Sterling silver buttons are good for more than just closures on wrap bracelets. They also make versatile jewelry links and wonderful focal points in necklaces and earrings. With a little practice wire wrapping them together is a breeze and creates a wonderful pattern that reminds me of daisy chain necklaces. Actually, the entire design is reminiscent of childhood days playing outside and of rainy days spent inside raiding grandma’s button collection. While there is definitely something sweet about buttons, when you mix them with “grown up” pearls and gemstones they become quite elegant and appealing. Start playing dress up today!
Seven buttons all in a row!
Buttons as Links!
Rose Gold Charms are popping up everywhere on jewelry blogs and fashion magazines these days, and for good reason. The copper-gold mix of rose gold gives off a lovely blush hue that appeals to today’s woman who embraces color and ultra-feminine fashions. Some jewelry blogs have even dubbed rose gold “the most feminine gold,” and the “new must have!”
This trend seems to just be revving up, so now is a good time to incorporate rose gold into your jewelry line. Indeed, according to the LA Times, part of the appeal of rose gold is due to its exclusivity. Right now you just don’t see too much of it out there; it’s a bit harder to find, perhaps because there’s simply less of it being made. And, as we all know, the fashion world loves exclusivity, making rose gold super desirable.
For all these reasons, Nina Designs couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce our line of rose gold charms and jewelry findings. We’re starting with the basics and our most popular styles. After we see how this new line is received, we’ll build up our collection. What Nina Design style would you like to see in rose gold? We’re keeping a list of customer requests.
What I personally find very exciting is the look of mixed metals. I’ve always been a big fan of oxidized black silver with 24K gold vermeil, but now just the thought of incorporating rose gold into the mix sends me to the moon!
Silver, Gold Vermeil, Oxidized Silver and Rose Gold!
Rose Gold and 24K Gold Vermeil
One of my first creations
I combined a delicate gold-plated silver chain with a few small gold plated charms and two chunky black quartz gemstones to create the perfect earring for this year’s New Year’s festivities. I love the simplicity of these earrings. I think I found a great balance between elegance and fun!
One of my favorite parts of getting dressed up is to finish the outfit with the perfect accessories. Before Nina Designs became a part of my life, I had to search near and far to find that perfect accessory. I didn’t have the slightest clue what a wire wrap was – let alone how to do it! In the past few months I’ve learned so much about the art of making jewelry. Now, rather than hunting the stores for the perfect accessory, I envision what I want and make it come to life! Nina Designs has given me the skills, tools and inspiration to dive right into jewelry making. Jewelry is all around me now. I think, breathe and dream jewelry! How could I not? I’m surrounded by an office full of totally creative women as well as a stock-pile of silver charms, chains, clasps, silk, gemstones and more!
It felt wonderful on New Year’s Eve when my girlfriends complemented me on my earrings. My response? “Thanks, I made them!” Thank you Nina Designs!
Gold plate charms are widely represented in our collection. Our Vermeil style plating has a gorgeous finish that compares favorably with solid high karat gold. Occasionally we get requests for more Gold Filled items. While we do sell a selection of Gold Filled chain and jewelry findings, we prefer to carry gold plated beads and findings because there is a lot more precious metal in our gold plate than there is in gold filled items.
Gold Plate, Gold Filled, and Sterling Silver
Gold Filled findings have a core of base metal (typically brass) and are covered in a layer of 14 karat gold. Hence, the gold is “filled” with a base metal.
Industry Standard Gold Plate is typically a base metal core (brass, copper, nickel) that has a thin wash of solid karat gold. This type of plating has a layer of gold that is typically 7 micro inches thick.
Nina Designs’ Vermeil style Gold Plate begins with our sterling silver findings that are plated with a thick layer of 98.5% pure gold (24 karat). Our gold plate charms and findings have a layer of gold that is 40 micro inches thick and is considered a gem quality plate.
Our gold plate charms and findings are of the highest quality and are far above the industry standard. Try working with any of our gold plate findings and we’re sure you’ll become a fan. With greater durability and hundreds of styles, what’s not to love? Read more specifics about our plating here.
We recently re-designed our very useful tulip crimp ends to have more compact hooks and cleaner lines, and now they’re also available in sterling vermeil! The new sterling vermeil crimp ends have the same rich 24K satin finish as the rest of our gold plate items. This is exciting news because now it’s just as easy to create jewelry combining silk cords and deer hide lace with gold plate as it is with silver. Simply crimp the gold plated tulip crimp ends onto the silk or leather, just as it’s done with the silver versions. Voila – an easy, elegant way to finish a necklace with a gold plate pendant strung on a vibrant silk cord!
Tip: after the end knot is inserted into the tulip cup, pinch two petals together a little bit, then the other two, then back to the first two, etc. until you’ve closed the tulip as tight as possible. If the first two petals are closed completely in the first pinch, there is no space left for the other two petals to neatly fit into the tulip when they’re pinched closed.
New gold plate tulip end caps neatly finish deerhide leather cord.
This gold plate tulip end crimp has a hook and eye built in - so easy to complete a necklace!
Gold Plate Vermeil jewelry parts continue to grow as an overall percentage of our sales. It seems like every week we are sending off larger and larger boxes of silver to be plated. Last week it was a 20 lb box of silver! We love the look of the 24k satin finish and we have a number of styles that sell better in gold than in the original silver version.
Gold Plate Vermeil Style rejects that did not pass our Quality Control. We send rejects to a refinery for melting so we can at least retrieve the raw silver for re-use.
However, we also experience quite a bit of loss in the plating process. We quality control every gold plate item before we put it into office stock. Gold styles may be rejected because they physically break during plating; because the satin finish has a rough, almost sticky-looking surface; because the items have black “gunk” in the crevices that cannot be removed; or because the items have major pockmarks or scratches on the surface that are revealed after plating. Occasionally we’ll have a style, like S2460, a large puffy hammered heart, that looks fantastic in gold plate. Unfortunately, due to the item’s construction, it oozes a greenish blue liquid that dries into a crust after plating. After rejecting almost 90% of the stock sent for plating, we no longer plate S2460.
When I gathered my jewelry findings and gemstones together to make some jewelry for a summer wedding, I didn’t so much have a picture in my mind of the finished piece as I did an idea of what I wanted my jewelry to feel like – joyful and fun. I looked at my goodies, an array of colorful stones and luscious vermeil style gold plate findings, and started putting things next to each other. I had lots of ideas, but it wasn’t until I started wire-wrapping stones to links that a bracelet started to take shape. Black garnets and gold links formed the base of the bracelet while colorful aquamarines, rubies and other gemstones wrapped on headpins made it more playful.
Sweet Summer Bracelet
When I looked at my finished bracelet I realized what a great necklace it would make! Since I made my bracelet long enough to wrap around my wrist twice, to make it a necklace all I had to do was attach a clasp to a length of chain that would fasten to my bracelet. Doing this at least doubled its length so that I could now slip it over my head and wear it as a necklace. To give myself yet another way to wear this design, I tied a black silk ribbon to it. This way I end up with an entirely different third look – a luscious double strand necklace that’s even more joyful and fun.
I love how my design process evolved as I made this bracelet so that I ended up with a convertible design that I can wear three different ways. I am not sure that I would have made such an ingenious piece of jewelry had I tried to draw out my design in advance.
Click here to read “Sweet Summer Beads, Part One.”
Sweet Summer Necklace
Double Strand Sweet Summer Necklace
I just can’t resist our new shimmering silver bangle beauties! “>Bangle bracelets are one of my favorite jewelry accessories. I can wear them in a stack for maximum sparkle or mix them with our new satin finished, gold plated bangle to soften the sparkle and add some color. The great thing about our silver bangles is that they are ready-to-wear, so you can wear them alone or you can simply wire wrap a sterling silver charm, dangle or bead to personalize it. You can wear them with any outfit, dressed up or down. Our silver bangles are elegant and quite substantial in weight and thickness, so I don’t have to worry about it bending or warping. My simple pleasure is the soft chime they make when you wear a few on your wrist. For a future design idea, I would like to wire wrap a few together with a thick gauge wire and add a gemstone or pearl. They’re just so easy to slip onto your wrist and go out the door, just as I did today!
Charmed Bangle Bracelet
Mixing Silver and Gold Plate Bangles
Here at Nina Designs, we love our gold plate sterling vermeil style charms, pendants and clasps. We have been offering gold vermeil style items for over 15 years, but in the last 3 years, gold plate has grown in popularity. Many of our customers are requesting additional details on our plating process. Here is more specific information about our gold plate vermeil style collection.
It is standard practice in the Fashion Press to refer to gold plate over sterling as Vermeil, to distinguish it from gold plate over base metal. This is a useful distinction. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) defines Vermeil as 100 micro inches (2.5 microns) of plating over sterling silver. Most gold plated jewelry has a thin wash of as little as 1 micro inch (.025 microns). Our gold plate is 40 TIMES as thick, at 40 micro inches (1 micron). We find this thickness extremely durable and more affordable than the 100 micro inches mandated by the FTC to legally label products Vermeil. Therefore, we will refer to our products as Vermeil Style instead of Vermeil.
For our Vermeil Style gold plate, we use gem quality plating that is 40 micro inches (1 micron) thick and very, very reliable. Our regularly stocked gold plate has a satin finish with 24 karat color. The electroplating process uses 98.5% pure gold. There is a fine layer of Nickel between the silver and the gold to prevent the silver from migrating through the gold to the surface. The Nickel layer greatly increases the longevity and durability of the gold plate. What do you think of our gold plate vermeil style collection?
Sterling Vermeil Style buddhas add a warm elegance to these earrings.
Sterlin Vermeil style Chrysanthemum pendant.
