QuestionI purchased a 'cheap' pair of pierced earrings, and I want to convert them to clips. However, I need to find some place that does black rhodium plating. Can you help me?
Thank you.
AnswerCynthia, thanks for this question.
Plating services are geared to large jobs, meaning large quantities of items. This means you will have to find a local jeweler who happens to have black rhodium plating solution in the shop. We have it but plate black rhodium rarely; looking back we likely cannot justify the purchase of the expensive rhodium solution.
My suggestion is simply to make phone calls to jewelers. First you will find out which ones have a bench jeweler working in-house and secondly if they have black rhodium and how much a charge would be to plate your items.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
A jeweler may say no to plating the earrings if they are of a base metal or of silver. Many metals will not decently receive rhodium if plated directly and require a pre-plate of another metal. Silver is one of these, requiring generally copper and nickle then the rhodium. Also, silver directly in the solution will contaminate the solution.
Most black rhodium is plated not in a bath or beaker container but with a pen plater. The solution is fed to the jewelry through a dense felt-like tip and used to plate selective areas and not entire surfaces. For instance, there is a style of jewelry using black, dark brown or dark yellow diamonds in which the prong tips are often black rhodium plated. The black prong tips provide an accent surrounding for the dark diamonds. (That is why we got the black rhodium solution, to repair the color of this sort of jewelry if accidentally buffed off.)
So, Cynthia, finding a jeweler who will possibly be able to do the work is a matter of searching out jewelers with in your range of contact. The black rhodium is down the list of supplies a jeweler will likely have, considering the rare use of it and the high up front cost. I have not seen the design of the earrings but wonder if it is possible to do the black color you need by some other method.
I do wish you best wishes in finding what you need.
God Bless and Peace. Thomas.
