Times are tough and we are all looking for ways to stretch a dollar, both as jewelry designers and as jewelry buyers. With the cost of precious metals such as gold, palladium, platinum, rhodium and even silver being so high, many of us are looking for ways to lower the cost of our materials and pass that lower cost on to our customers. One way to do that is to incorporate less expensive metals such as
gold and silver bi-metal, brass, bronze, copper, mokume-gane, pewter, stainless steel, aluminum and titanium into our jewelry designs.
I started working with silver to avoid the high investment that has to be made when working with gold and the other precious metals, only rarely adding some small gold details to my
metalsmithed items. This necklace is an example of how you can still use gold while saving money on your materials. The gold dots are 18 kt
bi-metal, which is 18kt yellow gold permanently bonded by heat and pressure to sterling silver.
There is also a 22 kt bi-metal that has a thicker layer of gold on it giving it more workability. Surface treatments, such as engraving, scraping, folding, and twisting can be used to accent the two surfaces.
Here is an example of incorporating some copper in with silver, making this necklace more affordable than it would be if it were made entirely of silver.
And some more examples of using copper in place of precious metals to make some very lovely jewelry.
Here are some examples of brass, another great looking metal, being used in place of the more costly precious metals.
And some examples of bronze being used to make some really attractive jewelry and accessories.
These are just some of the great durable and long lasting options you can use to save money either while making jewelry or while shopping for jewelry.
Thank you for reading,
Brooke
19 comments :
Fantastic Post - some many great points! Beautiful jewelry!
Gorgeous! Just loving the amazing work here. Thanks for sharing great alternatives!
Brooke, great post. Lovely jewelry. Thank you for including my necklace.
Thanks for great piece. Happy JOD!
This is a great post. Thank you for including our copper bracelet!
beautiful jewelry, great post!
Brooke great ideas for keeping the beauitiful pieces affordable. I've never heard of bi-metal, I must check that out. Great post!
Also thank you Brooke for including me in this lovely collection of jewelry.
Great post Brooke.
Just love your selections.
Nice post and jewelry!!! It's good we have choices with they way economy is these days!!!!!
A great blog with great ideas & great photos. Thankyou & Well Done!
Great post, thanks for sharing these great creations!
Beautifully done Brooke. Great photos and information.
Wonderful post!
Fantastic, timely post! I never realized the beauty of "alternative" metals until I joined the JETs and learned what true artisans, like you Brooke, can turn any metal in to! Pure beauty.
What a fabulous array of alternative metals, and some gorgeous pieces to illustrate your post too! I'm just about to try my hand at copper work, so this was very timely and inspirational - thank you Brooke!
Brooke, this is such a wonderful post! Yes, mixing metals is not only economically savvy, the results came be truly spectacular, as the photos here prove! I'm honored to see my necklace featured with all these lovely jet pieces. Thank you!!
Great article and some really helpful info.
Great post! And you chose some really lovely base metal creations.
:-)
Kristy
SAStudio
Great post, Brooke, and your jewelry is stellar--have been a fan for a long time, watching as new concepts emerged. Even though I do not work with PMC or metal per se, one of my hallmarks has always been mixed metals. Not only does it help with the price tag these days, but it affords many options in wearability.
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