Have you ever wondered “what can aluminium be used for?” For a breakdown guide on the uses of aluminium and how aluminium was discovered, you’re in the right place. Read on to find out more about what aluminium is made of and how anodised aluminium jewellery could be a new addition to your jewellery making repertoire.
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Aluminium is not a material which immediately lends itself to the production of jewellery. It is by contrast an element with huge domestic and industrial capability. Aluminium is more associated with the humble drinks can or the wafer-thin kitchen foil that we take for granted during our everyday activities.
It is a metal of immense strength, but it’s also extremely light and ductile; much lighter than steel. In fact, this makes it ideal for any application where weight can be an issue for example aerospace technology or car production. It actually represents the second largest metal market in the world which is a great indicator of its potential. But more importantly it is 100% recyclable which makes it very much a metal of the future.
Aluminium is not a naturally occurring metal. Aluminium properties mainly include a raw material called bauxite which is only found in a handful of locations word wide. This bauxite is first heated to immense temperatures to produce alumina, which is then transformed into aluminium by way of electrolysis. It is a complicated process which creates many chemical by-products so production is tightly regulated and monopolised by large companies with the means to carry out the whole process from start to finish.
The demand for aluminium is huge and consistently growing with China now consuming 25% of the world’s production thanks to its booming economy. It is largely directed into the automobile industry in a bid to reduce the weight of vehicles thus reducing fuel emissions; a 10% reduction of car weight results in a 9% increase in fuel consumption efficiency and with the EU introducing increasingly stricter guidelines on CO2 emissions, this means big business.
However, things have not always been this way and if you look back at the discovery and history of aluminium, the treatment and usage of it were very different. Aluminium is a relatively new metal, only discovered in by a Danish chemist Hans Christian. Production methods were so complex that it wasn’t until that aluminium was successfully produced on any significant scale and at that time it was considered rarer and more valuable than gold! It is well documented that Napoleon lll served his state dinners on aluminium plates with his rank and file guests given only gold and silver versions!
Aluminium can be anodised to create jewellery. Anodising aluminium is beneficial for jewellery makers particularly due to its capacity to be coloured. Anodising is an ‘electrolytic passivation process used to increase the natural oxide layer of metal parts’. It increases resistance to corrosion and wear but also allows the absorption of dyes and adhesion of paints to stunning effect.
The downside for most jewellers is that aluminium is difficult to solder without the use of specialised welding equipment which most of us don’t have! Most designers tend to opt for cold fixing techniques which produce some interesting and unusual pieces often quite different from ‘traditional’ jewellery.
I think it’s fair to say that aluminium is not one of the easiest metals to use. But it is one of enormous capabilities and potential and due to its recycling properties, we will be seeing it used more and more. In fact, it has even been said that in the future historians will look back on this time and hail it as ‘The Age of Aluminium’, so make of that what you will!
Take a look at our full range of Aluminium Sheet and start making your own coloured pieces of aluminium jewellery today.
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I first started using aluminium to make jewellery 2 years ago and it formed the basis for my graduate collection last year, Mycology. As a material aluminium was perfect for what I wanted to do. It was light, so I could make larger pieces than would be possible in any precious metals and it can be dyed. This meant that, through the process of anodization, I could make the large, colourful mushroom inspired pieces I wanted to make.
I’ve been interested in the supply chain of precious metals for some years and I was interested to know what, if any, advantages there were to using aluminium when compared to precious metals or titanium from an ethical or sustainable point of view.
The ideal for me, was to go around collecting aluminium cans etc then melt them down into preformed shapes. With the help of Richard of the Much Hadham forge, these pre-formed shapes would then be worked into jewellery. Over the last year, since graduating, I have been working to try and make this viable, though I have sadly come to the conclusion that it’s just not possible with my level of technology.
Why?
The process of anodization is a delicate one, impurities in the metal will effective conductivity often causing the process to fail. Obviously, when you’re picking up cans from the street, there are loads of impurities like dirt and the dyes and paints used to decorate the cans as well as the different aluminium alloys used by different manufacturers. Given that the majority of aluminium ever mined is still in circulation, it’s definitely possible to refine the metal and create the alloys that are best suited to anodization for cosmetics purposes (in our case, jewellery) but that takes significant expertise and facilities.
In the end, I came to the conclusion that it was best to use aluminium sheet that was already available from suppliers. Seeing that aluminium is already widely recycled, I wouldn’t actually be making any kind of positive impact by spending my time and resources creating my own version of a process that is widely used.
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So what’s the alternative, is there such a thing as traceable, ethical aluminium?
At present no and there is unlikely to ever be. Unlike gold, there is no such thing as small scale aluminium mining. The low price of the metal means that it's only viable if you mine and refine it in gigantic quantities.
This means that there will always be a large physical and carbon footprint from any bauxite mining operation and there is no room for small players in the industry. The success that has come in gold mining has all come in the ASM sector which cannot be replicated with aluminium.
Demand for aluminium from the jewellery industry is so minuscule compared to the other industries in which it is used that the industry will never have any leverage to instigate change.
It is true that aluminium is widely recycled. It only takes 5% of the energy to create aluminium from scrap than it does from bauxite, the ore that aluminium comes from, so a huge proportion of the aluminium we use today is recycled, it is estimated that over 80% of the aluminium ever mined is still in circulation.
Whether this by itself makes it an ethical or sustainable material is debatable. The issue is around the extraction of aluminium and whether this will decrease if we recycle more aluminium is still unclear.
The process of refining bauxite to make aluminium is incredibly labour intensive. Every year 10% of Australia’s electricity goes to making aluminium.
As well as Australia and China, Guinea and India are major producers of aluminium.
Australia and Guinea, in West Africa, have the worlds largest proven bauxite reserves and across the world it is estimated that there are 40 to 75 billion tons of bauxite, enough to last for centuries.
As a well regulated, governed and developed country Australia represents the best options for aluminium, though as mentioned, the colossal amounts of energy needed to refine bauxite make this a best of a bad bunch type of scenario. As of just under 80% of Australia's energy comes from fossil fuels meaning the process has a significant carbon footprint. This will decrease if Australia transitions to a larger proportion of renewable energy.
Aluminium is used relatively infrequently in jewellery, especially fine jewellery. As it is light and inexpensive, it doesn't have the luxurious feel that people expect when buying jewellery. Add to that, that it is hard to work with and you go a long way to an explanation for the lack of aluminium jewellery.
In the mid 20 century, aluminium did become more common especially in costume jewellery as other metals were in short supply after the two world wars.
To add coloured dyes to aluminium, as we do in our jewellery, you first need to ‘anodize’ the metal. This is done by a process of electrolysis and creates a porous layer in which the dyes are absorbed. Anodizing aluminium also makes the surface harder.
A select few designers have mastered the use of aluminium in fine jewellery, meaning they combine it with gemstones and precious metals to create pieces that are often large, colourful and stand out.
One particularly notable example of a jewellery designer who has used aluminium is Paris based designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR) who’s iconic pieces regularly fetch many times their estimates at auction.
Rosenthal has used the metal to create colourful organic pieces like these rose petal earrings that sold for more than $10,000 USD at Sotheby’s in April .
Contact us to discuss your requirements of aluminium gates. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.