Sterling Silver Earrings

Sterling Silver Earrings – Overview

Sterling silver is, contrary to popular belief, not 100% pure silver.  It is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.  It’s the copper that give it strength, and makes it very attractive for making things like sterling silver earrings.

Earrings made with silver, though not likely sterling, have been found and dated to about 5000 years ago.  Modern day sterling silver earrings can actually be made of a variety of different flavors of sterling silver.

Argentium® Sterling Silver is still made with 92.5% silver.  However, by replacing some of the copper with germanium, the new sterling silver was:

• more resistant to tarnish;
• more resistant to staining;
• easier to work with;
• more easily welded.

Silver PMC

PMC stands for “Precious Metal Clay.”  Essentially, the process of creating this silver material involves suspending minute particles of silver in an organic binding material.  Giving the end mixture a clay-like feel.

This material is formed and molded into jewelry ‘parts’, which will be soldered together to form the final piece.  However, before this happens, the ‘silver clay’ is put in a kiln to be fired.  During the firing process, the binder is burned off.  the material that leaves the oven is actually 99.9% silver.

The current state of the art appears to be the pursuit of the PMC technology to produce ‘sterling silver’ with varying characteristics.