So what makes yellow gold yellow, rose gold red, and white gold white?
All the difference is in the mixture of the extra metals added to the pure gold and the ratio between them.
In yellow gold, copper and silver are added to the pure gold, usually in equal proportions.
In pink or red gold a lot of copper is added and a little, if any, silver.
White gold has several options - if you add palladium and silver, it creates a soft gold that is easy to process and does not cause allergies.
If you add nickel, copper and zinc it creates hard gold, which is difficult to process. Sometimes this alloy causes allergies because of the nickel.
White gold is not really completely white, but a bit yellowish, so it is common for white gold jewelry to add a rhodium plating that gives it the white color.
I have attached below a picture of one of my models in different colors of 14K gold- on the front it is yellow gold, in the middle white gold, and on the back pink gold.
]]>This means that they bend and get scratched very easily.
So if you make a ring of pure gold the ring will get scratched and deformed from every blow it gets and in the end it will completely deform.
And so are earrings, bracelets or pendants.
What makes silver or gold durable and suitable for making jewelry is mixing them with other metals.
Silver jewelry is usually made of sterling silver.
It is a mixture that is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals like copper.
Gold has different options-
There is 24K gold which is pure gold, which jewelry is usualy not made of, because of the reasons I stated before.
18k gold is customary to make luxury jewelry and it's a mixture of 75% pure gold, and 25% of other metals. This gold is still a bit soft (but not too much) and has a nice dark yellow hue.
The stamp on jewelry made of such gold is 18K or 750 (derived from the 75% pure gold it contains).
There is also 14K gold, which most gold jewelry in the market are made. This alloy has 58.5% pure gold and 42.5% of other metals.
It has a lighter yellow color and harder than 18K gold.
The stamp of such gold is 14K or 585 ( which stands for the 58.5% pure gold it contains).
There are also cheaper jewelry that are made of 9K gold which has 37.5% pure gold and 62.5% other metals.
So keep this in mind when you see a commercial about "pure" silver or gold jewelry because not all "pure" is good.
We do not have a solar panel for electricity and we do not produce household compost.
I do sort the garbage and put it in different bins by type.
Instead of buying plastic water bottles we use a water filtration system, although personaly I could drink straight from the tap but my husband insisted : )
And I made my kids quit with the plastic straws.
But apart from the personal aspect, I can also help some in the proffessional angle, like introducing you to the enviormantal benefits of lab diamonds.
If you think they're like a cubic zirconas, they're not.
The lab diamonds are 100% real diamonds, but instead of being mined from the ground, they are made in laboratories.
Carbon atoms are placed in machines under extreme pressure and temperature until the lab diamonds grow.
Real magic!
And why is this good for the environment?
Traditional diamond mining from the ground is something that causes a lot of environmental damage.
Huge mines are dug and destroy the habitat of animals and plants, and there is extensive use of polluting machines like tractors and trucks that collect the soil and filter it to find diamonds..
I have attached a picture so you can see what I mean. Note the size of the diamond mine in Russia compared to the size of the houses around it.
The traditional diamond industry does not want you to see or think about these images.
Diamond growing laboratories also have some level of pollution, of course, but it is not in the same dimensions.
Another advantage that lab diamonds have is that they are cheaper than real diamonds because their manufacturing process is cheaper, but they have exactly the same qualities as real diamonds.
So the next time you feel like buying a diamond, look for the green alternative - the lab diamond.
Here's the perfect solution!
You can buy a gift voucher and send it through email, Whatsapp, or even print it in your home computer, and give it as a gift.
You can choose to give 50$, 75$, 100$ ... and up to 350$
The recipient will be able to choose for themselves which jewel they love the most and will get the gift credit on their order by entering the code that is written on the voucher.
The gift voucher is valid for 24 months after the purchase date.
The gift voucher will be sent to your email up to 3 business days after it was ordered.
The picture above is an example of how the gift voucher will look like. It will have the amount you paid for written on top, instead of the 300$, of course.
Click here to go to the Gift Voucher Category in my shop:
]]>I walked that way pretty much all the time during the treatments, and even when the treatments were over and I was able to grow my hair, I decided to keep shaving my head and did so for an extra year.
I owe my bald head the credit for my business's success.
Why?
Because thanks to it, I thought of the helix design that made my business a success a few years later.
Since there was no hair to hide my ears, I wanted to design myself a special statement earring for the helix piercing I had since I was 18.
I drew a few sketches and finally thought of a design in the shape of a stem with seven leaves.
I attached below the picture of the earring with my bald head as a background.
Above- Me chilling with my bald head : )
I received a lot of compliments on the earring from people around me, but I didn't think about it beyond that, because after being cured of the disease, I continued my work as a goldsmith at a gold and diamond jewelry factory.
Despite the dream of making and selling my own jewelry, I was afraid to take the first step. I was comfortable with a regular salary and nice people I worked with.
But during the illness and the treatments, I had time to think and change my perspective on life. I realized that my time in the world was limited, and if I wanted to fulfill my dream, I'd better get to it.
This recognition, along with an opportunity that came my way to quit my job after I recovered, led me to open my business at age 29, in 2009.
But the business did not take off as I had hoped for 4 and a half frustrating years. I had to go back to being a part-time employee as a secretary to bring home money, and not just spend it on the business.
Then came the time of the leaf earring to do its magic.
I uploaded it to my online store, without having any hopes about it. In the beginning, it had a couple of sales, but not enough, but after six months, in one day, it became a huge hit!
At that point, I received about 200 orders from this design in a week!
I couldn't believe that such a thing was possible!
After a little investigation work, I found that the editors in Etsy, where I was selling my jewelry, had chosen to promote the earring in their Facebook page and Newsletter, and that's what caused all the orders
From that point on my business took off and I quit my part-time job to work solely on my jewelry.
As a result of this model's success, I started making more helix designs in all kinds of styles, and they too became a success. And so I continue to make a living from my business to this day.
What happened because of the Cancer reminds me of what my dad always told me – everything is for the best. What seems bad today will turn out to be for the best in the future.
Later on, I took professional pictures of the earring on a model, with a photographer and makeup & hair artist, as you see below:
If you want to see the details and price of the earring click here:
If you want to check out more helix earring designs click here:
https://shirlisjewelry.com/collections/14k-gold-helix-earrings
]]>I started getting questions from customers about the wings ear cuff you can see below.
They asked me if this was the ear cuff worn by Clare Bowen ( Scarlett O'Connor ) in the television series NASHVILLE.
I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with this tv show because I have such a busy life ( with the business, two small kids and aging parents ) that I don't have time to watch almost any television at all.
A the beginning, I thought it was a mistake, and that it was probably just something similar to it.
But after getting questioned a couple of times my husband decided to look for pictures of her in Google, and he found that she did wear my ear cuff in the show!
I was so excited and honored by this!
Here you can see the Instagram post where Clare wrote that she got the ear cuff from me:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf3lIEnAVGF/?igshid=15iubvmhjtc4i
So if you're interested in the same wings ear cuff here's a link to this ear cuff's item page:
Here's a review I received about the Ear cuff on Etsy:
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Before that, I drew and sculpted and I was good at it, but I knew that these were not practical professions to make a living from, and also, after so many years of painting and sculpting classes, it bored me.
I thought to learn nursing or medicine because my father was a doctor, and my mother was a nurse, and biology always fascinated me, so I thought that maybe it could suit me.
Also because of this, I decided to do National Service in a hospital.
( In Israel, after you finish high school, you either go to the Army, or do National service, which is volunteering in Schools, Hospitals etc. )
In the admission examinations to one of the hospitals, we had to do an examination, and there, among the questions, was the question that led me to a new direction in life.
They asked about a future profession, and one of the options to choose from was jewelry design.
That was it-I knew that was what I wanted to do!
It's funny that I had not thought about this idea before. After all, I had always loved buying and wearing jewelry but had never thought about the option of making jewelry MYSELF.
I'm showing here some of the first sketches of jewelry I drew when I still had no idea how to make them.
After I had this revelation, and I had finished my National Service ( and realized I didn't want to be a Doctor or Nurse, after I saw in the hospital how hard they worked ) I looked for places I could learn Jewelry design for a degree.
The only options were Bezalel or Shenkar College.
The studies at Bezalel sounded too artistic to me, so I decided to try to get accepted to Shenkar College.
I made samples of jewelry from all sorts of materials and came to the interview, but ... I wasn't accepted.
It was a bitter disappointment.
I didn't know what to do.
After I recovered from the disappointment, I inquired about other places where I could study goldsmithing and discovered that there were also goldsmithing studies in WIZO in Haifa, close to home, but I wouldn't get a degree there.
I decided to go for it anyway. I signed up and started learning, and it was very fun, but also very frustrating.
Because I wanted to study every day and all day, but we only learned 2 or 3 times a week, and that was not enough for me!
I wanted to learn everything, and now!
I saw the students in the 2nd year learning how to sculpt in jewelry wax and I was so jealous! I also wanted to learn to do it ( there was no YouTube like today, so I could not learn it alone).
In the end, I saw that it was simply not enough for me, and I wanted to find a more intensive learning framework, so I looked for a place where I could study for a degree, again.
In my search, I found a school where gold-smithing was taught, but in order to get the degree, I would have to complete my studies at the university. I was accepted into the program, but it sounded very clumsy to me, so I thought to myself, "In Shenkar you learn everything in the same place. I'll try to get accepted there again. "
And that's what I did. Once again I went to the tests and to the interview and this time I was accepted.
Perhaps they remembered me from a previous time and appreciated my devotion to the cause, or perhaps saw a bit of talent in the work I had done during my studies at WIZO.
In 2000 I began to study there, for 4 years.
The studies were challenging, especially at first.
It took me a year to understand exactly what the teachers wanted from me, what design was. What good design was.
Until I understood that I suffered in the design courses. I would cry to my parents because the teachers gave me bad reviews in the courses.
My Father asked me if I wanted to leave. I said no, and continued. Luckily I was good at the technical goldsmithing.
The 2nd year was easier for me in the design classes, since I finally started understanding the meaning of good design.
From a girl who would get frustrating B- D's in school in subjects I wasn't really interested in learning ( even though I was a nerd and learned a lot for the exams ) in Shenkar I felt I had finally found something I was good at and I loved.
I had found my purpose
Would you like me to show some of the projects I made in my studies in Shenkar in the newsletters?
Most of the jewelry I made there was very unpractical, but very cool : )
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