Tiger Leaf

I love silver. I love copper. Gold.. not so much. It's not just the expense, which it is! - but the color doesn't call to my soul like silver and copper does.

At least that's what I always tell myself, but I'm starting to think maybe it really is the cost. Gold at this moment is $869.oo an ounce- spot price. That's low, last time I checked it was $950.00 or more. But even at $869.00 an ounce, it's pricey. So when I do gold, I don't really do gold.. I use Goldfilled. Even using Goldfilled, at approximately $45.00 an ounce compared to silver at $16 or so. (I"m talking what I would pay to buy it as sheet or wire... it's the spot price plus a refining/milling fee, which varies by company or how much you are purchasing) That makes Goldfilled run about 3 times the cost of silver. Copper is even cheaper.. I buy copper by the pound mostly, for about what the ounce of silver runs.

I was thinking about this a couple of months ago, that maybe my leeriness towards Goldfill is more economy vs. actually dislike. So i purposely decided to design something using goldfilled wire.

I will admit that Goldfilled by it's nature, goes naturally with just about anything, much as silver does. But some stones just look fantastic with gold, better than they do with silver... tiger eye is one of time. I got out my entire collection of tiger eye and spread them on my work table, trying to decide what looked like fun to play with today... I ultimately came up with a sketch for something leaf like. The frame is 18GA, and I used 26 GA to do the wrapping in. I really like it... and using Goldfilled wasn't bad at all. I made matching earrings of course, they are in the last picture.

While I enjoyed this project, I still like silver and copper better. I especially like silver and copper together... but when the occasion calls for Gold, I don't think I"ll hesitate quite as much the next time before I reach for Goldfilled.