Exciting gold recycling

My client had a 18k yellow gold chain that her parents had given her. She had it for years but she wouldn't wear it,  so she finally wanted to make something she would love to wear everyday using the 18k gold chain. 

We decided to make a pair of lovely earrings in a elegant form of her initial "k" with garnets which is her birthstone. 

However, if I melt and cast the chain itself, it will create porosity in gold caused by solder that chain contains. In order to prevent that happening, certain amount of metal should be added to lower the ratio of the solder amount by adding either 18k gold or copper and silver to create lower karat. For these earrings, I added silver and copper to make it 14k gold, so it would cost less than adding new 18k gold and also much stronger. The casting came out perfectly and then garnets were set in sterling silver.   

My client was very happy about the fact that she still have the gold that she was given from her parents and have a new one-of-a-kind jewellery that now she would wear everyday. yay~

->Rosalyn Woo