White Coating in Jewelry

Silver has well-known properties in jewelry art. For example, it blackens easily from exposure to the environment. Sulfur and nitrogen dioxide and trioxide gases, which are present in the air as pollutants, react with the surface of the silver to form black compounds such as silver nitrate and silver sulfide. This happens especially fast on unpolished or matte surfaces. From my earliest work, I very much wanted to use this property of silver as part of the design process – using the contrasting white and black surfaces. This is made easier by covering a surface with oxide, a liquid sold in shops for jewelers that allows us to blacken the silver. The metal can be made as dark as you like, while you are watching it. The untreated surface (sealed from exposure to the liquid oxide) remains silver-white. 
 “Leaves” earrings with black and white silver surface. I found there was a problem in keeping this contrast fresh and vibrant, because white silver naturally darkens faster than blackened silver. If the design in a jewelry piece

By Special Request,or Golden-leaf earrings

Not my style, and the technology for making them is still pretty new.... But I never say “no” to a client’s request if it’s doable. That’s how these earrings came into being – an elegant set reserved for formal occasions.

They are made of super-thin metal leaf with 18К gilding. In spite of their large surface (hanging down a full 17 cm), they float and spin with every movement of the air. Each earring weighs less than 6 grams.

Natalie Shulikina - batic  designer .
 Sometimes it’s worthwhile and interesting to rely on the artistic taste of a customer. Especially since in this case, the customer is an excellent
artist herself. 

Gold-plated, gold-filled... what does it matter?

Being engaged in jewelry art for many years, and working with many different people, I have noticed that many customers – and even master jewelry makers – don’t always understand or appreciate the difference between metal covered with gold-plate (also called gilding) as opposed to the gold-fill process (sometimes called cladding, overlay or gold-rolled).

Both involve a base metal (brass, copper, or silver) fused with a top layer of gold, so the surface appearance is the same. But the difference becomes important for other reasons, as I personally discovered with my husband’s cuff links. More about that later...

There are two basic distinctions between gold-plate and gold-fill:

[chart – gold electro-plated]

(1) The thickness of the gold layer for gold-plated metal is 0.5-8 microns; for gold-filled metal it’s 5-120 microns (1000 microns = 1 millimeter).

Obviously, gold-fill has a much thicker layer of gold, which directly affects the price of the piece. In the two tables below, we see for example that a gold-filled bracelet has at least 10 times more gold (30-120 microns) than a gold-plated bracelet (2.5-8 microns). This is why gold-plated pieces are so much more affordable.

[chart – gold filled]



But you also want your jewelry piece to keep its gold look for a long time – especially if it becomes a favorite that you wear often! Notice the difference in the “life expectancy” of the gold-plated compared with gold-filled jewelry pieces in these two tables.

Add to this the fact that in practice, the thickness of a gold layer in gold-plate is often much less than what you see in this table, which makes the metal correspondingly less durable... So is the bargain price really a bargain?
(2) In gold-filled metal there is an intermediate layer of gold alloy between the gold and the basic metal (which is why it’s called “gold-filled”). This layer is missing in gold-plated metal.

Making Jewelry

Ester and Renata have gone on to study advanced jewelry processes. One of them is wax technique, which makes it easier to make patterns for delicate open work. I am very glad, and very interested to see what kind of jewelry they will produce with their new skills. Renata has always created large, impressive jewelry, while Ester’s collection has been light-weight, small pieces (though not open work). 

They invited me to join them, but I'm going in a different direction.

I have begun a line of Home Décor objects. I've started to do larger pieces of glass and metal that can be mounted on a wall. I used to fuse small slices, and 90 percent of my furnace was empty; now my fusing fills it to capacity. 

I can see that home décor needs a completely new approach, it’s a challenge. And I adore a challenge.

Touched by a magic wand

Under the fire of a torch, silver begins to melt and fuse like shining water... and its final form and texture depend on the moment when I remove the heat. One second, I have a small, flowing river; the next, it has suddenly fallen asleep in midstream. Frozen, but not with ice, it is suspended in motion as though touched by a magic wand."
THAT is "reticulation" for me! It is one of the most unpredictable techniques in making jewelry – thus one of the most exciting.
http://www.artleah.com/

Immortal Art

An ancient  art of  fire enamel, if described in simple way, is a mass of glass put on metal and then fired numerous times at a very hot temperature. This truly elite, rare technique provides a unique combination of the precious jewelry materials usage with a freedom of oil painting. Each work is so unique that can not be repeated even by the author. fire enamel pieces are practically immortal - some of them, found at archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, haven't lost their brightness and are  untouched by time. In modern days, only very few artists had master this truly elite technique.
Enamel miniature created by Asya Ostrovsky
http://www.artleah.com/