Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The thing with Gold is...

My favorite jewelry designs are ones that incorporate a bit of Gold in them. The most perfect ring to me is a Sterling Silver ring, with a big beautiful chunky stone (maybe Aqua Chalcedony?) and a Gold bezel.  A co-worker of mine purchased a set of my Gold hand hammered bangles and just asked me the other day if I could make her two more! Of course!


It had been a long time since I bought any Gold supplies. The only two items of Gold on my list was 2ft of Gold filled wire and Gold solder. 


Just to put it in perspective...



  • Less than one square inch piece of Gold Solder: $52.00
{as opposed to the bag of pre-cut Silver solder I bought for $2.80}.

  • 2 ft of 12 ga Gold filled wire: $45.53.
Yikes. I will make the bangles this weekend and use up every little piece of wire I have left to use in other designs  (I can melt the little pieces into small accent balls)...but that will be the last Gold I buy for awhile! With my shop as slow as it has been lately *sigh*, it isn't in my budget to spend so much on  it considering it would make up a very small piece of each design. It is not a cheap thing to experiment with! I have burned up quite a few Gold bezels and could just kick myself for the amount I know it cost me. It is a good thing I love Sterling Silver so much!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Geez, I am so glad I don't work with gold! Those prices are exorbitant!!!

littlecherryhill said...

I just got my first piece of 9ct gold bezel and teeny bit of gold solder...wow there goes $60 on ... well on probably melted gold! lol...I am too scared to mess with it just yet. Isn't silver just the best?!!! :P

angela walker jewelry said...

LOVE the bracelets! Gold is outrageous in price. I am glad most of my customers like silver. : )
Have a great weekend!
Health and happiness,
Angela
http://angelawalkerjewelry.blogspot.com/

jennifer said...

yep, gold is kind of scary!