Why is titanium jewelry so brilliant?

2019 Black Label Master Series Bowknot brooch

Black label masterpiece series perfect butterfly brooch

2019 Black Label Master Series Damascus Rose brooch

How are these jewels different from what you usually see? Why are their colors so dazzling? Yes, most of the metals used for inlaying in jewelry are gold and platinum. However, of course, not only gold and platinum jewelry is expensive. The metal used in these high-grade jewelry is called titanium. Its biggest difference is that it can have a lot of color changes, giving designers more room to play.

Chopard Chopin
Fleur d'Opales Titanium Metal, Opals, Diamonds, Emerald Garnet, Saffronite, Yellow Sapphire Ring

The popularity of titanium metal in recent years may exceed your imagination. No matter top jewelry designers such as Chen Shiying, JAR, Cindy Chao, or international famous brands such as Chopard Chopin, they all like to study it and use it as jewelry. They are very popular. So, it's worth taking a minute to understand what titanium is. Titanium is a rare metal element with very high melting point. At the end of the 18th century, German scientists were surprised by the high natural strength of titanium at the beginning of their discovery of this metal element. Later, they chose the name Titan, the son of the earth with the spirit of courage in Greek mythology. Its Chinese name is also taken from the homophone here.

Titanium is really a treasure worth holding in the palm of your hand. It is not only chemically stable, but also resistant to high temperature, low temperature, strong acid and corrosion. At the same time, it is light in weight and high in hardness, making it a good material for industrial products. Because titanium is very strong and can withstand high pressure, it is often used in the manufacture of aerospace and navigation equipment. It can also be used to make industrial products, precision parts and even buildings.

Guggenheim Museum, Spain

So, why does titanium play with jewelry? At this time, we had to hire a jewelry artist: Chen Shiying. Because titanium is now so widely used in jewelry, to some extent, it is related to his research and promotion. Traditional metals such as gold, silver and platinum have a certain weight. If they are very large, they are not very comfortable to wear. Chen Shiying is also troubled by this. When Chen Shiying saw a news that the artificial heart pacemaker was made of titanium, which was the most compatible metal with human body. It was light, strong, high melting point, and allergy resistant, which inspired him immediately. Since then, Chen Shiying had hoped to use titanium metal in jewelry. However, he did not expect that there would be so many difficulties in technology: for example, if gold is used to inlay gems, because gold is very soft, it can be done with a few knocks, but titanium has a strong memory, and it will bounce back when inlaid.

Wallace Chan Chen Shiying
Hera's titanium ring and brooch

It took him 8 years of continuous attempts to meet his own requirements. It took another five years to reach the state of using titanium metal at will. Although there are other jewelry artists using titanium metal besides Chen Shiying, Chen Shiying chose to publish his research results in 2011, and expressed the hope that more jewelry artists and designers can use titanium metal in their design, which is also a great promotion of titanium metal, and the benefits of using titanium metal as jewelry are obvious.

Wallace Chan Chen Shiying
Wanli Tender Titanium Gold Jade Jewelry brooch

What advantages does titanium have in addition to its lightness?

Hard enough!

Hard is really important for jewelry. 24K gold is not as popular as 18K gold because it is too soft. The high hardness of titanium metal is its inherent advantage. It can not only make jewelry hard enough, but also prevent jewelry from being scratched.

Stable enough!

How can I change color after inlaying today? Stability is too important! The chemical properties of titanium metal are very stable. It will not change its color at room temperature and will not be oxidized and blackened like silver. This feature can show its advantages when designing and making pairs of rings. It can satisfy the "stability" you are pursuing, whether in terms of actual products or ideas.

Light enough!

No one wants to wear heavy jewelry, even if it is beautiful. The density of titanium metal is small, and the weight of titanium metal is less than 1/5 of that of gold when the volume is equivalent. Therefore, titanium metal can be used to make some exaggerated jewelry with larger surface area and stronger visual impact. The jewelry embedded with gemstones will not be exaggerated as a whole, which will affect the wearing.

Enough good!

Are there any sisters who like jewelry but wear metal allergy? Titanium can perfectly solve this problem because it has a good "biological affinity". It can be said that any contact between titanium jewelry and skin will not cause allergy.

Suzanne Syz
Life Savers Red and Blue Plated Titanium Earrings

If you want to make jewelry colorful, can you only rely on colorful gems? No, no, no... Do you still remember the jewelry map we showed you at the beginning? The magic of titanium is that it can change its own color, cooperate with gemstones, and improve the overall effect of the work. It does not need to be fused with other metals, and it can be achieved by itself. At present, the color treatment of titanium metal can be divided into "baking color" and "anodizing treatment". The two processes are cheap and expensive. We must make clear the difference to avoid being fooled when buying. The baking process is relatively simple and low in cost. Generally, cheap titanium jewelry will use this process. As the name implies, the color baking process is to heat titanium metal in the air with an electric furnace and a torch, so that a colorful oxide film is formed on the titanium surface. Different temperatures will show different color effects. If the temperature rises to 1000 ℃, golden yellow, blue, purple, dark purple and gray black will be obtained in turn.

The other expensive anodizing treatment is relatively complex, but it also has better effect. It can make the final color and thickness particularly uniform. A large number of titanium metals with gem inlay and decoration need this color treatment method. It transfers the current to the surface of titanium metal through acid solution to generate insulating oxides on the surface of titanium. The final color is related to the voltage used in the oxidation process. Different voltages produce different color changes.

Joel Arthur Rosenthal（JAR）
Butterfly titanium butterfly brooch

In addition, Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR) especially likes to inlay gemstones on titanium metal that has been color oxidized to make their colors more intense.

Article from: www.showfay.com