I’ve always loved Sterling Silver Jewellery and during the 1990’s I found that the silver I owned turned my fingers and ears black rather quickly, which is never a good look. Fast forward to 2024 and I now know (in spades) why this was the case. Sterling Silver is an alloy, which means it is pure Silver mixed with other metals, namely Copper. As Silver is a soft metal it needs the Copper in the alloy so it can be work hardened and stand up to daily wear. Copper is however, unfortunatley the main reason why Silver turns your skin black or even green.. 

Little did I know that mid 1990’s a Master Silversmith, Peter Johns was working at Middlesex University to come up with a superior Sterling Silver alloy. He found that by adding in Germanium to the alloy this gave a brighter Silver colour (just like Platinum), made the Silver harder and more importantly it was much more resistant to that black tarnishing that upset me so much and many others in the 90’s. 

I now only work with Argentium Silver, it is produced from recycled silver so kinder to the environment and manufactured under strict standards in the EU, Italy to be precise by the Legor group. Invented in the UK by a Master Silversmith and beautiful to wear and work with. 

I find it interesting that today a lot of Sterling Silver Jewellery is Rhodium plated to give it a white silver shine when we have Argentium at our fingertips to work with. Argentium also now has a silver content of 94% 940 compared with 92.5% 925 in traditional Sterling alloys. I won’t even start on some of the more dangerous metals like Cadmium and Lead which have been found in some cheap imported Silver Jewellery from UK testing in recent years. It makes me very happy that all of my lovely customers get the best and safest Silver in their jewellery pieces. 

If you would like to find out more about Argentium Silver I thouroughly recommend checking out https://www.argentiumguild.com/ where you will find lots of beautiful work from fellow Jewellers working in Argentium Silver and more information about Argentium. For now I am back to making some special everyday pieces along with using up my very large collection of natural gemstones for some One of a Kinds that need to be worn out one day soon. 

Have a lovely week x

Sonja Gascoigne – Artisan Jeweller/Fate Jewellery, Mum to two special girls & supporter of people with Neuro Diverse Conditions amongst other titles 😉