Golden
Rocks |
By Lin Stone
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Gold makes a wonderful crafting substance. There isn't much you can do with it that won't turn out beautiful. The biggest drawback to gold is its best qualities. The stuff is heavy and it is soft. Gold is so soft that a strong man can mash it out of shape or mold it into some other shape with his bare fingers. Some of the earliest jewelry was just a gold nugget on a string of some kind. If your gold nugget was bigger than mine all I had to do was give my nugget a new shape and Cleopatra would send you off to the salt mines and start marking time with me. It also has a low melting point. Drape a gold nugget over a hot candle and it will slowly ooze right off the strand holding it up because of the weight and low melting point. That means you can ooze your gold into molds and various cookie cutter shapes to have the brightest ornaments in the neighborhood. Even at normal temperatures an ounce of gold can be hammered out flat enough to cover a whole acre of ground. That means that gold can be made into sheets thin enough to write on. Some ancient people used gold sheets to record important events for generations yet unborn. One of the first discoveries that goldsmiths made was that gold could be used to cover other objects like shields, sword handles and bowls and it would still be glimmering with princely beauty. The royal families loved gold covered utensils because -- it was commonly believed -- that gold made poisons visible or neutralized them. Since it seemed like everyone on earth wanted to kill a king or two gold became known as the “Noble” metal. Rich kings also took the precaution of using “tasters” who ate part of the king’s food before the king did. Even though they ate food fit for a king right off gold plates and with silver spoons, the life expectancy for tasters was so low that they could not get life insurance at any price. |
Kings preferred to wear crowns made of gold and many stuck precious stones into the band. Then it was discovered that gold could be alloyed with base metals to be made stronger and lighter but still retain its brilliance. Not all kings welcomed this new advance in technology. One Grecian king suspected his royal goldsmith had not made his latest crown of pure gold and had put the balance in his own pocket, but how to prove it? He turned the problem over to Archimedes. |
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Ever since inventing the world’s first rotary steam engine this great scientist had found that he thought best while he soaked in a tub of hot water. As he lowered his buns into the tub this time he noticed that the water level rose consistently with the immersion of his body. Thus was born the idea of specific gravity. Specific gravity is the density of the material divided by the density of water. Pure gold can easily be distinguished from alloyed gold by specific gravity alone. Therefore, take a container of water and put the crown in. If it raises the water level less than the same volume of pure gold then it is not pure gold. Gold rings and other gold jewelry today are seldom pure gold. But each piece made in or for sale in the United States is stamped with the proportion of pure gold in the piece. 24K is pure gold. If you have a gold ring, look inside it for the stamp. It will probably say “14K.” That means 14 parts out of every 24 are gold. It is a time-tested balance to producing a strong, enduring piece of jewelry that still shines like pure gold. Other marks, not quite as common are: 18, 12 or 10K. 18K means there are 18 karats of gold to an ounce of the material. 18K is still quite malleable by hand. Consequently it can lose its shape, or worse yet,. lose some of the precious stones set in it. Today many people prefer “white gold.” The highest quality white gold is made up of gold and palladium, sometimes with trace levels of platinum for weight and durability, although this often requires specialized goldsmiths. It is usually at least 17K. 12K and 10K looks significantly less like pure gold. Experienced gold buyers with “good eyesight” can spot the difference from 30 paces away. Remember that just being stamped "?K" doesn't make it so. The only way to really be safe is to always buy your gold jewelry from a trusted jeweler. When your trusted jeweler is a wholesaler like Fashion Penny dot com you can get some bargains that really stand out.
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Bio
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Crafts do make wonderful gifts. Now I don't pretend that ANY crafty gift is precious. A star made from popsicle sticks glued together might bring yards of happiness when given from a four-year old, but look rather tacky if you are forty. The gifts you choose to make for others should spring from a craft you do exceedingly well. A good craft gift might be defined as anything you do with your hands that makes your heart sing while you are making it. When the one receiving the gift hears that singing and joins in then you will have given a gift which is priceless. Not all of us knows what a rabbet is, but all of us will have talents which give us an affinity to at least one of the crafty ideas inside this package. I invite you to check out the book marks and dig in. Don't be afraid to try any of these ideas. Each one was chosen for the author's skill in explaining the steps to take. You will probably be pleasantly surprised and how easily you acquire the skills needed for any craft idea that you like. There is a link in each craft article so that you can easily reach the author for similar material.
freebo///craftygifts.pdf is the download site.
This book will make a swell gift for all your craft loving friends. Pass it on, then take a look at what all else we have in store for you..
Crafts do make wonderful gifts. Now I don't pretend that ANY crafty gift is precious. A star made from popsicle sticks glued together might bring yards of happiness when given from a four-year old, but look rather tacky if you are forty. The gifts you choose to make for others should spring from a craft you do exceedingly well. A good craft gift might be defined as anything you do with your hands that makes your heart sing while you are making it. When the one receiving the gift hears that singing and joins in then you will have given a gift which is priceless. Not all of us knows what a rabbet is, but all of us will have talents which give us an affinity to at least one of the crafty ideas inside this package. I invite you to check out the book marks and dig in. Don't be afraid to try any of these ideas. Each one was chosen for the author's skill in explaining the steps to take. You will probably be pleasantly surprised and how easily you acquire the skills needed for any craft idea that you like. There is a link in each craft article so that you can easily reach the author for similar material.
freebo/craftygifts.pdf is the download site.
This book will make a swell gift for all your craft loving friends. Pass it on, then take a look
below at what all else we have in store for you..
