Why Is Silver Getting So Expensive?

 I received an email from The Capital Horizon, which is actually an investor website, (no idea why I’m on their mail list, I have no money to invest) but it had this interesting factoid in it. 

“Here is a fact most [people] have never heard. 

Most of the world's silver does not come from silver mines. 

It comes out of the ground as a side effect of mining gold, copper, lead, and zinc.

Which means when the world needs more silver, the mining industry cannot simply produce more of it.”

So, I looked it up. Only 30% of the world's silver comes from silver mining. The other 70% is recovered, as it said in the email, as a secondary metal while mining for other resources. That's why mining companies can't just produce more silver. They have to wait until it's economically feasible to mine the other metals so that they can get the byproduct silver. I never knew that.

About 30% is from lead and zinc mines, 25% from copper mines, and 15% is from gold mines. I guess that’s why silver just keeps getting more and more expensive, plus the fact that it’s so in demand now for both data centers, electronics, and batteries, among other things. Silver is also the largest cost component in solar panels.

Mexico, China and Peru are the top silver producing countries, with Mexico having the largest mine. The Juanicipio mine in Zacatecas, Mexico produces around 17-18 million ounces of silver per year. I would take a trip to Mexico just to see that mine. I love Mexico anyway.

Now you know more about silver than you ever thought you wanted to know. I think it is all very interesting, though.

So, buy my stuff, folks, so that I can buy more silver and keep on making beautiful things.🤣 The link to my shop is CK Metal Designs. 

Cat

 

What Is the Difference Between Cast and Fabricated Jewelry?

Cast jewelry is sterling silver or gold melted and poured into a mold. By using the same mold over and over, you can get consistency in your pieces. Fabricated jewelry is built by hand from gold or sterling silver sheet and wire one piece at a time, so there will be little differences in the pieces, even when you try to make them the same.

I happen to prefer fabrication. To me, fabrication is a process of making decisions. Every cut, every solder join is a choice that could have gone another way. And sometimes I change my mind in the middle of a piece and decide to do something different with it.  That is what you are holding when you hold one of my handmade pieces of jewelry.

Here's how to tell the difference.

Seams: Fabricated pieces are soldered together, so you may see faint seam lines where one piece of metal meets another. I make them as invisible as I can, but sometimes there's no way around it. Cast pieces are poured as one solid form, so joins are usually invisible, since the whole piece came out of the mold at once.

Consistency: A cast pair of earrings often matches almost perfectly, down to the millimeter, since they came out of the same mold. A fabricated pair will have small variations from piece to piece, because a person made each one by hand. The pair of earrings on my bench this week varied by about a half millimeter in length, but it is not noticeable when they are being worn. That small difference is what hand fabrication looks like up close.

Casting and fabrication are just different ways of making jewelry, with different skills required. Each maker has their own reasons for preferring one over the other.

When you buy fabricated jewelry, like mine, you are buying the time, skill, and attention that went into shaping raw metal into something that didn't exist in that form before. Every piece that I make starts as flat sheet and a length of wire and is built from that. 

Now that you know what to look for, check out some of the jewelry next time you're shopping, and see if you can tell how it was made.

Cat

Hi Again!

 Well, now it's really been a long time since I attended to this blog! 

In 2019, I was just getting started in silversmithing and I was complaining about the cost of silver rising to $16.95 per ounce. LOL!!! What I would give for that price now! The price of silver at this date is hovering between $60 and $70 per ounce. That is the spot price for raw silver out of the ground. When I buy silver sheet and wire, there is a fabrication charge added, which adds about $20-$25 per ounce, so I'm paying close to $100/ounce when I buy silver to work with. Ouch! It really hurts when I make a mistake and have to scrap a project. I practically cry over the wasted silver. 😣 I've been finding ways to melt some of it and use it for other projects though, so that helps a bit.

I want to resurrect this blog and use it to tell you some interesting things about silver, jewelry, and my work. I hope that you will find it entertaining. Let me know in the comments if there is a topic that you would like me to write about.

That's it for now, short post today and I'll work on something more over the weekend. Talk to you soon!

Cat

www.ckmetaldesigns.com

Covid Report

 It’s been a while since my last update and things are very different. 

We have three vaccines in use and 38% of the country has been vaccinated so far. Vaccines are available for age 12 and up. I’ve had my first dose of the Moderna vaccine and am scheduled for my second dose. 

Although total deaths are up to 588,000, new cases and deaths are leveling off and even dropping. The U.S. is reporting about 30,000 new cases per day. 

If you have been fully vaccinated, you no longer have to wear a mask, so I am seeing people without masks while I am out and about. I am still wearing my mask since I am waiting for my second shot. 

Businesses are fully open without restrictions. Things are getting back to normal. 

Cat

Covid December Update

 We have had a really big surge in coronavirus cases this winter. Deaths are over 300,000 already, up 35K just since my last update. Americans are dying from covid at the rate of one every 40 seconds. I think it’s spreading more because people are getting together for the holidays. 

The FDA approved one of the vaccines for an emergency use authorization. About one million doses have been delivered this week and people have started to be immunized. Another company’s vaccine is expected to be approved this week. There won’t be enough doses for everyone in the USA to be vaccinated until the spring, they say. But it’s a start and hopefully will slow this virus. 

Still hard to find paper goods and cleaning supplies in the stores. 

The Electoral College made Biden’s win binding yesterday. Trump still won’t admit that he lost the election. 

This is the last week of Tyler’s school and then holiday break for two weeks, yay!

Cat

Coronavirus Update - November 2020

 I’m mainly writing these updates so that I can look back in a few years and remember how this was. A pandemic like this is a once in a century occurrence. The last one was the Spanish flu of 1918-1921. 

As of today, we’ve had 266,000 deaths from the virus and there are another 91,000 people in the hospital. It seems like the deaths are increasing faster than they were in past months. 

The unemployment rate is down to 6.9%, but there are still a lot of people out of work and long lines at the food banks. 

Toilet paper and cleaning supplies are just about unavailable in the stores again, due to people hoarding them.

Two companies have made Covid vaccines and have applied to the FDA for an emergency authorization to distribute them. I don’t know how long that takes to receive. If it is received, the vaccine will first be given to health care workers, then people who are more susceptible to the virus before being made available to the general public. So it could still be quite a while before everyone can get it. 

Biden won the election! I couldn’t believe it. Trump refuses to accept the fact that he lost, of course. It will be great to have a sane president for awhile. 

Wearing a mask everywhere is starting to feel more normal, but I can’t wait until we don’t have to wear them anymore. They are so uncomfortable and hard to breathe in. Next week I’m going to a 3-day workshop and I’ll have to be wearing a mask all day long. Ugh!

Tyler is doing virtual school on the computer, so I get to monitor that all day since Stacy is working. Some days are easier than others. He doesn’t really pay attention, and then he wants me to help him with all his assignments. I don’t mind giving some help, but not answering all the questions for him. 

Ava is moving here the end of December. I hope Tara can handle a teenager!  

Until next time,

Cat

Coronavirus Update - October 2020

 Well, we have surpassed 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. It doesn’t look like it is slowing down anytime soon. 

In spite of that, Palm Beach County has jumped to phase three of opening, so most businesses are open. We still have to wear masks everywhere. Th good thing about phase three for me is that the farmers markets and art shows can take place, so I can start applying to some markets. 

With the virus, some new words are becoming commonplace. 

-social distancing - staying 6 feet away from other people

-bubble - a group of people who are sequestered together and don’t come in contact with other people

-PPE - personal protective equipment, not new, but more common

-long hauler - someone who’s virus lasts for a very long time, sometimes months

-super spreader - an event that causes a large virus outbreak

Can you think of any other new words or phrases we’ve begun using since the virus?

School has started. Some people are doing virtual school (distance learning) and some people are doing in-person school. It is a mixture of both in the same class. For the virtual students, there is just a camera in the classroom and they follow along with the rest of the class. 

The unemployment rate is down to 7.9%, mostly from people going back to their jobs. Still not a good rate, but better than what it was. 

Halloween is pretty much cancelled, since kids can’t go door-to-door trick or treating. 

The president of the USA got covid-19 and was in the hospital for a few days. He seems to be better and is back in the White House now. We have an election for a new president in just a few weeks. Whether he gets re-elected or not will probably hinge on how people feel about his handling of the virus.

Can’t think of any other news for now. 

Cat

Covid Update

Instead of getting better, the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse. Deaths in the US are over 145,000 and cases are over 4 million.

It’s starting to feel normal wearing a mask everywhere. I wonder how long this will last. They are working on making vaccines, and are hopeful that we will have one by the end of the year. The question is, how long will the vaccine protect you? Some experts say protection may last only a few months. I don’t know if that would be long enough to stop the spread.

Unemployment is at 11%.

At least toilet paper is starting to show back up in the stores. Now it’s Lysol that is out of stock everywhere.

The other thing in the news a lot right now is the beginning of the school year coming up. Some cities are opting for online classes while others say they will still hold classes in person. Our school district is opting for the online classes, which means it will be up to me to work with Tyler and keep him on-task during the day since I’m the one at home.  He doesn’t do well with virtual school, so this will be a challenge. We’ll see how it goes. School is supposed to start August 10th, but they may delay it.

It doesn’t look like the farmers markets will be opening this fall since we are still in “phase one” of reopening in Palm Beach County. We would have to get to phase three by October in order to have farmers markets, which means cases of the virus would have to be decreasing. I don’t see that happening so soon but I’m still hopeful. I sell so much more jewelry at the markets than I sell online.

In other, non-virus, news, I am selling all of my beads so that I can make room for my silver supplies. They are on Etsy at my old store, Bead Street Studio. I have everything priced very low for quick sales. I am also still adding new items every day, so if you need beads or findings, hop on over there and pick some up!

Cat

Holding Steady

So, in the month since I’ve last posted, coronavirus deaths in the USA have risen to over 100,000. New cases in 10 states are declining, in 18 states are rising, and in 22 states are holding steady.

The country is still in Phase One of re-opening. Restaurants and retail stores can operate at 25% capacity, tables must be six feet apart. Hair salons can open, but customers must have their temperature taken upon entry, wear masks, and be kept six feet apart. Employees must sanitize fixtures after each customer, and wear masks and gloves (new for each customer). Bars and gyms are closed. Churches are supposed to be closed, but all of a sudden this week Trump deemed them as essential services, so I don’t know if houses of worship will be holding services or not. Masks are still mandatory in public.

One of Stacy’s coworkers tested positive for the virus, so our household is on a 14-day quarantine monitoring for symptoms of the virus.

The news says unemployment is at its worst since the Great Depression.

Trump is telling us there may be a vaccine ready by the end of the year. That would be great, but I’d be a little worried about taking it. Vaccines normally take years to produce and test for effectiveness and safety. With producing it so fast, how do we know there are no long-term side effects? I’ll let everyone else try it before I get in line for a vaccination.

Still no toilet paper in the stores.

Cat

Pandemic Update

When was my last post, 4/15? Now it's 5/1, and the deaths from Covid-19 have almost doubled, up to 63,000 in only two weeks.

In just the last 6 weeks, 1 in 5 Americans have applied for unemployment. The unemployment rate is 14.7%. And what about those who have lost their jobs but don't qualify for unemployment?

In spite of the fact that the pandemic doesn't seem to be getting any better, some states are relaxing their rules on the lockdown this week. They are allowing retail stores and restaurants to open, but they can only admit 25% of their capacity. Restaurants have to keep their tables 6 feet apart. They also have to use disposable plates, utensils, and menus.

They say that if and when schools open up the desks will have to be 6 feet apart. How is that going to work with school overcrowding?

Florida is partially relaxing their rules, except for three counties, one of which is mine.  So we are still on lockdown, only allowed to go out for essential business. And we have to wear masks when we are out and about.

This is what happens when you keep a six-year-old on lockdown for two months.

I mostly am making jewelry in my studio to keep busy, though who knows when we will ever have markets where I can sell it again.

Signing off for now,

Cat