Congratulations to our three competition winners...
First Place
Dana Shirley and Valerie Thomas of Laguna Blue Studios, USA
'Pearl'
"Everyone took for granted that sterling silver would tarnish… no one but Peter Johns thought to question or look for a solution. With Argentium's tarnish resistance, I now accent with touches of gold. We do shows during the winter in Florida and even with the humidity, Argentium remains tarnish resistant - a tremendous plus.
Due to great maleability, Argentium is excellent for repoussé, chasing, texturing and forming and you can work for longer periods of time in-between annealing. When working at the bench, anything that speeds up the process is valuable - the lack of firescale is a huge time saver."
Second Place
Jeff Benedict, USA
'Filigree Heart Pendant'
"I enjoy working with Argentium Silver because I don’t need to worry about harsh chemical pickles. I also like that Argentium Silver fuses like fine silver, so I don’t need to worry about easy, medium or hard solder, and getting it placed just right so that it flows where I want it to. I have some of my jewelry on display in a local gallery, and because the Argentium Silver tarnishes so slowly, I am not constantly at the gallery polishing everything."
Third Place
Lisa Glavish of Quail Hill Design, USA
'Summer Rain Pendant'
"Why I enjoy using Argentium Silver...
Argentium is what I started with, having never put a flame to regular sterling. I’m self taught; in August of 2015 I tried to fuse an Argentium jump ring with a soldering iron - I’ve come a long way since then. Learning from my own mistakes, and translating tutorials about regular sterling into Argentium ‘speak’. Then I found Ronda Coryell’s videos, which helped me so much! I improved with my torch and the world of Argentium opened up! For me fusing Argentium is limited only by my physical skill and imagination. I enjoy Argentium because it is truly a magical metal."
Thank you very much to all of our members who entered the competition.