An Insider’s Take on Gold Manipulation Case

I have been watching metals being manipulated for years. Well, now it has become obvious,

Here's a Good Read, check it out.

If you use Silver in your production, BUY!

I am going to predict that at some point, maybe as soon as after the election, regardless of who wins, metals will go up and I mean UP!

So get it while the getting is good. 

Yes, Silver is being manipulated! Listen to this expert:

Link

It seems no one is able to do anything to prevent this, or catch the manipulators doing it. I have seen estimates for a bottom price for silver as low as $10 per ounce. It is going to take awhile for the world markets to settle back down from the mess they are in. Hint -- keep an eye on what is happening in China and the other Asian markets.

Silver being used by Investors

Hi Everyone-
Here is a really good (recent) take on how Silver continues to be manipulated.
http://www.kitco.com/ind/Lewis/2013-08-15-The-Unbearable-Lightness-of-Being-Long-Silver.html
Since most of this activity centers around 'paper' silver (the equivalent of air) and is connected to people investing in silver for profit, it really doesn't matter to me as a craftsman because I only buy metal. Like he says in this article, 'silver seems cheap'. It is! And it will probably stay that way for awhile longer, so get your stash stocked up while it is affordable.

Get some Silver, the price has dropped.

Thanks to you new folks who just subscribed to my blog and thanks for hanging around to all of you who are still subscribers. I haven't posted anything in quite awhile, I have been away from my bench, pursuing other creative things like music and sewing.

Today I wanted to bring it to your attention in case you haven't noticed -- SILVER spot price is all the way down to $22.75. You can see that in the chart on the right side of your screen. This price is very affordable to us craftspeople, so it is time to buy.

An interesting thing occurred during the past few years -- due to the SILVER price getting so high, many people turned to Copper and other less expensive metals for their production. Since I am a Silversmith, enjoy soldering, know how to bezel set stones, etc, I am not that crazy about a lot of the work I have seen on Etsy, Pinterest and other websites. However, I have seen some really interesting pieces and I hope the artists who developed these techniques will start using SILVER again. I am referring to the Bohemian style jewelry that is proliferating right now -- twisted wire, lots of beads, simple construction, NO soldering, etc. Since the price of SILVER is low and these techniques are fast and furious, I don't see why the quality of work can not come up by switching back to SILVER and still be affordable.

I plan on starting a new production run soon. When the SILVER spot price was $45+ an ounce, I just couldn't justify using up my stock for the ROI I would get for my finished work. The spoiled public will only pay so much for silver jewelry and there is no way I can get my prices down to match what is available as imports, regardless of quality. Now that the price has dropped I can eek out a profit again, while maintaining my quality and design standards. 

So thank you to the World Banker guys (who are constantly ratcheting everything up and down) for focusing  on other commodities like Oil, Bonds, etc and allowing the SILVER price to go down. I appreciate being able to get back to work. So get some SILVER and get busy! =)

Please comment!

Estaban

PS I have a couple of Jewelry related Boards on Pinterest -- check them out if you have time:
http://pinterest.com/stram99/jewelry/
http://pinterest.com/stram99/my-jewelry/

Silver is taking off again.

Okay I've been watching and Silver has already started to inch up. It has been holding steady for quite some time around $30 spot... today it went above $35. I believe it will go on another run up to $40-50 by end of second quarter, so if you need materials, get them soon. It seems expensive, yes -- the old days are gone -- but if you think about it you make money on it as it rises if you buy it soon enough to catch the increase.

Argentium Silver

I was asked recently the best way to avoid fire scale on pieces when soldering and I recommended using the Argentium silver from Rio Grande. It costs a little more than normal sterling but will probably be worth it to solve this problem, or at least help minimize it.

In case you haven't seen a Rio findings catalog lately then you should get one. Call them at 800-545-6566 and request one. If you tell them that you are an Instructor you will probably get it free, I have never paid for one. The catalog is huge nowadays... beads, display furniture, dichroic glass, etc. Also, there are so many types of raw materials available that you don't even have to do the pre-work yourself. I'm talking about Reticulated sheet, Cuzco-Pattern Mokumé Gane, and even silver plated copper (to cut costs) and more. I did all this stuff by hand years ago but silver was $5 an ounce then... who can experiment very much these days.

So in order to broaden the range of pieces you are making and save a lot of work, try some of these other forms of pre-fabricated materials to make bigger pieces cheaper with more interesting results.

Gratitude is a State

Handled a tricky design problem yesterday. Looking back, it turns out that it was really easy and just staying with it was what it took to get it done. Today I want to say out loud how much gratitude I am feeling. Yes, I have a list.