White Metals

Hand-crafted Knot Jewelry:
Decorative Marlingspike Seamanship rendered in precious metal.

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For those who are trying to decide on what metal to use when the color they want is white, the following examples may be useful. The picture below is of two nearly identical rings, made with 18K yellow gold mixed with, in one case, pure silver, and in the other case with pure platinum. The ring on top, leaning against the other one, has a slightly darker, greyish cast, which is normal for platinum. The silver is a brilliant white, making a dramatic contrast with the gold. Note that the platinum will stay that color, though, and the silver could tarnish over time, though pure silver is less prone to tarnish than Sterling is.

[5X11, 18K and platinum, 18K and silver]

These two rings are also nearly identical, except in the choice of alloy for the white strands. My apologies for the quality of the photograph, this was taken with a "normal" camera and then digitized, and there was some loss. Palladium-alloy white gold, used in the top ring, has a much softer look to it, not the intensely bright whiteness of the nickel-alloy white gold that is shown in the lower ring. (Palladium is in the platinum group of metals, and thus resembles it pretty closely.) Both are very beautiful, but they not only have very different characteristics in the final look, but also in the actual construction. Nickel gives the gold a great deal of strength and hardness, making it very difficult to control during the knotting process, while palladium allows the gold to stay malleable, making it a pure pleasure to work with. In fact, the upper ring was so easy to work that I flattened it out into a mat by hand, simply squeezing one side while forcing the other side open with my fingers. It wasn't designed to be shown in such a form, so I returned it to its original cylindrical shape.