The Crystalisation Process

Within our creative department our technical team spend a lot of time and effort ensuring our gold plated silver jewellery stands the test of time. The plating of sterling silver with 18carat gold is centuries old but it requires the most incredible attention to detail in order to pass our tests and be officially classified as vermeil. Did you know there is a room in the white house dedicated to vermeil, I wonder if it will be the favourite room of the new incumbent!

For the jewellery to be called vermeil the gold plating needs to be 3 micron, they say a micron should last a year depending on wear, on earrings and pendants where very little rubbing takes place it will last for a very long time.

During our process of research we stumbled across a fascinating microscopic video of what the formation of metal crystallisation process look like. These stunning structures are the result of a chemical reaction where the metal is deposited from the solution onto the metal surface. It takes from a few hours to a couple of days to generate a crystal. This process is carried out very slowly by an electric current: layer-by-layer the crystal is born.

Italian chemistry student with a flair for photography Emanuele Fornasier, has painstakingly documented the formation of these incredible metal crystals. The result is a wonderful time-lapse video of electrocrystallisation of a series of metals that he named Crystal Birth.