All the jewelry on this site is made of the metals described below, plus some pure copper. Each piece has its ingredients identified on its page.

Bronze:

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. The bronze we use is 92% copper and 8% tin. Bronze jewelry has been worn since very early in recorded history.

Gold Filled:

(Also "Goldfilled", or "gold-filled", abbreviated g.f.) A piece of jewelry with a layer of gold mechanically applied to the surface of a base metal like brass or copper, can be called Gold Filled if the amount of gold equals one-twentieth of the total weight of the piece.

Victorian pieces are likely to be unmarked, but later pieces are marked with the fineness of the gold layer, and the part by weight of the gold. In the Victorian era,  gold filled was often referred to as  "rolled gold."

It is created by mechanically bonding a sheet of 14K gold, using extreme heat and pressure, to a core of semi-precious metal, usually jewelers brass.

The bond is permanent and will not chip, flake, peel, crack, or rub off as seen with gold plating. This is a very sophisticated process and only a couple of mills in the world do it.

Gold filled wire is not plated and should not be confused with gold plating. There is 100 times more gold in gold filled wire than in gold plated wire.

The amount of real gold used is why gold filled items are always much more expensive than their gold plated counterparts. 14K gold filled jewelry will match your other 14K gold jewelry perfectly. A lot of people with metal allergies can wear gold filled jewelry because all that's touching their skin is the 14K gold.

Vermeil:

(Vehr-MAY) A substantial amount of real gold which has been chemically bonded to sterling silver. The finish looks so much like solid gold that, except for the price, it is difficult to tell the difference.  Unlike gold filled, there is no absolute standard  for vermeil.  For the most part,  the amount  of gold is expected to  significantly exceed  that of gold plating.

Sterling Silver and Argentium Sterling Silver:

Sterling silver is not pure silver. Instead, it is 92.5 percent silver. In traditional sterling silver, the additive is copper.

In Argentium silver, a relatively new alloy, its additive is not all copper but contains a small amount of germanium. Germanium is a metalloid, with some of the properties of a metal. Argentium silver still contains 92.5 percent silver, and is considered Sterling Silver.

Argentium has some wonderful properties that sterling does not have. For example, it tarnishes very slowly: virtually not at all. It always looks new and fresh. I am using Argentium in much of my current work.

Fine Silver

Fine silver (99 per cent silver) is often used as a bezel and has other special uses, but for the strength required of certain chains, rings, bracelets and necklaces, sterling silver is more practical than fine silver.

That being said, fine silver has many uses depending on the requirements of the components. More about these metals can be found at The Society of American Silversmiths.