Greetings, Friends!
I'm excited for this week's blog, taking us closer to the intersection of nature and design. We finally get to talk about one of the world's most precious and beloved minerals. Gold is not only a mineral, it's a natural element: atomic number 79. What this means is that pure gold is completely pure: one element making the entire structure.
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Gold was discovered more than 5 thousand years ago in ancient Egypt, and the first known pieces of gold jewelry began circulating humanity around 2,500 B.C. It wouldn't be for another 2,000 years before we started using gold as currency. But from then on, we did all kinds of amazing things with this opulent material.
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We found (and find) it in ores, either in a pure state or in a natural alloy. Wikipedia is bold enough to advise that approximately 201,000 tonnes of gold were present above ground, as of 2020. Today in the United States, gold still exists underground in the western states. There are many places to pan for gold in Colorado's beautiful rivers!
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Because pure gold is extremely soft, most gold jewelry is made of some sort of alloy - a mixture of materials that help with the strengths needed to produce pieces that can withstand time. 22K gold, for example, is a gold alloy made of 91.67% gold, 5% silver, 2% copper, and 1.3% zinc. Gold is so soft, in fact, that a single gram can be hammered into a thin sheet that could cover an entire wall!
June Moon's upcoming artisan collection, coming in just a few weeks, will feature beaded, semi-precious and precious gemstone pieces with gold filled hardware. But what is gold filled? A fairly new development in large-scale production, gold filled pieces contain a much higher gold content than gold plated pieces, making their luster much more beautiful and everlasting.
Gold Filled vs. Gold Plated
Gold filled jewelry is a fairly new development that has helped artists elevate the quality of their pieces, if they were previously using gold plated materials. Gold filled pieces have a much higher gold content than gold plated pieces, such that the pieces will not lose their beautiful gold luster or tarnish like gold plated pieces will.
Gold plating involves taking an item, typically made of brass, and dipping it in a solution that bonds gold atoms to its surface. It's high-quality gold, but the layer of it is very thin.
Video Credit: Gold Plating Services
Gold filled crafting takes that process and add lots of bonded layers of gold: each layer of gold is bonded to the item - this is what gives the piece a beautiful luster and makes it tarnish free. All of June Moon's pieces will have this gorgeous hardware, finally bringing precious and semi-precious beaded gemstone jewelry into an elevated and sophisticated space.
We can't wait to share the collection with you in just a few weeks! Stay tuned, and we'll be back next week with another story that will bring us close to the intersection of nature and design.
Have a great weekend, friends!
