Sterling Silver Beads

Beaded jewelry is becoming a popular trend in among jewelry lovers. Some who indulge in this type of jewelry often make it as a source of living, others just a plain hobby. Sterling silver beads are among the popular choices of bead materials.

Whether it’s your first time to use a beaded jewelry kit or just ordering for your next project, it’s good to know the basics of this type of beads and why people love the sterling silver beads. These beads are made primarily, as the name suggests, of sterling silver. Sterling silver is achieved by combining 7% metal and 93% silver. This should not be confused with fine silver since it is made of 99.9% pure silver. While fine silver is non-tarnishing, sterling silver is often found to be useful for jewelry bead making. The small portion of other metallic element in a sterling silver helps manufacturers easily create different shapes and sizes.

The metallic component found in a sterling silver is usually copper. This helps the sterling silver beads more durable. Sterling silver though is not just used in jewelry beads and can also be used in other purposes such as silver wares, kitchen wares like tablespoons, teaspoon, fork, knife, plate, saucer, pitcher, trays and tea cups. Sterling silver is manufactured throughout the world and more often than not jewelry lovers would love to have imported beads for their beaded jewelries.

Sterling silver items are often marked with stamps that will determine its country of origin. For American items, jewelries and beads are often marked with the word “Sterling”. Sterling silvers bead from other countries are stamped with the figure 925 which means it contains 92.5% of pure silver and the rest is copper. To separate silver materials used for other purposes, appropriate stamps are used, such as the figure 800 or 900 which is used for making silver coins.

It is a good thing to always be extra watchful when it comes to purchasing Sterling silver beads. Several bead jewelry makers have become victims by cheap Sterling silver beads. Be aware and cautious especially to those who are dealing beads without permanent base or in short traveling Sterling silver bead suppliers. Their products might be of substandard quality or, worse, imitation silver beads. It is very hard to trace these dealers so it is advised to only get silver beads from reliable suppliers. Some traveling dealers are not also well versed in jewelries so they don’t have any idea if they are selling fake.

Again, different countries make their own Sterling silver so it is best to look for stamps. An international product called Bali silver is now making waves in the beaded jewelry industry. Furthermore, do not be confused with other foreign-sounding silver items like German silver. German silver is not necessarily Sterling silver made in Germany but a mixture of zinc, copper and nickel. Although others call it nickel silver, but in reality there is not much silver at all in a German silver.

To avoid getting fooled, scratching a suspected nickel silver with copper coin can produce scratch marks. It really pays to know the science of Sterling silver beads.

You might also be hearing items like Indian silver. Sounds great don’t they, but you will notice that Indian silver is heavy. The main component of Indian silver is copper and lead and there is definitely no silver in it. Mexican silver, ever heard of that, does not also contain significant percentage of Sterling silver and it also contains copper. Interestingly, Turkish silver is lighter and has good tarnish resistance. It indeed has Sterling silver, though not sufficient, and is combined with cadmium.

Now that you know how to scrutinize authentic Sterling silver beads, you can now start your bead shopping. Enjoy and feast your eyes on such brilliant Sterling silver alphabet beads or noodle beads. There are a lot of sizes and shapes to choose from so go and start knitting that Sterling silver beaded necklace.