Aluminum

History

White gold is an alloy comprising gold and at least one white metal. This alloy is then plated with a hard element called ‘rhodium’, which may wear off with time. The jewelry can be plated again to restore its white sheen. White gold jewelry or utensils may comprise varying amounts of pure gold in it. White gold is often considered an alternative to yellow gold, silver or platinum, because of its comparatively lower price. Some metals commonly used to make white gold include platinum, nickel, palladium & manganese. The properties of this alloy, besides its color, depend on its chemical make-up, or composition. Also, without the rhodium coating, ‘white gold’ may appear pale pink or dull brown in color.[1]

Owing to its malleability, it is easy to create varying, wonderful designs with white gold; thus a favorite with jewelers. It has a brighter polish than platinum which itself has a slightly grayish hue. The history of White Gold dates back to 1710, when it was composed by alchemists Johan Frierich Bottger and Ehrenfried Walther Von Tcshirnhaus in Germany. In 1752, another metal resembling White Gold was introduced, with a grey finish. White Gold as we know today was created in 1920’s.

There are two variations to the history of white gold. One says that it was patented by the Belais brothers in 1920 made by combining gold, nickel and zinc. The brothers had begun experimenting with white gold formulas to substitute platinum. They held the patent till sometime in the 1930’s.

The other supposition states that white gold was made from the fusion of gold and nickel with palladium in 1915, by Karl Richter, a German chemist. It is said that after World War II, some countries started stockpiling platinum because of its durability to make batteries, and other necessary parts for military use. Due to the deficiency of platinum, jewelers decided to promote the mixture of nickel, palladium or zinc to pure gold to bleach its yellow hue and turn it into white gold.

Rhodium plated White Gold is a good option as it provides a barrier between the skin and nickel alloy. The other advantage is that it makes the white gold look whiter. This plating wears out in three years, to reveal the original white gold beneath and the process can be repeated. Palladium-based white gold is expensive and nickel based ones can cause allergy, so the use of magnesium as a whitener in making the white gold is catching up. This new alloy is palladium-free or has a low content of palladium. Some white gold jewelry also contains chromium or iron, which are used as whiteners but it causes the product to be hard. These alloys are rhodium plated anyway to enhance whiteness.

 original from National museum collection

Photo credit: Nationalmuseum

This brooch was created 1840-1860 and is made of gold and rose cut diamonds. Its is classical example of the Victorian era sine it was an increase of the use of metals and diamond gemstones.

Gold increased in usage with the introduction of lower karat gold alloys; before 1854, precious rings were created mainly with 22k or 18k gold (75% pure gold alloyed with copper, silver, nickel, or a mixture of these metals) and silver, but after 1854 the gold standards changed and rings created with 15k gold, 12k gold, and 9k gold became legal on the market.

The second important change was the opening of the South African diamond mines in 1870; before 1870 diamonds were quite rare and most diamond rings contained clusters of small diamonds, but after 1870 when the South African mines opened large diamonds became available for use in wedding rings and engagement rings. Large brooches and bracelets where popular dung the romantic Victorian era.

 re-designed brooch

RE-DESIGN

The original brooch has a complex shape and contains of several different parts. The brooch contains of 3 core elements: stem, leaf’s and a flower.

I have chosen to keep the original shape and deconstructed it with the help of the contour tool. The shape of the original brooch has been transformed into a series polyline that follows the outline of the brooches shape. This created a grid of polyline is horizontal and vertical directions. The polyline grid was later extruded into 0.8 mm solid shapes which resulted in a pixilated representation of the original shape. 

process picture

3d-model of redesign

Footnotes

[1] https://www.utsavpedia.com/attires/jewelry/white-gold-understated-contemporary-fashion/

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