Creating Jewelry
In creating jewelry, a variety of gemstones, coins, or other precious items can be used, often set into precious metals. Common precious metals used for modern jewelery include gold, platinum or silver, although alloys of nearly every metal known can be encountered in jewelry — bronze, for example, was common in Roman times.
Most gold alloys used in jewelry range from 10K to 22K gold (24K or pure gold is generally too soft for jewelery use), while platinum alloys range from 900 (90% pure) to 950 (95.0% pure). The silver used in jewelry is usually sterling silver, or 92.5% fine silver.
Other commonly used materials include glass, such as fused glass or enamel; wood, often carved or turned; shells and other natural animal substances such as bone and ivory; natural clay, polymer clay, and even plastics.
Beads are frequently used in jewelry. These may be made of many different substances including silver, gold, glass, gemstones, metal, wood, shells, clay and polymer clay. Beaded jewelry commonly encompasses necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and belts. Beads may be large or small. The smallest types of beads commonly used are known as seed beads; these are the beads used for the “woven” style of beaded jewelry.
