Gold v silver

[marna]

I have finally, finally, finally braved up and bought some gold! Now I'm looking at it and feeling a bit scared of making a very pricey puddle. Any tips for soldering gold instead of silver?

I'm making gold versions of things I already have in silver, so I'm not leaping into the dark completely.

[Goldsmith]

You need to be more specific, what carat gold and what are you going to make? also what soldering equipment do you use?

[MMM Jewellery]

I find 18k gold much nicer to use than silver- better heat tolerance and it just seems to work much better. I wish I could afford to use it more!!

[marna]

You need to be more specific, what carat gold and what are you going to make? also what soldering equipment do you use?

I've bought some 9ct gold wire. I'm making gold versions of these two shawl pins - hopefully the images will appear when I hit post, but if not, there's;

One small penannular pin. There's just one solder spot on that one behind the pin itself - it's mostly forming and really simple to make (and it's what I'm starting with.

One two-part shawl pin with a circle with tube-set stone, and a curved wire pin with another tube set stone. (I have two 5mm peridots that I think will look lovely with the gold.) This needs the circle soldering - it's made out of wire - and the tube soldering onto the ring, and the tube soldered to the top of the pin, as well as a solder to stabilise the curve.

I've got a sievert propane torch, as well as a little handheld butane one that I sometimes use for jumprings. For silver, I'd be using the sievert for all of these.

[marna]

I find 18k gold much nicer to use than silver- better heat tolerance and it just seems to work much better. I wish I could afford to use it more!!

I just bought 9k, and that's a slightly terrifying experience! But I have a couple of craft shows coming up this summer, and want a couple of stand-out items for the stall, and I have been wanting to make something gold for a fair while, so i took the plunge. Should I have gotten 18k though?