Sterling Silver Filled metal is made with a very thick coating of sterling silver over a base metal core (usually brass or copper.) The coating is so thick that it can be treated just like regular solid sterling silver (cleaned/polished the same way etc.) But it is less expensive because it is not solid. It isn't like regular plated silver that chips or rubs off of the base metal core easily.

Sterling Silver Filled Information;

Hundreds of times thicker and more durable than Silver Plated.
Silver Filled is a thick layer of .925 Sterling Silver mechanically bonded to copper or brass
Silver Filled is 1/10 or 10% by silver weight.
It can be oxidized and polished just like Sterling Silver.

Argentium sterling silver is tarnish resistant SOLID sterling silver. It is not tarnish proof, but it is tarnish resistant so it needs cleaning less often and is easier to polish when you do decide to shine it. It is considered higher quality than regular solid sterling silver due to its tarnish resistant quality.

Information on Argentium Sterling Wire;
Argentium is a modern sterling silver that has been modified. The traditional alloy (92.5% silver + 7.5% copper) is modified by replacing some of the copper naturally found in the sterling silver with the metalloid germanium making the metal tarnish resistant. As Argentium Silver contains at least 92.5% silver content of the traditional alloy, it is still referred to as sterling silver.

Gold filled wire is made by heat- and pressure-bonding a thin layer of karat gold to a brass (or other base metal) core. This wire is "14/20" gold filled so it is made with 14-karat gold and the gold represents 1/20th (or 5%) of the total weight of the material.

Jewelry care- as with all jewelry, it is best to avoid getting your jewelry wet. To clean, please use a silver polishing cloth rather than chemical cleaners as the chemicals may damage your beads. If you have purchased hand stamped jewelry piece (or pieces with rhodium plated pewter beads) with letters that are darkened, this darkening agent can possibly fade if washed too many times but can be easily re-darkened with an industrial strength, fine tip permanent marker. If any of the marker gets out of the "lines" a regular cloth for the beads, or a silver polishing cloth for the hand stamped pieces rubbed over the surface will take out any unwanted darkened spots!

If you are ordering a piece where the listing states you can have custom letters, zodiac signs, crystal birthstones, or symbols etc on your piece of jewelry, then your instructions to me need to be on your order invoice.

To do this, you have put your item in your cart and when you go to the check out screen, please leave me a note for your customization request in the "message to seller" box on the checkout screen.