Jewelry Information

Handcrafted Designer Art Jewelry, Wire Wrapped Faceted Gemestone and Designer Cabochons Pendants in 14 Kt.Gold Filled or Sterling Silver.

Here you will find additional information about the jewelry making process.

Wire wrap is a Hand fabricated method of jewelry design and creation. It involves the use of tools to bind and twist wires together. Some of the tools used include pliers, pin vise, Swiss pattern file, wire cutters, ring mandrel, and a scale. Plier types include bent nose, flat nose, round nose, and chain nose, depending upon the look you are trying to achieve. Jewelry wire comes in many shapes, such as round, square, half round, triangular, flat, or patterned. Although square wire is used for many items, half round is used for wrapping ring shanks. Round wire is used for earring findings and bead rings. The wire metal type can be brass, copper, fine silver, sterling silver, karate gold, or gold-filled (brass core with karate gold on the surface). The gauge of wire refers to the thickness, which varies from 8-gauge (thick) to 26-gauge (thin). Some of the basic techniques include twisting the wire, wrapping a wire bundle, crimping or flattening the wrap, scrolling, and shaping.

What Is Gold Filled ? We guarantee our gold will never Tarnish!
14 Kt. gold-filled wire is made by forming a tube of solid 14Kt. gold that is "filled" with a base metal. The gold is bonded to the base metal with heat and pressure. The base metal is also gold in color and is made up of almost the same mixture of metals (usually a brass alloy) used to bring 24kt gold down to 14kt, 10kt, etc. The exterior of the product is solid 14 kt gold and everything you can see or touch is a solid layer of 14 Kt. gold. This is why it will never tarnish, chip or wear off. The gold layer on gold-filled wire is approximately 100 times thicker than gold-plate as and is bonded with heat and pressure.

What is Gold?
Gold is one of the world’s most precious medals. Pure gold is very soft, so it is usually mixed with other metals to make it stronger and prevent it from bending too easily.

When two or more metals are mixed together, we call the resulting product an alloy.
24K is 100% Gold, 18K is 75% Gold, 14K is 58.3% Gold, 10K is 41.7% Gold
In jewelry the term Carat has a double meaning: carat is used as a measurement of weight for gemstones, In the United States, when the word is used to indicate gold content rather than gemstone weight it is spelled with a K or Kt. to indicate the amount of pure gold present in the medal. I caution my clients about the risk of high-karat gold (20K, 22K, or 24K,) for gem-studded settings because the prongs can be too easily bent open accidentally, resulting in loss of stones. Alloys that are used in gold include copper, zinc, silver, nickel, platinum, and palladium. Depending on which alloys are used a variety of colors can be produced. White Gold is very hard and resistant to scratching but may exhibit a brownish or yellowish cast, also most all white gold has a rhodium plating to give it that high gloss finish which most people are unaware of.

14 Kt. Gold Filled wire is also known as Rolled Gold. This 14/20 or 1/20 Rolled Gold wire is created by taking a sheet of 14 Kt. Gold and bonding it through extreme heat and pressure to a core of semi-precious metal (brass). This is a very sophisticated process and only a few mills in the world do it. This process should not be mistaken for Gold Plating. There is a very big difference. The end result is a 14 Kt. tube, which is strong and very durable. It will not corrode, turn or wear off. There is 100 times more gold in 14 Kt. Gold Filled wire than in Gold Plate. There is also a US law requiring that any gold filled wire must be 1/20 pure gold by weight. My wire meets that standard. It takes 6 to 8 feet of wire to make a small pendant so imagine the cost of using 14 Kt. Gold... Plus the fact it’s way too soft.

What is Platinum?
Nothing is purer that platinum. It is even more rare and valuable than gold. The platinum family is composed of six elements: platinum, palladium, iridium, osmium rhodium, and ruthenium. These six silvery white metals are generally found together in nature. Platinum is not identified by karat marks the abbreviations for Platinum PT. If you choose the precious medal be prepared to spend a lot more that you would on gold.

Silver is one of the most famous ornamental metals, but its popularity in jewelry is decreasing because of its notorious tarnishing habit. Fresh silver has a bright-metallic-white color, but almost invariably turns yellowish to blackish upon exposure to air. This is caused by a chemical reaction of the silver to sulfur compounds present in the atmosphere. The only way to prevent this effect is to glaze the silver with an anti-tarnish coat. Silver should also be kept away from eggs, which are rich in sulfur. Tarnished silver can be restored to its original color with one of the many tarnish-removing chemicals.

Silver is very malleable and ductile, and is very easy to work with. However, it is poorly resistant to pressure and easily bends. For this reason, silver is alloyed with other metals to increase its toughness and durability.

There are different types of silver based on the content of other metals mixed in to the silver
  • Sterling Silver - Silver at least 92.5% pure
  • Britannia Silver - Silver at least 95% pure

What Are Genuine Gemstones?
Natural gemstones are genuine gems. So are other stones created by nature, even the gems that have been treated to enhance their appearance. They're "real," even if they've been altered in some way.

Heat treated - Said of a mineral or gem put under intense heat to enhance color or remove flaws.

How Synthetic Gemstones Differ
A synthetic gemstone shares a natural stone's physical, chemical and optical qualities. The difference? Synthetics are created in a laboratory. It's kind of like making a high tech batch of cookies—we know the ingredients and we know how long to cook them.

The definition of synthetic is material created in a laboratory using basically the same ingredients found in the natural products. Some synthetics have no natural counterpart. Synthetic gems have identical physical, chemical, and optical properties as the natural gem material, for the most part. An exception to this, is in the coloring chemical for some synthetics, which can be different from the natural coloring agent. Even though synthetics may replicate the natural gem, they must be identified and prefaced with synthetic, created, cultured or some origin indicator.

An imitation is an artificial likeness or copy, which could mean a synthetic material or natural gemstone. Imitations are not exclusively synthetics and not all synthetics are meant to imitate! Some synthetics are marketed as a gem in their own right, such as CZ or cubic zirconia. Although it should be prefaced, synthetic CZ, it is often advertised without the synthetic preface; it does have a counterpart in nature, but it is extremely rare. The term imitation is usually applied to glass and plastic although it can refer to natural minerals too.

The faceted gemstones consist of three main parts, the crown, girdle, and pavilion. The crown is made up of a table (large facet at the top of the stone), upper main facets (8, kite shaped), star facets (8, triangular), and upper girdle facets (16, triangular). The girdle (also known as the setting edge) is the section between the top and bottom of the stone and defines the perimeter, thus the overall shape of the gem. The pavilion has lower girdle facets (16, triangular), lower main facets (8, kite shaped), and the culet (small facet where the pavilion facets meet at a point). The eight lower main facets actually create an octagon shape to the culet.

There are two basic faceted cuts, the brilliant and step. The emerald cut and round brilliant are the basis from which most other cuts are based. A mixed cut would consist of, for example, a brilliant cut crown and step cut pavilion. Although new cuts are introduced fairly often, in 1988 DeBeers introduced new cuts specifically designed for misshapen or colored diamonds, called the sunflower, dahlia, marigold, zinnia, and fire rose

The step cuts have rows of facets that resemble a stairway. The outline, or perimeter, which is shown by the girdle, may be rectangular, square, triangular, kite shaped, among others. Long rectangular step-cut gems are known as baguettes, often used as side stones in a setting, while rectangular shaped and cut-corner or faceted corners is known as the emerald cut, often used with emeralds.

Brilliant cut gems have crown and pavilion facets, kite or triangular shaped, that radiate out from the center. The outline may be round, pear, oval, marquise, and more. The old European and mine cuts were forerunners to the round brilliant. The cut was similar to the round brilliant, except for a squarish outline (old mine) and higher crown, smaller table, and large culet. The round brilliant cut is often used for diamonds, believed to be first utilized at the end of the seventeenth century (Hurlbut and Kammerling, 1991 Cuts that vary from round though, have pavilion facets that do not line up at the proper angle, which results in light leaking out the bottom of the stone and a bow-tie effect. This darkened area in the shape of a bow tie reduces the brilliance.

What is a Cabochon Gemstone?
A cabochon gemstone is a natural rough rock that has been cut, shaped and polished.

There are five basic styles of cabochon cuts: single, double, lentil, hollow, and reverse. The general outline, or shape as viewed from above, is circular, oval, rectangular, heart-shaped, or irregular. The single cabochon has a convex or arched up top and flat base. The double cabochon has both a convex or arched top and bottom, with the top usually higher than the bottom. The lentil cabochon is a double cabochon with both the top and bottom curvature equal, rather thin and flat. The hollow cabochon has a convex top and flat bottom, but the dome is hollowed out and polished. This concave surface enables better light transmission in dark stones. The reverse cabochon, although rarely seen, has the convex top with a concave or depression in it and flat bottom

 Pearl Facts Information and Description
Long known as the "Queen of Gems," pearls possess a history and allure far beyond what today's wearer may recognize. Throughout much of recorded history, a natural pearl necklace comprised of matched spheres was a treasure of almost incomparable value, in fact the most expensive jewelry in the world.

Before the creation of cultured pearls in the early 1900s, natural pearls were so rare and expensive that they were reserved almost exclusively for the noble and very rich. A jewelry item that today’s working women might take for granted, a 16-inch strand of perhaps 50 pearls, often costs between $500. and $5,000.

No one will ever know who were the earliest people to collect and wear pearls. However, since ancient times, the pearl has been a symbol of unblemished perfection. It is the oldest known gem, and for centuries it was considered the most valuable.

 The wide and fascinating variety of shapes, colors and sizes of freshwater pearls gives jewelry designers the ideal opportunity to put their creative designing skills to the maximum use. The skilled artisans imaginatively blend a variety of combinations into exquisitely crafted creations. Different colored strands are elegantly strung together to produce amazing results.  Women have always been fascinated by the enchanting allure of pearls, the most precious organic gems. Is it because of their enchanting association with the mysterious deep waters?

Pearl is the official birthstone for the month of June as adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. It is also the birthstone for the Sun Signs of Gemini and Cancer.

An organic gem, pearls are formed inside mollusks such as oysters and mussels. They are formed when an irritant such as a tiny stone or bit of sand gets inside the mollusk's shell. A lustrous substance, called nacre, is secreted around the object to protect the soft internal surface of the mollusk. As layer upon layer of nacre coats the irritant, a pearl is formed. Light that is reflected from these overlapping layers produces a characteristic iridescent luster. This process of building a solid pearl can take up to 10 years

There are many types of Pearls
Natural pearls (made without human interference) cultured pearls (made when a foreign substance is intentionally inserted into a living oyster. This method was first used in 1893), baroque pearls (pearls that have irregular shapes), Biwa pearls (an irregular shaped pearl which forms in the freshwater of Lake Biwa, Japan), blister pearls (pearls which grow attached to the inside of the shell), black pearls (gray to black pearls), freshwater pearls (pearls which form in fresh water mollusks and resemble puffed rice), Mabe pearls (cultivated blister pearls), seed pearls (small, tiny pearls used in Victorian jewelry and sewn on clothing).

Where Pearl Gemstones can be found
Natural pearls have been harvested from the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Manaar Indian Ocean and the Red Sea for thousands of years. The coasts of Polynesia and Australia produce mainly cultured pearls. Both freshwater and saltwater pearls are cultivated in Japan and China. Freshwater pearls occur in the rivers of Scotland, Ireland, France, Austria, Germany, and the USA Mississippi

Mohs Scale of Hardness:  2.4 to 4