The main alloys used in jewelry should be well known, because when evaluating any jewel in quality, having knowledge in the area is important for any lover interested in the techniques of turning minerals into art to use.
First, we must know what an alloy is, which is nothing more than a process consisting of combining metallic properties to obtain a piece resulting from two or more metallic elements, being the bronze one of the first alloys that the human being discovered, resulting from the union of copper and tin.
The oldest copper object that is currently registered, is an oval pendant that was found in Iran, that dating from 9.500 BC, but it was not until 3.000 years after the use of this alloy was common, for the creation of different objects, in addition to gold to make jewelry and ornaments.
Today, alloys of non-precious metals are very common in jewelry, such as brass, resulting from copper and zinc, quite pleasant because it does not lose its original color after prolonged use.
A determining factor that is sought when creating jewelry, is durability, so noble metals are chosen for this, among which there are cases in which these do not combine all the mechanical qualities to perform any work of jewelry or goldsmithing, for what to resort to the alloys became usual to solve this important detail.
Today, the most beautiful jewels are delicately crafted with precious metals of various kinds, in which gold, silver, rhodium, palladium, and platinum are the elements used to make them; being gold the favorite one despite its quality of being very soft and malleable, so to be used more easily in jewelry, it is usually joined with other metals, such as copper, nickel, silver and zinc, to have a more solid and resistant piece of result thanks to the mixture of the alloy, which will determine the resulting color according to the percentages of each metal involved in it.
In this same way, it is important to note that the most often colors used in jewelry are white gold, resulting from joining gold with some white metal, such as silver, nickel or palladium; besides the rose gold that is obtained from the union of gold with copper.
Finally we cannot ignore sterling silver, which is made up of 92.5% pure silver and the rest of copper, in this brief tour of the most used alloys in the world of jewelry, in which to ensure the beauty, usefulness and durability of the piece, selecting the perfect alloy for each design, is a decisive fact when creating that work of art.
ALFA