Alex a Mano

I’ve always been drawn to the subtle details in nature…

I’ve watched patiently how my green beans showed tiny sprouts pushing through the soil. New green growth appearing where everything once looked dull or still.

This little ring was inspired by that feeling 🌱
Now available (size 8).

“No todo lo que brilla es oro…” (Not everything that glitters is gold…) 🎶

I was SO excited when I found this shiny bracelet. It looked incredibly promising… but there were no marks or stamps anywhere, which immediately made me skeptical. Still… a girl can dream.

So off I went into full detective mode 🔍

Remember those boring chemistry/physics formulas we learned in school and thought we’d never use again? Well… apparently Archimedes and I had a little moment at my jewelry bench this week. Did you know you can actually get clues about what metal something is by calculating its specific gravity?

Here’s the basic idea:

1. Weigh the piece dry. (Dry weight)
2. Suspend it in water and measure the displaced water weight.
3. Divide the dry weight by the displaced water weight:
in my case 14.2 / 1.9 = 7.47 (Specific gravity)

Different metals have different densities, so this little trick can help identify mystery metals (or at least rule some out).

For example:
• Brass is usually around 8.4–8.7
• Sterling silver is around 10.3
• 14k gold is around 13–14
• 18k gold is around 15–16+

So when the number for this bracelet came back MUCH lower than gold… my dreams were crushed pretty quickly.

Do you have a mystery piece in your jewelry box that you’re not quite sure what metal it is?

Try this little trick and let me know what you discover 😄