How to buy sterling silver jewerly? You may have thought about how to buy silver rings, chains or charms many times but purchase of sterling silver jewellery isn’t that difficult.

1. Go to shops, jewellers that have established reputation or are recommended by your family, friends or work colleagues. This way you’ll make yourself sure that the quality of silver is good and customer care professional.

2. Check the amount of silver in silver. Yes, that is not a joke. Pure silver would be too soft to create any shape so other metals are blended with silver, the best mixture is created with 92.5 % of silver and 7.5 % of the other metal. Silver is usually mixed with copper and. The sign of good sterling silver jewelry is “.925″ so search for pieces with this quality mark.

3. Look for labels of the craftsman or retailer, respected ones add information about their products and take care of their jewelry better than anyone else.

4. If the piece of jewelry is finished with rhodium you won’t have to clean it often because rhodium prevents silver from tarnishing. So don’t forget to ask about that when buying silver.

5. The more intricate model you’ll buy the more valuable it will be. The truth is that although silver is the same the design makes it especially attractive. Search for respected well-known designers and be sure that your jewelry will increase in value thank to the design.

One of the properties of amber is the richness of types, this involves large variety of amber transparency and colors - from the fair yellow through white, bluish, greenish, beige till brown. The richness of colors makes it desired and valued material in jewelry and folk art.

Primary types

Primary and Secondary types are judged on the basis of amber’s inner structure, organic inclusions and the amount of weathering.
When it comes to primary types of amber the level of transparency and the amount of inclusions decides on amber type. As the recent studies on amber structure with the use of electronic microscope revealed the transparency of amber is influenced by the number and placement of air bubbles in the stone. There are several kinds of amber:

Transparent amber: has got very distinct layer structure, there are no air bubbles or the bubbles which exist are large - diameter 0.5 - 2.0 mm. The color of transparent amber varies from yellow to dark yellow.

Translucent amber: its parts or fragments contain large concentrations of air bubbles which cause cloudiness. Its color includes all shades of yellow.

Opaque yellow amber: it has solid structure, sometimes it contains large concentrations of gas which are placed on the edges of amber. Its color varies from all shades of yellow to all shades of beige.

Opaque white amber - the number of air bubbles reaches 900 000 per square millimeter and its inner structure is porous, foamy. Its color is white, sometimes bluish.

The ‘earth” amber belongs to the group of primary ambers, which are not influenced by the inner structure. “Earth” amber is polluted with organic substances and elements of wood, it frequently contains numerous gas bubbles which were created during putrefactive processes, there are also examples of plant and insect inclusions. This type of amber has darker colors: from almost black to greenish.

In the river basin or river Narwia where amber had been extracted since 15th century there are numerous names for amber depending on its color and transparency. A dictionary of Polish amber types contains 80 terms which not only describe its color and transparency but also the amount of weathering, type of surface, where it was found, usefulness and its role it fulfilled.

A. Chętnik describes several versions of amber - totally transparent fair yellow, reddish similar to fire, the honey shade of yellow, ambers with air bubbles that resemble clouds. Translucent ambers such as “cloudy” and “woolly” which have concentrations of air resembling cloud and wool balls.
The group of opaque yellow ambers there are: beige, yellow with beige smudges that look like cabbage leaves, stone which includes several shades of yellow and white, marble-like and mosaic, mixed where one stone is a combination of two other stones. The striped amber contains several types of transparency and colors that create stripes.
The group of opaque white amber contains: chalk-like amber, white with yellow shades and all unique bluish shades. They have plenty of air bubbles which have noticeable foamy structure under electronic microscope.
The group of ambers with plant inclusions, so called ‘earth’ ambers have got parts of plants grey or black, there are also ambers with large air bubbles that are visible on yellow-brown background, “green” with greenish color, “earth mixture” where there are parts of yellow opaque amber with plant inclusions.

Silver is a metal that has provoked many emotions and disputes for many years. People either love it or hate it, there are many cool and interesting facts about silver you should know.

Silver is a soft, lustrous material which has the atomic number 47. It used to be more precious than gold, some people believed that it has power over emotions, love and health. The sources silver is extracted from are the ores of copper, copper-nickel, lead, lead-zinc. They are mostly found in Peru, Mexico, Australia or China. In the Ancient Greek it got the name “white, shining” and this name reflects its properties very well. It has been valued as a precious metal for many centuries, not only s it used for jewelry, ornamentation but was also used for coins.

Silver is usually combined with other metals e.g. copper, gold, lead as they enable to shape it freely. The compounds of silver are also useful for photography, medicine electricity. Its disinfecting, antiseptic properties help to prevent infections. Silver as a precious metal is used to make valuable objects and they intend to show the status of the person who has it. To avoid the quality of silver from being reduced the standard combination has been introduced. So the sterling silver contains 92.5% of silver and 7.5% of copper, which should be marked “.925″ on each product.