The object I’ve chosen to discuss is a pair of silver earrings. I purchased them today at the farmer’s market that is held on campus every Thursday. The vendor assured me that they were sterling silver, and the little 925 engraved on the hook of each earring confirmed this. Sterling silver jewelry should have the 925 engraved on it somewhere. This indicates that 92.5% of the metal is pure silver, and the remaining 7.5% is alloy, usually copper. This is a standard ratio for sterling silver that is utilized by most countries, with the exception of some places like France which use a higher percentage of pure silver. The reason for this is because pure silver, which is 99.9% silver, is too soft to make jewelry with. It’s mixed with harder metals to make products like jewelry and silverware, stronger and more durable.
The earrings are bell-shaped hoops, with a downward point at the bottom. The edges are scalloped. Each earring is no larger than a quarter.
I have no idea where the vendor acquired the earrings, but I know they were not brand-new. Everything he had for sale was second-hand; clothing, jewelry, books, CD’s, and other paraphernalia that he had collected over the years. The price tag on each item he had labeled and applied himself. Because of the fact that there was no original tag or brand attached to the earrings, it would make it even more difficult for me to try to find its origin.
Silver is a natural resource found all over the world, from South America to Europe, and even in the U.S. In 2020, the top 5 silver-producing countries were; Mexico, Peru, China, Chile, and Australia. My earrings could have been mined as nearby as “The Rochester Mine” in Nevada, or as far away as Potosí, the famous Bolivian mining town.
Today, silver comes from 3 main sources: silver mining; silver produced as a by-product of mining for other metals; and silver recycled from used materials. By which of these methods my earrings were produced there is no way to know. However, at least 80% of the world’s silver today is produced as a by-product of mining for other metals, so there is a high chance my earrings were the result of a surprise finding.
To mine silver, miners must go into open pits or in underground mine tunnels. They pack explosives into holes drilled into rock and blast it into smaller pieces. Once the ore has been collected, there are a variety of extraction techniques for the actual silver, which vary based on the type of ore. The techniques include mixing certain chemicals and powders to dissolve parts of the ore, or melting the ore and using filtration processes to separate the metals.
Once the silver has been mined and either exported or brought to a local factory, the process of manufacturing jewelry, specifically earrings in this case, begins. The silver and its alloy are mixed in molten form, and it is then poured into a stainless steel mold where it cools and hardens into a thick hunk of metal. This thick piece of metal is subject to various processes, consisting of flattening, lengthening, soldering, buffing, and other various technical processes that I don’t understand well enough to try to explain.
The labor that goes into this process is perhaps near impossible for me to detail. There are overlooked laborers such as the ones driving the trucks with the metals in it, the ones responsible for ensuring proper mine ventilation, the engineers who make sure the machines used in manufacturing are up to par. The labor that I have more of a grasp of are the individuals working in the mines, literally blowing up rock at the endangerment of their own lives. While there is ventilation in the mines, the air pollution coupled with working in such tight spaces is hazardous to their health. The temperature that deep in the earth can be over 110°F, enabling the possibility of dehydration and other serious heat-related medical emergencies.
I remember the news story a little over a decade ago of the 33 Chilean copper miners who had become trapped underground when the mine collapsed on them. They were there for more than 2 weeks before being rescued. They all survived. They got lucky.
The sourcing and manufacturing of silver for jewelry is more complex than can be done justice in 800 words. This assignment allowed me to better understand all of the manpower, environmental and human strain, and the many facets that went into making what was to me, a simple pair of silver earrings. I no longer see them as simple, and I appreciate them even more.
Sources:
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 
Hi Sydney! I was really fascinated by the research you were able to do concerning these earrings, considering you just bought them, and did not know who made them or where they came from. Looking for the 925 was a great idea, I never noticed that on any of my jewelry. Mining is such a dangerous job, and it’s always scary to read about what people in the mining industry go through, and hear about the conditions they have to work in. Great job!
Hey Sydney!
I thought that this research was really well done and covered a lot of different parts of jewelry making that I know I have never thought about. I thought that they way you talked about how the earrings were actually made, the silver & alloy process, was done in a way that made it understandable for your post’s reader, and I thought adding in the dangers to the workers who mine for the materials that go into these earrings was a good way to make people consider how their own jewelry is made.