The popularity for silver jewelry is still growing. There are several reasons for this. First, the price. Compared to gold or platinum, silver is a fraction of the price. For young people without a lot of money to spend, this gives them a variety of choices without sacrificing style.
Silver is a very versatile metal and can be used in many creative ways in silver jewelry design. Silver is a popular material for jewelry because it can durable and can be finished in many different ways. It can have a shiny finish and almost made to sparkle. Or it can have a mat finish with dark tones. The actual color of the metal varies dependant on the alloys used when it is produced. Rarely is jewelry made from pure silver. Silver jewelry is commonly made with a percentage of other material added to the silver. This will affect the value of the piece. Some alloys used may even cause skin discoloration if the percentage is too high.
Silver is the commonest of the precious metals. Fine silver is pure silver, which is seldom used for jewelry because it is too soft. Sterling silver is 925 parts silver to 75 of copper, the alloy most often used. Silver weighs about half as much as gold, has greater flexibility, but is not as malleable, it has always been less expensive as well. A comparable piece of gold jewelry might cost four or five times that of a piece of sterling silver jewelry.
Care and Cleaning of your Sterling Silver Jewelry: For daily cleaning it is recommended to use a simple jewelry polishing cloth that is impregnated with special jewelry cleaner. These are widely available and are very easy to use. Store your cloth in a plastic zip-lock bag, and keeping your jewelry drawer or armoire. It is a good idea to have one cleaning cloth for gold and one for silver. For a slightly more "in-depth" cleaning you may want to use a liquid jewelry cleaner. For cleaning badly tarnished silver, here's a neat little trick:
A.) Cover the inside bottom of a heat-proof glass dish on bowl with a piece of aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Because sterling silver is so popular to all types of people, there is a huge market for it. Owning a silver jewelry business can be very profitable because silver is something that will never go out of style. Even better is the fact that you can find wholesale silver retailers that will sell you the jewelry in bulk for extremely affordable prices.
These days, you can even find sterling silver engagement rings, fitted with all sorts of beautiful precious and semi-precious stones. With a rhodium finish, a sterling silver engagement ring will look like platinum. You can also find other types of sterling silver items with a rhodium finish.
