I have a special place in my heart for technology. But I’m not sure of this qualifies. Etsy has this great pair of wedding rings based on Cat 5 technology.

These sterling silver rings are available in 5 colors (turquoise, white, golden yellow, orange and black) and one clear male connector. You can buy them singly, or as a set, or even mix and match. Just $175.00 each or $340.00 for a set.

How cute would it be to be walking down the street linked to your significant other? Just make sure one of you doesn’t try jumping off a bridge while hooked up.

Palladium is making a huge run in the jewelry industry right now. It has become the go to metal for ladies wanting a bright white metal without the potential need for rhodium plating or the expense of platinum. Both are legitimate reasons to love palladium.However, in the rush to embrace this “new” metal I think that a lot of it’s negatives are being overlooked. And while I do make rings in palladium, am perfectly happy to work in nearly any metal that our customers may want to use (gold, platinum, palladium, stainless steel, tungsten, whatever), and am comfortable working in the metal, I wanted to get my opinions on palladium out in the big wide world.

Let me find my boy Sherman so we can take a short trip back in time.

A little palladium history

White gold made it’s first appearance in 1912 as an alternative to platinum and silver. Palladium made it’s first real appearance during World War II. Up to this point platinum and silver had been the metal of choice for most white jewelry. In World War II gold and platinum were declared strategic resources and became all but unavailable to the average consumer. Enter palladium.

With no real strategic use palladium stepped up to take it’s place in the jewelry industry. With the end of the war came the end of palladium as a jewelry metal. But the door had been opened, and like most things, once discovered they tend to keep coming back.

Palladium made it’s second appearance in the jewelry world in the 1970s. With the oil crisis and general recession in the economy palladium found it’s way back on to the shelves of jewelers all over the country. Once again it didn’t last long. With the coming of the 1980s and the era of Reaganomics (let his name be praised) palladium fell out of fashion again as the cheap, hard to work with metal and was replaced again by more traditional metals.

This leads us to current days where palladium is making huge inroads in the industry again. At first it was all about price. But as some of the issues involved in making palladium jewelry are finally addressed it has become easier to work with it may actually stick this time. But I’m not counting on it.

What is palladium?

Let’s take a moment to get a little technical.

Palladium is a member of the platinum family group of metals. This family also include Osmium, Rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium. If you take a look at the periodic table here, you will also notice that silver and gold are right next to the platinum metal group.

• Melting Point: 2830.82 °F (gold melts at 1947.52 °F / platinum melts at 3214.9 °F)
• Mohs Hardness: 4.75 (gold 2.5 / platinum 4 to 4.5)
• Vickers Hardness: 461 MPa (gold 216 MPa / platinum 549 MPa)

Right now more than half of all palladium production goes directly in to catalytic converters for the auto industry.

The economics of palladium

Palladium’s primary selling point, right now, is that it is so much cheaper than platinum. But this wasn’t always the case. There was a time when palladium was more expensive than platinum. But for the last five years platinum has been significantly more expensive that palladium. Let’s take a look at the growth rates. (source http://www.kitco.com/)

5 year growth:

• Palladium: low $146.00 - high $579.00 / 396% growth
• Platinum: low $602.00 - high $2252.00 / 374% growth
• Gold: low $322.10 - high $1002.80 / 311% growth

1 year growth:

• Palladium: low 317.00 - high $579.00 / 183%
• Gold: low $641.80 - high $1002.80 /156%
• Platinum: low $1225.00 - high $2252.00 / 139%

30 day growth:

• Palladium: low $425.00 - high $588.00 / 138%
• Platinum: low $1823.00 - high $2276.00 / 124%
• Gold: low $910.10 - high $1023.50 / 112%

So why am I showing you this? Simple, palladium’s #1 claim to fame right now is price. If history continues and we see it continue to outgrow platinum and gold it won’t have that to fall back on. Right now palladium is being sold at the same price as 18kt white gold in most places. I know that many will be bumping that price up to somewhere between 18kt white gold and platinum to compensate for its continued out gaining of gold and platinum.

Technical issues with palladium

Casting

My biggest issue with palladium came when people started using it as an alloy for making white gold. If you noticed earlier, palladium melts at 900 °F higher than gold does (and 200 °F higher than nickel). One of the first things I was taught when learning to cast gold was to be careful to not get the gold too hot because you run a serious risk of damaging, or burning, the gold and introducing casting and finishing problems.

Add to this the fact that many casters, especially small operations, don’t adjust their procedures as well as they should and you end up with castings where the metal wasn’t gotten quite hot enough and you end up with a blotchy casting that needs plating to hide it. A plating process that palladium is supposed to help you not need.

Repair

As much as it pains me to say this, jewelers are notorious for not keeping up with technology and change. And this leads to all sorts of problems with simple repairs like sizing a ring. Palladium isn’t like gold or platinum, or even sterling silver. Yet a vast number of jewelers treat it as if it were.

The biggest problem with palladium when doing a repair is temperature control. If it gets too hot it can develop a series of spider web like micro cracks and can even become brittle. The same thing happens when casting palladium, temperature control is incredibly important.

Palladium also work hardens far more than gold or platinum. As a metal is bent, hammered, or even experiences normal daily wear, it’s surface hardens over time from the repeated impacts. This is great because it reduces the amount of scratching and wear that the ring will exhibit over time. It’s not so great if you decide to change a stone later, lose a stone that needs to be replaced, or need to adjust prongs. The metal becomes so hard that it can add a considerable amount of time to the process, or cause the jeweler to take a shortcut.

So what does this all mean?

All of this comes down to my very personal opinion that palladium is not, and will not become, the savior metal for jewelers. I think that the untrained will cause more harm than good while making or repairing jewelry made with it. I think that palladium’s price will continue to outpace other metals and price itself out of the platinum replacement market. And I think that when the economy makes another turn it will fall out of favor just as it did in the 1950s and the 1970s. It may not disappear entirely like it did in the past, but it will certainly not be as popular as it is now.

Or I could be wrong. It’s happened before, just ask my wife or my daughter, I think they keep a list.

In either case, I’d love to hear what you think about the subject.

A few weeks ago I showed you some cool Space Invaders rings. This week I’ve found come more ’80s icons of video games jewelry, a Pac-Man Pendant from stars + infinite darkness.

Made in sterling silver or gold vermeil (why?), each pendant comes with a  20″ box chain costs $85.00.

Wakka wakka wakka wakka ……..

Check out these watches from Hour Power Watches. Priced at just $100 you get a nice watch with a hidden surprise. A locket where you can put the picture of your choice and an area that you can have engraved with a special message for an additional $10.

Available in  a wide variety of styles for ladies and men, you are sure to find a style that works for you.

I stumbled across these cool pendulum pendants from Cherie Dori while looking at new designer lines to carry in the store. Each pendant starts with a large teardrop gemstone and is then wrapped in swirls of diamonds set in gold and platinum.

Personally, I love them.

With the running of the 24 Hours of Daytona the 2008 racing season is under way. Some wives are football widows, mine happens to be a race widow.

The IndyCar Series has RITMO as a sponsor this year and they have produced this very slick carbon fiber face Chronograph. The three dial face and stopwatch move this watch up on my list of things to get.

Just so the open wheel guys don’t get too full of themselves, NASCAR is sponsored by Tissot. The Tissot Automatic Chronograph also has a carbon fiber face and a stainless steel case and bracelet.

The watches may not help you go faster, but at least you can look good while watching the races.

I stumbled across these cool hearts from Barbara Westwood reading the latest issue of JCK. Poised to be the perfect Valentine’s Day gift, these hearts are set in 18k yellow gold with a diamond slide and a fabulous handmade Italian chain. The blue chalcedony is priced at $14,000 and the black onyx with druse quartz is priced at $18,000.

Not looking for a heart? Go check out her website anyway, there is some stunning work there. Expect to see more of her worked featured in the future.

There are few things worse than being hit with the Evil Eye. Maybe being caught without your bet jewelry, but not much more than that. Here;s an opportunity to wear some nice jewelry and protect yourself from the evil eye at the same time.

My Bargain Jewels has come out with a collection of bracelets designed specifically to help protect you from the Evil Eye. The eye design of the beads is said to help ward off the effects of upsetting the local gypsy fortune teller, or at the very least look good on you. And at $14.99 it’s a pretty cheap insurance policy against the curse.