Old and New

I had an idea in my head for some jewelry ages ago ... I went ahead and started to create the pieces and then stopped. The project sat there for weeks ... and weeks ... and weeks.

So long that the silver started to tarnish!

Finally last week I picked up the pretty fine silver circles that I had hammered as if they were being made into rings and then textured all around. I bought some really neat green - brown peacock freshwater pearls in a flat disc shape at the gem show the other weekend.

And together they make a pretty and (I think) fairly unique design. :)


Sometimes I try to force myself to complete a design but it really does make a difference to wait until inspiration really hits.

Sky High

The price of silver, gold, and platinum continues to rise.

My hope is that it will not rise too much more, but I am not a market analyst. What I have come to understand is that so far the market is not nearly as bad as it was in the late 70s and early 80s. In April of 1987 silver spiked 35% in just seven days. So far this year silver has risen 35%, as it rose over $20 an ounce yesterday, though it did take two months. It was down around $0.50 as of today though.

Remember that jewelers don't buy their wire or metal components at the market price. We may be seeing some sharp increases in jewelry prices - and not just sterling. Base metals also rise with the commodities markets. And Gold is just an outstanding $980 some odd dollars an ounce. Ouch! So much for me starting to work with gold anytime soon.

Some people actually want the price of silver and other metals to rise because they are making money. And predicting the market future is just as hard as predicting the stock market. And can be just as dangerous to those who speculate.

I'll keep buying my metal as painful as it may be - though customers will start seeing a price increase in my work. It can't be helped. I want to keep my prices reasonable but also have to factor in my costs.

As long as the U.S. dollar is weak, silver will remain high. Markets fluctuate and I expect that we'll look back on $20 silver as a memory ... though who knows when.

Hang in there!

Good As Gold

Why I couldn't have started playing with gold with the market price was a lot lower is beyond me. But now that I have the bug I can't help myself! I have started soldering gold and I absolutely love it. It's completely addicting.

I want MORE gold...but thicker wire. It's ridiculously expensive right now. The market yesterday ended at nearly $950 an ounce. The thicker wire is several hundred dollars per FOOT. Yes, one foot of 10 gauge wire is $429. Wholesale. Holy crap. And it doesn't get that much cheaper as you get smaller either.

I made these lovely (if I do say so myself) 16 gauge wire rings and even that was painful to purchase - especially because I hadn't done any gold soldering before so it was an expensive experiment. I only bought one foot of wire. It doesn't go far.


And then I decided I had to make some earrings. They didn't turn out exactly the way I expected. But I still really like them.

And this is why I work mostly in silver. As expensive as it has gotten it's still loads cheaper than gold. But gold is classic. And it's calling my name!

I'm Addicted

To Silver! And ice cream, but that's really neither here nor there.

Silver prices have been climbing for a couple of years now. I can remember buying silver at $13 an ounce (meaning the market price was around $9 - shops always tack on a fee on top of the market price). And now it's up to over $17 an ounce in the market (meaning if I need to order it'll be over $20 an ounce for me).

It's a painful change to swallow so quickly. There are several reasons why the price has gone up so much (as has the price of all metals) - one being stock market uncertainty. The market has been extremely erratic and I like to say it's bipolar...up one second and down the other. One day it's down over 300 points and the next it's up more than 300. This craziness breeds uncertainty and makes people nervous. The folks who invest stuff (yeah, so technical, I know) want certainty and start putting money in the metals market, driving up the prices.

Another reason is the exploding middle class population in countries like China and India. The more people who can afford stuff the more in demand that stuff will become. This includes metals. It's that whole pesky supply and demand thing - the less of something that is more popular drives up the price.

Will the prices go back down? It's hard to say but I'm guessing yes, eventually, but not as low as they had been. The markets generally go up over the long term, and as the stock market goes up the metal market goes down. The supply issue though probably won't go away. As the gold market has gotten crazy expensive more people turn to silver, not to mention the increased populations.

So my addiction will stay expensive no matter what. And look for silver jewelry to continue to go up in price as well.