Argentium is popular for its working characteristics as well as its brilliant white color and resistance to tarnish.
If you're a lover of the amazing properties of Argentium® Silver or if you've heard anything about Argentium that has tickled your designer fancy or intrigued your jewelry-making soul, you will be fascinated to hear directly from the inventor how this amazing material came to be.
First, in this podcast from Middlesex University in England, The Science of Silver: The Liberating Possibilities of Argentium*, inventor Peter Johns describes how he was introduced to germanium (the secret ingredient in Argentium Silver), and the confluence of events that led him to put the material together with silver to produce the incredibly tarnish-resistant sterling silver that is darn near immune to firescale and firestain.
*Note: The podcast is hosted by SoundCloud.com, and you will be asked to sign up as a user (it's free!) in order to access it.
Once you are on the page, simply click the orange button next to the podcast title at the top of the page.
In another video, Peter Johns – Argentium, also created by Middlesex University, you will find Peter Johns sharing more information about Argentium, and also hear opinions and experiences from artists and metalsmiths who have worked with this metal about how they came to discover it and what it has meant to their work.
Designs in Argentium® Silver are durable and stay bright white.
And, while we're traveling down history's highways and byways, take this opportunity to enjoy again this post that debuted on The Studio in December, 2012: State of the Art: A Video with the Inventor of Argentium, posted by Rio Grande's product manager for fabrication metals, Kevin Whitmore.
Argentium® fuses beautifully with perfect color matching—ideal for metalsmiths.
The benefits of using this brilliant white metal in creating jewelry, hollowware, and other designs include a win/win from both sides of your sales counter. For you, as a jewelry maker, Argentium offers terrific tarnish resistance, is easy to harden (for strong durable designs), is practically impervious to firestain and firescale in the fabrication process, and is ideal for fusing (for perfectly-matched color when components are joined together). In the showcase, you need not be forever polishing your finished pieces—they stay bright and beautiful, glittering under your display lights. For your customers, who appreciate bright, shining jewelry, Argentium delivers that beautiful, unsullied whiteness day in and day out while requiring almost zero polishing and maintenance.
Get the story behind Argentium® Silver from the inventor of this I-love-working-with-it! material. You may just find yourself enjoying the benefits it offers you that much more!
