What Is A Toggle And How Is It Important?

While buying jewelry we many times come across words such as toggle clasp, lobster claw clasp, leverback earring finding, etc. However, we might not always understand what the seller is trying to convey. If you are interested in starting a career as a professional jewelry designer you must first seek proper knowledge regarding the subject. One of the most important and fundamental things to know is the terminology used in this field. An aspiring jewelry maker must be familiar with all the tools and accessories required in making a piece of jewelry along with their names.

One of the many essential jewelry findings to know about is a toggle.  Primarily used as a closure tool for ornaments, toggle is a jewelry functional tool that contains a loop and a small stick shaped link. One end of the jewelry is connected to the loop while the other to the stick. The stick and loop get attached to each other in order to close the accessory.  

Toggles are mainly used in necklaces, bracelets and anklets. From simple to fancy, toggle clasps come in a wide variety of designs, sizes and shapes. Where a simple round shaped toggle can add grace and elegance to the jewelry, a bold and funky toggle can make it look trendy, urban and stylish.

Sterling Silver Leverback

Jewelry Wire and Its Use

One of the most significant accessories of any beading or strung project is a wire. Wires can be made from any metal — copper, brass, nickel and silver to gold depending upon the requirement of the jewelry in question. Wires can be used to make necklaces, bracelets, anklets and earrings. Using wires in a project is not as simple a task as it seems to be. Only a professional jewelry maker can use this delicate accessory to make alluring and mesmerizing designs. However, for an amateur a basic level of information on how to use a wire for making simple pieces of jewelry can be appropriate to start with.

Anyone can make simple yet elegant jewelry articles with just wires and some basic tools such as wire cutters, jump rings, pliers, jig, earwires, eyepins, beads, studs, pearls etc. The most important thing to consider before beginning a project is the material of wire and its thickness. These two things can be easily determined by knowing the weight and purpose of the ornament being made.

With the help of above tools and a little guidance from an experienced jewelry maker one can easily learn to use a jewelry wire impeccably.

Interesting Facts about Pearls

Pearls are a symbol of beauty, purity and love. Even a glimpse of these white colored blissful drops of nature can mesmerize anyone easily. However, their origin and existence is as mysterious and intriguing as their appearance. The tiny bright pearls are created by water mollusks popularly known as oysters. It is interesting to note that not all oysters can produce pearls but only the one’s belonging to the family of Pteriidae. Such oysters are also known as feathered oysters.

There are two kinds of pearls namely natural and cultured. Both kinds of pearls have the similar properties and value. However, the only difference between these two varieties is in their formation process. While natural pearls are created naturally without human interference, the cultured pearls are produced in a special environment, which is favorable for pearl formation, created by human beings.

Despite all the similarities natural pearls are more expensive and rare than cultured freshwater pearls because they are unprocessed and formed under natural conditions. Now to talk about their appearance, real and authentic pearls are never perfectly round in shape as claimed by many jewelry retailers. Also, pearls come in many different colors apart from white. Pearls not only add beauty to the appearance of the wearer but are also believed to bring good luck and harmony in personal relationships.

Beauty of Brass Chains

Brass chains have set new fashion trends among people of all ages and cultures. Brass is one of the most favorite choices of all jewelry designers due to its durability and flexibility. Brass, due to its yellow color, was originally used as a cheap substitute for gold. However, now the times have changed and brass is considered to be one of the most fashionable and stylish metals to wear.

Brass chains are very economical. Apart from resembling gold and being capable of molded into various forms brass chains are extremely cost effective. Such chains could be made in various different styles, designs, sizes and shapes depending upon the preferences of the buyers. Moreover, jewelry makers frequently introduce new styles and finishing for these chains such as matt tones, shiny, sparklingly polished, etc. These chains could either be used with a pendant or without one, as desired by the wearer.

Brass chains are known for their vintage look. Gold filled chains made from this metal resemble those made in the olden days using pure gold. Thus, more and more people get attracted towards these beautiful and mesmerizing human creations.

Types of Beads

Beading is a craft that is fast becoming popular. of various kinds, shapes and sizes are used to make artifacts, necklaces, bangles, earrings, pendants and so on. You would be amazed to know that there are beads available in various colors and hues that can be used for all kinds of beading projects and jewelry making. Listed below are the various types of beads that can be used in jewelry making or beading project.

Glass Beads

Glass beads come in vibrant colors and shapes and are very popular among children and adolescents. There are different kinds of glass beads ranging from Czech glass beads to lamp work beads to Millefiori beads to bumpy glass beads.  Do you know that glass beads are one of the oldest types of beads used since time immemorial? Glass beads are used to not only make jewelry but also to decorate serving bowls, vases and in fabrics to add beauty.

Natural Beads

Bone bead is one of the natural bead types that are popular among the youngsters today. The bone beads are carved out of the bones of animals. The most popular bone beads are made from ivory and they are very expensive. Jewelry made from natural beads add natural beauty to the wearer and blend with any outfit. Though originally, they were carved out of the ribs bones of elk. Today, the bone beads are commonly made from the bones of bison and water buffalo.

Wood Beads

Wood beads are used to make charm bracelets that are chic and stylish. This is in vogue among the youngsters. Wood beads are available in various shapes, sizes and hues. The wood beads are usually dyed in natural colors. These beads can be used to make necklaces, earrings and are at times used as buttons in dresses, mostly in ethnic wears.

Gemstone Beads

Another popular type of beads that are used by the jewelers is the gemstone beads. These beads are made from precious and semi-precious gemstones; are available in various shapes and sizes. The gemstone beads are popularly used to make necklaces, bangles, bracelets, earrings and pendants. The gemstone beads are also used as spacer beads by jewelers.

The other commonly used beads include metal beads, stone beads, pearls, and plastic beads.

Beware Before Shopping for Online Sterling Silver Chains

Buying wholesale sterling silver chains can be a tricky process. The increasing popularity of sterling silver chains amongst people has made them an essential part of the jewelry making industry. Today every jewelry designer opts for smart and wise shopping when it comes to buying regular jewelry making supply. The best way to find the desired supply at reasonable cost is to go for wholesale supply. A dealer of wholesale sterling silver chains not only offers great varieties to the customers to choose from, but also provides huge discounts to make the deal cost effective and satisfactory.

Earlier, buyers had to search local markets to find wholesale sterling silver chains or other jewelry making supply. Limited resources led to inconvenience for the buyer to find appropriate material. This gave birth to online wholesale retailing business. These days we see different types of online retailers that sell jewelry making supplies online. The buyers are usually offered great options on shapes, designs, materials and cost. Buying wholesale sterling silver chains could be slightly challenging from an online dealer. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before buying sterling silver chains from a web portal.

Trustworthiness of the seller: This is the first and most important factor one must ensure while buying wholesale sterling silver chains online. There are many retailers who run their business on unlawful and unauthorized grounds. One must always check the reliability and credibility of the jewelry seller before making the purchase. To verify the supplier for his business legitimacy one can ask him to produce his retailer’s license number.

Authenticity of the sterling silver chains: Many a times while selling wholesale sterling silver chains online retailers try to sell unauthentic silver under the name of original sterling silver. One must always read the terms and conditions carefully to understand the after sale policies and reputation of the seller in the market. Also, one must be attentive while reading the sales copy provided by the dealer. Sometimes they tend to play trickery by fooling people customers with words like ‘realistic’ sterling silver chains or ‘silver plated’. Every buyer must make sure to verify the authenticity of the sterling silver chains and the seller before making the purchase.

Quantity Matters: One must keep in mind that many online retailers prefer to sell sterling silver chains in bulk instead of small quantities. Thus, one must have a pre defined quantity in mind to qualify for purchasing wholesale sterling silver chains at alluring prices.

A thorough research on online jewelry websites might be helpful in finding reliable and certified dealers for cheap sterling silver chains. One must keep the above three points in mind in order to strike a healthy deal with the dealer.

Gold Filled Beads

Gold filled beads are coated with 14 karat gold. These beads are very popular among the budding and the seasoned jewelry makers. There are different types of gold filled beads available in the market. Gold filled beads are available in various sizes and shapes and are said to be jewelry maker’s delight.

One of the most common uses of gold filled beads is to be used as spacer beads in necklaces, bracelets and earrings. However, these days gold filled beads are used in designer wears. Gold filled beads are sewed to the end of the stoles, shawls and scarves. They add beauty and elegance to the dress materials. Gold filled beads are mostly used by Indian fashion designers on their ethnic wear collections. Therefore, there is a great demand for these beautiful beads.

Some of the popular types of gold filled beads include the gold filled corrugated beads, gold filled satin sandblast, gold filled fancy beads, gold filled round beads, stardust beads and many more.

Gold filled crimp beads are small and hollow those are mostly used to separate one bead from another. They are also used at the end of a necklace instead of a knot to help secure clasps. Another popular gold filled finding is the gold filled bead caps. These are fancy kind of beads usually in shape of flowers. It adds beauty and elegance to even a simple piece of jewelry. The gold filled bead caps are available in various shapes and sizes and these are usually used by the jewelry makers to prevent the two beads from rubbing against each other.

There are many online stores from where you can purchase your gold filled beads. Before you finalize on your purchases ensure to check out as many jewelry sites as possible. If you are a budding jewelry maker ensure to seek the advice of a seasoned jewelry maker to avoid losses. You can also walk into a physical jewelry shops to get the feel of the gold filled beads.

All about Gold Filled Earring Wire

Earrings come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and designs. They enhance the beauty of the wearer and are the envy of others. Teenagers have taken to wearing gold filled earrings in a big way. The market for earrings is flourishing and evolving very fast. A current trend in earrings is to assemble it independently at home. This way you can incorporate your own designs along with styles and preferences. It is the best way to have earrings tailor made to your unique and specific requirements. Alternatively there are a plethora of shops stocking the latest and fancy earrings. These make an excellent gift for all occasions.

A gold filled ear wire consists of wire and is meant for making earrings. It generally goes through an ear lobe. The other names given to earring wires are hooks, earring hooks and French wires. It may also fit in other parts of the ear. The basic design is round wire which is put in a curve shape. In front of the wire there exists an open loop to insert a wire wrap. Flattened sections of the earring wire are dubbed hammered ear wires. The types of gold filled earring wire include earring wires with coils. The more complex earring wires have bezel-set crystals, granulated beads and other fancy stuff. Precious and base metals are used in the creation of earring wires.

Ball and earring wires have a ball soldered on the front end. The loop of this type of gold filled earring wire resembles a u-shape. Sometimes a twisted wire with oxidizing is used as an addition to existing ear wires.

Earring stops are widely used to prevent the loss of the gold filled earrings. It is conventionally a white rubber cylinder with a hole in the center. It can also be made of clear plastic. They are great and inexpensive utilities for preventing the loss of earrings. To assemble earrings people use flat nose pliers or jewelry grade chain nose pliers. They are smooth on the inside and prevent accidental marking.

There is a dazzling array of inexpensive and well designed gold filled ear wire available in the market today. Contemporary ear wires exude class and are elegant and enjoy wide spread popularity. Hence it makes a lot of fashion sense to acquire a set of fancy gold filled earring wires which will definitely help you to stand out from the crowd.

Potential Threats For A Sapphire

Sapphires are one of the nature’s most beautiful gifts to mankind. It is believed that these mesmerizing blue colored gemstones are not only used as mere accessories for jewelry making but also possess a great astrological significance. The first Sapphire gemstone was discovered in the year 1929 when a group of cleaning workers found this bright gemstone while wiping the region of Mogok in Burma with a clearing brush. They saw a glittering stone covered with dust. On cleaning the dust from the stone they discovered the first 958 carats blue sapphire. Due to its rarity and enormously large size it was cut into nine small pieces out of which the biggest one weighed around 66 carats. 
 

Buying a sapphire in today’s time is not only an expensive affair but also a tricky task. In the large retail market filled with different kinds of gemstones and pearls it is very excruciating to find the real gem as there could be many retailers wishing to sell a fake or look alike gem at the cost of an original. Sapphire is one of the most favorite gems for such fraud sellers. This spectacular blue colored gemstone is very highly priced in the market. Thus, for a new buyer it is essential to either seek help of an expert gemologist before purchasing such high cost gems or at least possess little information regarding other blue colored gemstones that the seller might try to sell under the name of sapphire. 
 

Sapphire’s exceptional beauty and worth can only be threatened by three gemstones which resemble a sapphire in appearance but are not as precious in nature as the real gem. Those three gemstones are iolite, Paraiba Tourmaline and tanzanite. The color of iolite, also known as water sapphire, ranges from a pastel blue to deep blue shade. The alluring shimmer of this gemstone can easily mislead a buyer for sapphire. Paraiba tourmaline is mostly found in the mines of Brazil. Its rarity and rich blue color can sometimes even take an expert by surprise. For the Tanzanite, it was first introduced by Tiffanys in 1970. Its velvety blue color with a touch of red gives it very graceful appearance as that of a sapphire. Thus, people generally get confused while distinguishing between the two.

Apart from the appearance, the price range of these blue colored gemstones also stands almost equivalent to the original sapphire. While tanzanite and iolites would be less expensive than sapphire, Paraiba tourmaline is equally priced as the original gem because of its rarity and exclusiveness. Considering this every buyer must either be fully aware of the different types of blue gemstones available in the market or seek advice from an expert before shopping for a piece of sapphire jewelry.

How To Distinguish Real Gold From Its Pretenders?

It is an old saying that, “all that glitters are not gold”. Although it has many deeper meaning attached to it, but, its words indicate a very true fact about gold. There are many things and metals in this world that resemble gold in appearance while in actuality they are not similar to the gold in any respect. Whether it is bought from a local store or an online jewelry website, one must check the gold for its purity and authenticity with the help of a few useful tips given below. Some tests could only be performed under specific environment while some can be done on the spot while in the store.

Besides the fake metal that the seller might try to sell, one must also keep an open eye for gold filled, gold plated or solid gold jewelry. Thus, at first one must understand the difference between the three varieties of gold in order to buy the right kind of jewelry. The simplest way to find that out is by taking the gold to a jeweler and get its purity verified.

Besides jeweler’s verification, one can test for the gold’s purity using some of the mechanical equipments as well. One method is by using Electronic Gold Tester. The gold testing device can be easily purchased from online resources. A gold tester might come a little expensive but it would surely prove to be worth its deal. To perform the test, a clip from the device is put on the metal which is then dipped into acid. The tester then indicates the amount of gold present in the piece of jewelry. This test mostly gives out accurate results; however, the accuracy also depends upon the quality of the equipment.

Another method that can be used for testing the quality of gold could be by using a gold testing stone. In this process, gold is rubbed on the stone, which thus leaves its traces on it. Thereafter, a gold testing needle, which comes along with the testing equipment, is rubbed on the gold traces. The needle is then inserted into the appropriate acid. Pure gold would soon dissolve in the acid while the impurity would remain as it is.

Another useful test is known as the Acid Test. This test must be performed very carefully using only the prescribed acids, as some acids could react with gold and turn harmful for it. Acid test can be performed using the pre-arranged kit available in the market. One must read the instructions with attention and follow the process with utter precision.

Why Are Sterling Silver Earring Findings So Popular?

Sterling silver jewelry has become the latest fashion trend amongst people of all age groups. However, many different kinds of accessories are available in this metal, but the most popular and cherished of all are the earrings. Sterling silver also makes brilliant earring findings. Findings such as sterling silver leverback and sterling silver ear-wire are worn by people worldwide.

Apart from its shiny white appearance and cost effectiveness, there are many other advantages of using sterling silver earring findings over any other, such as:

Strength: Fine silver metal does not make the best material for making jewelry due to its malleable and soft nature. On the other hand, sterling silver is a very solid and strong metal which makes the best accessory for making different jewelry designs.

Skin Friendliness: Sterling silver like gold is very considerate towards sensitive skin. If you are prone to metal allergies, sterling silver earring findings are the best alternative after gold.

Affordability: Sterling silver findings are fairly priced as compared to many other precious metal finding such as gold and platinum.

Thus, it is evident how sterling silver earring findings could be the best choice for your next jewelry project.

Alternative Properties of Pearls

Pearls are renowned for their beauty and widely used in jewelry. However, there is another facet to them. Pearls are believed to have metaphysical and miscellaneous properties. In China, pearls are used to cure maladies such as indigestion, fever, bleeding, cardiac problems, eye diseases and more. Many people use pearl powder as a cosmetic and to acquire fair complexion.

It is believed that pearls foster the qualities of faith, loyalty and truth. The pearl beads also bolster personal integrity. Many cultures use pearls to help women obtain feminine energy. People who wear pearl jewelry acquire an inner sense of calm. Experts believe that the pearl aids in balancing the human bodies hormone levels and natural rhythms.

Interestingly, pearls are believed to be tears of gods. Hence the qualities and blessings of god are believed to be transmitted to those who are lucky enough to wear pearl jewelry. Religious books have mentioned the magical and fascinating properties of pearls. Ancient Greeks believed pearls conveyed the beautiful emotion of love and extensively used them to their wedding ceremonies. Universally, pearl jewelry is revered across cultures and many positive attributes are ascribed to them.