24k (gold is measured in karats, unlike stones, which are measured in carats). 24k gold, however is far too soft to stand up to the wear and tear of jewelry. The highest you see in solid form in jewelry is 22k, while the vast majority is 14k. 10k gold, which was very popular in the past (lots of vintage stuff is 10k) seems to be on the rise again, perhaps because the price of gold is getting prohibitively high.

Gold Plate
A thin layer of gold over a base metal, usually brass.

Rolled Gold, also known as Gold Filled
You will sometimes see things marked 18kr or 18kgf. This does not mean that the items is 18k gold, it means that it is 18k gold filled or rolled. The terminology is confusing. Gold does not actually "fill" the item. Rather, like plating, the item in question is a base metal coated with gold. The difference between gold filled and gold plated is both the thickness of the gold (much heavier in gf) and the process by which it is attached--the heat and pressure bonding of gold-filled is much sturdier than plating.

You will usually see gold-filled items marked "1/20 14kgf" or something similar which means that the 14k gold makes up 1/20 of the item by weight.

Vermeil
Vermeil is a plating of gold over sterling silver. This creates a different look than either gold filled or gold plated and has the additional advantage of being precious metal throughout so that should the gold ever wear away, the item still has inherent value.

I am sure I missed something in all this, so if you have suggestions or questions, please let me know!

UPDATE:From John Madsen comes this useful addition:
"Hi Laura - Was pleased to see your notes about the different types of metal nomenclature - a recent addition to the roster of metal variants is bi-metallic sheet - consisting of a relatively thick layer of karat gold hot-rolled (or eudecticallt bonded) to sterling - it is useful for fabrication where the artist wants to iclude gold in the design prior to finishing processes, which is when plating would be applied."

UPDATE II:This fascinating information comes from Abigail Miller:
"You might also add to this excellent summary the Japanese alloys shakudo and shibuichi. Shakudo is 4% gold in copper, and is used as a base for gold plating, and to get really deep black oxidized colors that contrast well with gold and silver. Shibuichi comes in two varieties, 15% silver in copper, and 25% copper in silver. Its polished color is a pale copper color. The 25% is useful for depletion gilding the surface when you heat and pickle it repeatedly until the surface is fine silver."

Posted by thebeadedneedle on July 27, 2005 at 11:41 AM in General, Making Jewelry, PMC/ACS and Silversmithing | Permalink | Comments (6)