gold filled beads on sterling?

[medusa]

does anyone know if these are available to buy? From trawling the internet it seems that you can get silver which is gold filled, but the stockists of gold filled beads tell me they are are only available on brass. And I want a silver base, dammit!

[mizgeorge]

I would think the nearest you'll get is vermeil - which is gold plated on sterling. The bond's not as good as filled (used to be called rolled), which I've never seen on anything other than brass, but as long as they're not in a place where they're going to be subjected to a lot of wear, they last as well as any other plated item.

[pearlescence]

It does indeed sound like you are looking for vermeil - gold plated onto silver. It is a good alterntive to using gold findings in low-wear applications such as earrings and can be hallmarked (as silver) as it only costs a bit more than silver. Good vermeil gold will last much longer than gold onto base metal as the gold should be much thicker. make sure the silver still complies with EU nickel rules though - some American vermeil uses a layer of nickel between the silver and the gold.
what sort of findings do you want, I have some in stock

[medusa]

thanks both. I had found some US sites that said that they did proper gold filled on silver in the past, but since the cost of silver rocketed they only do it on brass now. Not really keen on vermeil as I want a thicker coating than you get with vermeil. I have a few vintage pieces of vermeil and have been underwhelmed by the longevity of some of it.

I'm thinking of using them as spacer beads on a necklace and was looking at around 3-5mm beads. Maybe I'll just stick with silver.