Blue gold - any pics/info?

[AGBF]

Don't know if you have considered PMC...Precious Metal Clay. It comes in .999 silver and 22K and 24K gold to which you can add Blue Gold Accents. The Blue Gold mix isn't stable enough for a full ring but different blues are available for adding to the ring once made with yellow gold. I don't know if the Blue Gold Accents can be applied to a gold ring not made with PMC gold.

Gold and silver metal clay is made up of particles of precious metal - pure silver or gold - held together with water and an organic binder. After a metal clay object has been fired with a torch or in a kiln, the water is eliminated and the binder is burned away. What's is left is the pure, precious metal - either fine silver (.999 silver, which is 99.9% silver vs. sterling, which is only 92.5% silver), or 22K gold.

Here are a couple of links:
Squidoo lens http://www.squidoo.com/metal-clay-brands
The PMC Guild gallery http://www.pmcguild.com/gallery/gold/gold.html
Blue Gold Accents http://www.jmiags.com/htm/accentBlueGold.htm

I don't want to threadjack, but the precious metal clays have fascinated me since I learned about them (which was when I was looking for someone to make a cupcake charm for my gold charm bracelet in high karat gold). I absolutely love the idea of playing with them! It sounds kind of like a grown-up jewelry lover's version of Play Dough!

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[Starzin]

I don't want to threadjack, but the precious metal clays have fascinated me since I learned about them (which was when I was looking for someone to make a cupcake charm for my gold charm bracelet in high karat gold). I absolutely love the idea of playing with them! It sounds kind of like a grown-up jewelry lover's version of Play Dough!

I know! I haven't actually seen anything made with it - except a.m.a.z.i.n.g stuff on the Internet. What gets me is that it does seem like "a grown-up jewelry lover's version of Play Dough" but during firing it sinters down to pure silver or gold!! Nothing make believe about it. Some people are even setting gems in it...middle mask below.

 

[Undercover999]

As promised, here's my results for the weekend.

I assumed some of my alloy problem were due to me being cheap and trying to use as small amounts as possible for testing - the problem, of course, is that this makes my measurement errors much greater on a percentage basis. I've also noticed that I think some quantity of the iron burns off during melting, possibly because I don't have good control over the oxygen levels in my torch. Anyway, point being, my alloy compositions aren't well controlled.

I remade a new alloy with 1g Au, 0.25g Fe, and 0.007g Ni - thats about a 19.5kt alloy and is roughly in line with that mentioned in the Muller patent. Recall that that patent called for heat treat at 500-600C (900-1000F) for 10 minutes. I preheated the kiln to 950F and set up a spotlight and a video camera to capture the color changing over time. Shockingly, the color change happened MUCH faster... as in a matter of seconds.

T= 0 seconds:


T= 5 seconds:


T= 10 seconds:


T= 15 seconds:


T= 20 seconds:


T= 25 seconds:


T= 30 seconds:


T= 35 seconds:


Taking pictures is really tough, but at 35 seconds it was clearly blue - not exactly the blue I was hoping for, but somewhere between the Friso and Muller samples in my first post. I pulled it from the kiln at this point, and it proceeded to blacken a bit from its own heat once outside.

My theory is that the color of the oxide forming is a function of the temperature of the sample, so the color changes reflect the cool sample heating up. I have no explanation for why, at 500-600C as described in the patent I am not able to produce anything other than blackish oxides - surely the sample was much cooler than that at 35 seconds.

Part of me wonders if the patent meant F rather than C? It makes the claim at least 4 times, hell of a typo... seems unlikely its a mistake. I dunno. The Friso alloy, for example, a similar temperature range, in C.

Anyway, I may try a few more things, but at this point I think I'm just going to use a niobium or titanium inlay to get my blue. I liked the idea of blue gold, but the cost benefit ratio kinda... sucks.

EDIT: The more I think about this, perhaps everything is working properly after all. The patent claims 10mins is needed for a ring. I'm finding that it takes 35seconds for a 0.9g finished test sample, which means based on the thermal mass alone means I'd wager about 15g of metal would take ~10 minutes. Thats a bit heavy for the ring, but when you account for the variations in volume-to-surface area ratio that might make sense after all. So maybe everything is OK!

 

[Starzin]

EDIT: The more I think about this, perhaps everything is working properly after all. The patent claims 10mins is needed for a ring. I'm finding that it takes 35seconds for a 0.9g finished test sample, which means based on the thermal mass alone means I'd wager about 15g of metal would take ~10 minutes. Thats a bit heavy for the ring, but when you account for the variations in volume-to-surface area ratio that might make sense after all. So maybe everything is OK!

Sounds about right. Thanks for taking the picture.

What sort of ring are you trying to achieve apart from the blue gold?

Might find some inspiration here
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=t...=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CA8Q_AUoAQ

 

[Undercover999]

Thanks for those pics - many of them are what I'm after. I just want a simple ring with a blue inlay in the center. Nothing fancy, just like me.

 

[pregcurious]

Very impressive, Undercover. I know others have asked this before, and the answer has been no, but do you know anyone who would be willing to melt a yellow gold ring and make it into a simple white gold band? I know you're not doing your projects for commercial purposes, but is there anyone in your industry who could do this? Sorry for the off thread topic.

 

[Undercover999]

Very impressive, Undercover. I know others have asked this before, and the answer has been no, but do you know anyone who would be willing to melt a yellow gold ring and make it into a simple white gold band? I know you're not doing your projects for commercial purposes, but is there anyone in your industry who could do this? Sorry for the off thread topic.

pregcurious you flatter me. Sorry but I'm not in the industry by any means; I have no contacts, I'm just a guy playing in his garage.

 

[pregcurious]

Would you consider selling your services on DiamondBistro? I can't seem to find a jeweler who will alloy my yellow gold to make a white gold ring. I found someone who will melt my ring to make another yellow gold ring, and even let me watch the process, but they do not work with white gold

 

[Undercover999]

Would you consider selling your services on DiamondBistro? I can't seem to find a jeweler who will alloy my yellow gold to make a white gold ring. I found someone who will melt my ring to make another yellow gold ring, and even let me watch the process, but they do not work with white gold

I too asked a couple jewelers to use my gold and was denied - surprisingly as mine was 24k... yours is likely already alloyed which makes it much harder. The best offer I got was to give me trade-in value for mine.

Trust me, I have nothing to offer. Did you see how many rings I ruined in my other thread trying to get it right? I'm a disaster.

 

[pregcurious]

Walker Metalsmiths is place that will take yellow gold and make another yellow gold piece. They will even let you watch them do it, I guess to confirm that they are really using your gold. They responded quickly to my email:

http://www.celtarts.com/LegacyGold.html

 

[aviastar]

Starzin mentioned blue titanium- you can make titanium any color by applying a torch- the different tempretures change the metal. It's a super cool look, but I don't know if you could cast the titanium at home. You would, I think, have to buy a titanium tube in the right diameter, cut and finish it, and then apply the color treatment. Anyone who knows more about his than me, please feel free to correct!


And the PMC is super fun stuff, too, apparently you can inlay other polymar clays as well, which is a great way to get the colors! This is a local artist to me who works in that medium, that I think is really good looking, http://www.etsy.com/shop/LizardsJewelry?ref=ss_profile