Metals

My metal of choice is sterling silver. Sterling is an alloy (mixture) composed of 92.5% fine (pure) silver plus 7.5% other metal(s). Traditionally this other metal is copper, but legally it can be any metal, so long as the silver content remains at least 92.5%.

Recently a new alloy of sterling, called Argentium sterling, has been developed. It contains at least 92.5% fine silver (so it is still "sterling"), and most of the remaining 7.5% is copper, but a small amount of the copper has been replaced with a metal called germanium. This small change in the composition is exciting because it significantly reduces sterling's annoying habit of tarnishing! To take advantage of this tarnish resistance, I have switched from using traditional sterling to using Argentium sterling wherever possible. The bulk of my current work is made with Argentium sterling.

I also use gold as an accent in some of my work, and mark these pieces accordingly.