Silver jewelry is one of the most stunning and versatile types of jewelry available. Silversmiths have been around for thousands of years – but what is their secret?

 

Silver has been used for thousands of years as jewelry, tableware, ornaments, and even currency. Over the past millennium, silversmiths have managed to produce sterling silver, which is the best material for creating jewelry. Sterling silver is a mixture of silver and another metal, so that the material has qualities of both metals. The most common metal to be combined with silver is copper.

 

Sterling silver is generally 92.5% silver and 7.5% usually copper. This has advantages and disadvantages. Pure silver itself is very soft and malleable – but is incredibly useful in other fields including medicine due to its un-reactive properties. The alloy of sterling silver means that it is stronger and more manageable, but the combination of metals means that sterling silver can be tarnished, unlike pure silver. Fortunately the tarnishing on sterling silver, which most silver jewelry is made of, can be easily cleaned.

 

Silver itself is a precious metal that is mined and is mostly gathered as a by product of refining other metals including zinc, lead and gold. The majority of silver is currently extracted from Peru and Mexico, who are the world’s largest producers of the precious metal. In order to extract the silver from other metals, electrolysis is used to separate the metals.

 

Once the silver has been refined, silversmiths can start work on creating the jewelry. Unlike many other metals, silver can be worked on at room temperature. Saws can be used to cut sheet pieces of silver to cut out patterns for silver jewelry, for items such as bracelets. In order to make silver wrap around a wrist or a finger in the case of rings, silversmiths hammer the silver so that it fits around set shapes smoothly. To embed jewels or diamonds, the silver is heated to make the decoration stay in place.

 

For small scale silversmiths, in order to produce items such as sterling silver charms and other silver objects, wax models using sheets and strips of wax are carved to produce the desired design. The next stage is to cast the silver. This is where the wax model is placed into a flask. This procedure involves pouring into the flask a solution similar to plaster of Paris, which sets very quickly around the wax model. The next stage involves heating the flask up in a kiln to a high temperature. This burns away the wax, and this is where molten silver is poured into the flask to fill the space previously occupied by the wax model. The flask is finally plunged into a bucket of cold water. The change in temperature is too much for the plaster cast causing it to shatter, leaving the silver casting behind. The piece of silver must then be polished to ensure its shine, and it is ready to be worn. Recent technological advancements mean that casts can be re-used so that several identical pieces can be created simultaneously.