Buying jewelry can be confusing – there are so many metals used to make jewelry, and most people don’t know what the various metal names mean. I’ve created a list of some of the most commonly used metals for jewelry, and added a bit of information about each one. This is by no means a complete list, since *any* metal can be used to make jewelry, but it covers the metals I see being used most frequently in handmade jewelry.

Sterling silver is a commonly used form of silver in jewelry making. It consists of 92.5% pure silver alloyed with 7.5% other metals. In the United States, an alloy that is 92.5% silver can be called sterling silver, regardless of what the other 7.5% is; however, the standard alloy is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.

There are several non-standard alloys of sterling silver on the market today. These alloys are formulated using metals other than copper for some or all of the 7.5% that is not silver, and are usually intended to be more tarnish resistant than the standard silver-copper alloy.

One of these alloys is argentium sterling silver, which has a very small amount of germanium mixed with the copper. Argentium resists tarnish better than regular sterling silver, and in addition has some properties that (in my opinion) make it a better alloy to work with when doing torch work. It costs a bit more than regular sterling silver, because germanium is expensive — luckily for jewelry makers, the amount of germanium used is very small, so it isn’t a huge price difference.

Fine silver is 99.9% pure silver, which has not been alloyed with any other metals. It is softer than sterling silver, and therefore not suitable for certain jewelry applications, but it has a beautiful color and as a jewelry maker, I have to say it is wonderful to work with using a torch. Fine silver is a little bit more expensive than sterling silver, generally costing about as much as argentium silver.

Silver metal clay, which is sold under a few different brand names, is a form of fine silver in which ultrafine particles of silver are mixed with an organic binder, and can be worked on like clay (hence the name). Metal clay has to be fired, using either a kiln or a torch, and because the organic binder burns off during the firing process, it will shrink a bit when it is fired. How much shrinkage occurs depends a lot on the brand and variety of clay used. Once metal clay has been properly fired, the resulting metal is 99.9% pure silver – in other words, fine silver. It is more expensive than other types of silver, but allows designers many options for their creativity that would be far more labor intensive, if not impossible, using solid silver to start with. Jewelry designs made with metal clay often feature intricate textures and shapes. Metal clay is also available for some other metals, including gold and bronze.

Gold – 10k, 12k, 14k, 18k, and 22k are commonly used in jewelry. Gold jewelry is generally referred to by a number followed by “k” which stands for karat. The higher the number, the higher the actual gold content. 24k is pure gold, and like fine silver, is quite soft. Many people consider 14k gold to be the lowest gold content that should be used in fine gold jewelry. Higher karat golds, such as 18k and 22k, tend to have a richer gold color than lower karat alloys. They are also more expensive due to the higher actual gold content. The part of the gold that isn’t actual gold might be copper, zinc, silver, or other metals. There are many different alloys, resulting in a lot of color variation, from rose gold to green gold to white gold.

Gold filled and vermeil – These two metals are not primarily gold, but incorporate some gold and look like gold. Gold filled is created by bonding a thin layer of gold to a brass core. Vermeil is gold plated sterling silver. There are significant differences between the two. Although gold filled metal is primarily brass, the layer of gold must equal 1/20th of the total weight of the metal if it is labeled 14/20 gf, and the gold layer in that case is 14 karat gold (14/10 would mean 1/10th of the metal is 14k gold, and 12/20 would mean that 1/20th of the metal is 12k gold). Gold plated metal, such as vermeil, on the other hand, can be a nearly microscopic layer of actual gold, and is frequently 24 karat. Both gold fill and vermeil do have some inherent value – in the case of gold fill, because there is some actual gold content, and in the case of vermeil, because it is sterling silver underneath the gold plating, and sterling silver is a precious metal (although much less expensive than gold).

Continue to Common Metals Used in Jewelry Making Part 2