Chemistry, Modern Materials in Jewelry
Glass,
when chemicals or oxides are added, changes color. Adding 1 part of nickel oxide in 50,000 produces a
tint that may range from yellow to purple, depending on the base glass. One
part of cobalt oxide in 10,000 gives an intense blue. Red glasses are made with
gold, copper, or selenium oxides. Other colors can be produced in glass with
other chemicals.(1)
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| Carved Bakelite bracelet |
John
Wesley Hyatt created a plastic compound he called Celluloid. It was more
practical for larger and more durable objects and for the film industry, but,
the substance was highly flammable, so it was relegated to the use in film
only. Then came Leo Baekeland, a Belgium born American chemist, who created
Velox photo paper, in 1893, as well as his 1907 invention of the synthetic
plastic he called Bakelite. The Bakelite
was made from a mixture of phenol and formaldehyde and was easily mouldable; it
also retained shape after being heated. This formula was instrumental in
bringing the production costs of plastic down as well as having implications in
other areas… such as radios, telephones, insulators, and jewelry!
When the patent for bakelite expired in 1927, the Catalin Corporation bought the patent rights, After that point, most Bakelite products were sold by them. In the 1930s and ‘40s, Catalin Corporation produced jewelry in abundance.
Plastics, resins, and vinyl were developed for
much more utilitarian purposes, but give a designer any material and they will
give you something of beauty. In 1937, Du Pont, the leader in plastics, created
Lucite, which was manufactured in large array of colors as well as transparent and
opaque. During the early40s and 50s, it
was produced widely for jewelry use, it could be embedded with rhinestones,
shells, and other materials, which broadened the design possibilities. The “moonstone”
lucite was very popular into the 1960s, having a quality of looking like it is
glowing from within, and was made in an assortment of colors.
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| Catalin Necklace, Early 1960s |
Polyvinyl chloride was discovered by Eugen Baumann, a German Chemist, in 1872.(4) was patented in a us grant by Shriram Bagrodia, Louis Thomas Germinario, John Wlker Gilmer, Tie Lan and Vasiliki Psihogios under the assignation of the University of South Carolina Research Foundation. It is directed to a polymer clay nanocomposite material comprising a melt-processible matrix polymer and a layered clay material having decreased levels of extractable material, such as extractable salts of organic cations.
In
1926, B.F. Goodrich Companies Waldo Semon, developed a way to plasticise pvc,
which made it more flexible and a marketable substance. When PVC contains a
liquid plasticizer, it is called a “plastisol”.
Polymer
clay was formulated by means of adding a liquid plasticizer to the PVC formula, and sometimes it is called a ‘plastigel’
because of the rheological properties (5) This ‘flow’ property is what makes it so
wonderful as a ‘clay’ . It was
formulated as a possible replacement for Bakelite plastic and though it had no
actual ‘clay’ in the formulation, it was a mouldable substance that, since it was a
plastigel, held it’s shape when heated. the formulation was sold to Eberhardt Faber of
the STAEDTLER Mars GmbH & Co. KGin … who later marketed it as Fimo ‘clay’.
The
name came from the daughter of a German dollmaker Kathe Kruse,
after she had been given the polymer clay to play with. Her name was Sophia,
but was known by her family as “fifi” and hence, the name Fimo… from Fifi’s
modeling clay.
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| Rustic Beads- Ginger Davis Allman |
Polymer
clay has been used successfully in making jewelry components as well as
complete jewelry. There is a wide variety of colors and textural variations, Special-effect
colors and composites include translucent, fluorescent, phosphorescent, and
faux "pearls," "metallics," and "stone." It is
possible to make patterns in the clay itself using different colors, as well as
adding powders, and micas, inks and stones.
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| Polymer clay- faux Roman Glass-faux Biwa Pearls - Ginger Davis Allman |
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| Resin jewelry components- Marie Covert |
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| Resin "glass" earrings - Marie Covert |
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| Vintage Resin Buton, used in a cuff bracelet design-Marie Covert |
[1] Steve W. Martin, Ph.D, Glass Facts, The Composition of Glass, "Glass," Discovery Channel School, original content provided by World Book Online, http://www.discoveryschool.com/homeworkhelp/
worldbook/atozscience/g/225740.html, August 2001.
[3] Greenland, D. J. "Adsorption of polyvinyl alcohols by montmorillonite." Journal of Colloid Science 18, no. 7 (1963): 647-664.
[4] Baumann, E. (1872) "Ueber einige Vinylverbindungen" (On some vinyl compounds), Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, 163 : 308-322.
[5] Sarvetnick HA. (1972). Plastisols and organosols. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
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