SILVER JEWELLERY DESIGN @ ANPA

Silver jewellery design is our "first love" and we focused on silver jewellery exclusively when we started out in 2000; silver is a beautiful metal to work with and due to its low cost compared to other precious metals allows a fantastic freedom to the design process.

An extensive range of silver jewellery is on display both in our galleries as well as online.

We are dedicated to creating pieces that are cutting edge, contemporary and of the highest quality standard, yet very wearable and affordable; All pieces, both cast and hand wrought are made of sterling silver, silver& 24ct gold combinations, semi precious gems and more unusual materials such as fossils, leather and African black wood.

© ANPA Jewellers _ Cape Town _ South Africa

ABOUT STERLING SILVER ( excerpt from Wikipedia)

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The minimum millesimal fineness is 925.

Fine silver (99.9% pure) is generally too soft for producing jewelelry, and in Sterling the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give strength whilst preserving the ductility of the silver and a high precious metal content. Other metals can replace the copper, usually with the intent to improve various properties of the basic sterling alloy such as reducing casting porosity, eliminating firescale, and increasing resistance to tarnish.

These replacement metals include germanium, zinc, platinum as well as a variety of other additives including silicon and boron. A number of alloys claiming firescale and/or tarnish resistance have appeared in recent years sparking heavy competition between the various manufacturers and their different formulations. No one alloy has emerged as an industry leader or standard and ongoing alloy development is a very active area.