About Our Rings
All of the coils for our rings are made one at a time, by hand. We then cut the coils with a powerful precision saw using an extremely thin blade. The result is a flawless straight flush cut so that you can produce exquisite jewelry. However, we don't stop there. All of our rings are then tumble polished for several hours to remove any minute burs from the cutting process and to work harden them. The final result is beautiful, smooth and shiny rings!
All of our rings are made from the finest quality half hard wire from a reputable supplier. Using half hard wire provides the strength necessary for weaving the rings into durable jewelry that will last a lifetime. All the wire we use is standard American Wire Gauge which is also known as Brown and Sharpe. Our rings are listed by their metal types, gauges and inside diameter. The inside diameter indicated correlates with the size of mandrel onto which the wire was coiled. All of our rings that are listed in metric measurements are coiled on true metric mandrels not inch approximations.
About Gold Filled Rings
Our gold filled wire is 14/20 gold filled wire. What this means is that the gold filled wire is 1/20th by weight 14 karat (14K) gold. 14K gold filled wire is a professional jewelers grade wire. It is created by mechanically bonding a sheet of 14K gold, using extreme heat and pressure, to a core of semi-precious metal, usually jewelers brass. The bond is permanent and will not chip, flake, peel, crack, or rub off as seen with gold plating. This is a very sophisticated process and only a couple of mills in the world do it. Gold filled wire is not plated and should not be confused with gold plating. There is 100 times more gold in gold filled wire than in gold plated wire. The amount of real gold used is why gold filled items are always much more expensive than their gold plated counterparts. Our 14K gold filled rings will match your other 14K gold jewelry perfectly. A lot of people with metal allergies can wear gold filled jewelry because all that's touching their skin is the 14K gold.
Care of Gold Filled Jewelry
Gold filled jewelry is cared for in the same manner as other precious jewelry. The absolute best thing you can do for your gold filled jewelry is to clean it with a Sunshine Cloth. This cloth is fabulous and is excellent for removing tarnish from gold, silver, and copper. Ionic cleaners are also excellent for cleaning any jewelry and are very safe for most precious stones as well. We don't recommend using any chemicals or dips marketed for cleaning jewelry as they are actually somewhat corrosive and can cause some damage or color alteration to your jewelry.
About Argentium Sterling Silver
Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. 100% silver is too soft to be used for jewelry purposes, so copper is added in order to produce a harder alloy. However, the copper within sterling silver oxidizes when heated, causing a purple stain called firescale just under the surface of the metal. And, as we all know, sterling silver eventually tarnishes.
Argentium sterling silver is a patented and trademarked alloy that contains germanium which replaces some of the copper that is usually the other 7.5% of the sterling silver alloy. Germanium is a hard, grayish-white, crystalline semi-metallic element. It is in the same chemical family as carbon, silicon, tin, and lead. The Argentium sterling silver alloy is 92.5% silver, 6.3% copper and 1.2% germanium. What makes Argentium so special is that due to the addition of the germanium it becomes firescale free, tarnish resistant, fusable, and more malleable than regular sterling silver.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please view our separate FAQ page for frequently asked questions.