Hi everyone! I’ve been lurking and learning for about six months on
this site. I am Tara Blokzyl a.k.a ( Tara the terrible!) from Maple
Ridge, BC.(about 45 minutes out of Vancouver) A little about myself, I
am a self employed goldsmith working out of my house, I really enjoy
my trade, and love hand fabrication best. I hope to join in this
site a lot more in the future! My question is: Have any of you used
green gold in your jewellery, and if so how was it to work with, did
it show nice color, and what did you use to alloy it or can you buy a
commercial alloy?
Green gold is available commercially from Hoover and Strong. We use
a number of 18k mixes that are almost green gold and they all work
fine. If you can get a gold and silver only green gold mix, it can
fuse nicely too.
Daniel R. Spirer, GG
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
@spirersomes
http://www.spirersomes.com
Hello Tara, Welcome! It is easy enough to make up green gold and it
shows a great color. You must use it in thick bits or solder it to
something as it is very very soft. The metal is made with silver the
only alloy. You can probably buy it from a large refiner like Hoover
and Strong, but it is easy to make up yourself. The biggest drawback
is that it scratches readily so that when it has been worn as a ring
a while, it looks pretty beat up. dants. Have fun. Tom Arnold
Tara,
I use green gold quite a bit on my pieces. An influential master
jeweler many years ago encouraged me to fabricate my designs in
sterling silver. Then, when I had worked out the concept I would
make the piece in 18 K green gold. Because 18 K green gold is 75%
gold and the rest mostly if not all silver (depending on the alloy
needed), it has the most similar properties to silver than any of the
other gold alloys. Therefore it is very easily deformed when soft
and annealed. It also does not fuse very well. It will, however,
fuse better than sterling silver, which is notoriously difficult if
not nearly impossible to fuse. Watch out when fabricating not to put
too high a finish on the piece until you are sure your done with all
soldering steps. With yellow gold I will polish hard to reach places
in advance of soldering or, prepolish parts with tripoli before
soldering (a bit of influence from working with so much platinum).
Doing this with green gold is a waste of time. Don’t finish with
more than a very light emory.
The color difference between yellow and green is, in my opinion very
strong. But I am very sensitive to color differences. Green gold
next to yellow makes yellow look somewhat red. Some of my clients do
not like the color of green gold. Yet, I have found that if a client
doesn’t have a yellow gold piece of jewelry to compare the green
with, or if they view it up against platinum or palladium white gold,
they have a difficult time perceiving the fact that they are looking
at green rather than yellow gold.
As far as alloying gold, I prefer to alloy my own when I have time or
if I want something that has a subtler or more dramatic color.
However, for most uses the commercial available green gold stock is
fine. If you’re intent on making your own alloy check out “jewelry
concepts and technology” by Untracht. There are 4 alloys listed for
green gold though 2 of them use cadmium (scary).
Hope this is helpful,
Larry Seiger
JA Certified Master Bench Jeweler
Hi everyone! I have a green gold question also. I worked with a
designer for a couple of years who used 18K green gold for
everything. It was very pretty. Problem: The desiner/jeweler and
another jeweler working there always used yellow gold solder. They
said there was no green gold solder. The solution to yellow gold
solder marks for them was to do a green gold flash plate over the
finished piece. I didn’t like this solution but was ignorant as to a
better solution. I noticed that over time that the pieces kind of
got a patina from all this, and I didn’t like the look. Pieces that
were around a while were eventually “freshened up” with a new coat of
18K green gold flash plate. This can’t be the way. Someone please
tell me what the better or “real” way is. Thanks, REBECA
I believe there are greengold solders available from companies such
as Hoover & Strong or Possibly Stern-Leach. Also try United precious
metals . Daniel Grandi
Hoover and Strong does sell an 18 K green gold hard solder. However,
it is the only grade they sell, no med or easy. I believe you can
also find recipies for various colored gold solders in Untracht’s
book and others.
Larry Seiger
JA Certified Master Bench Jeweler
Anyone can share experience re. enameling on Green Gold?