Sterling silver, important lessons

Ag is the chemical symbol for silver.

It comes from the Latin word for silver “argentum”, which in turn comes from Sanskrit meaning white and shining.

Watch daily live changes in silver prices for your convenience when selling and making production work in your jewelry business.

Pure silver is a soft metal, like gold, so it has to be alloyed in order to increase durability and to properly “transform” it.

Silver is a highly malleable and ductile metal. This means that it can be shaped or formed (by hammering for example) and it can be easily drawn into wire or hammered thin.

Silver is a non-ferrous metal and it’s considered a precious or noble metal, not only for its rarity, but because it is highly stable chemically, it resist oxidation and corrosion and has a high luster.

To be able use silver in jewelry making it’s necessary to alloy it with other metals to make it “harder”. Learn how to alloy silver here.

Where and how do you mine silver?

The world’s production of silver is often found in other base metal ores like those of lead, copper and zinc.

By means of a refining process, they take out silver as a by-product. But there are some deposits of native silver.

When the Europeans arrived to the New World, they found large native deposits of silver in Zacatecas, Mexico and in Potosí, Peru.

Mexico and Peru are still (after hundred’s of years of intense mining) the world’s largest producers of silver.

Did you know? Silver is not only used in the jewelry industry. The electrical and thermal conductivity properties of silver are used in electrical circuits and in electrical contacts. Silver is particularly used in the photographic industry, which uses up to 60% of all silver production.

To guarantee the purity or quality of silver used in your jewelry is a sign or reliability and honesty; indispensable for having repeat customers and become recognized as a professional jeweler.

Learn about jewelry stamps and other options for hallmarking your silver jewelry here.

Check this step-by-step project to make beautiful and easy silver flower earrings, see photos illustrating every step, here.

If you want to learn how to melt silver metal go to this page to see a slide show.

How to make Sheet metal (and texture it), try this.

How to make silver wire, click here.

How to make silver tubes, look here.

References used: Bonewitz, Ronald Louis; (2005); McCreight, Tim; (2004); Untracht, Oppi; (1985)

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