Black Gold
Jewelry
Black Gold
Get to know the ultra-precious new metal thatβs exclusively SK
βI remember my great grandmother loved black coffee and that was my inspiration,β says metalsmith EliΜas RuiΜz of the hue that inspired the new Black Gold pieces he developed for Spinelli Kilcollin. βNext time you have a cafeΜ Americano and you see the bubbles, thatβs the color Black Gold is.β The nine-piece collection, which features a new breakthrough in metallurgy, came about from equal parts necessity and the pursuit of perfec- tion. As Spinelli Kilcollin cofounder and sales director Yves Spinelli explains, βWe started thinking about this several years ago because we would do black rhodium plating on silver and gold and it always eventually starts to fade, and in some cases will completely wear off.β
Black Gold, by contrast, never fades or loses its sheen. Itβs the result of a collaboration with SKβs go-to jeweler, Rogelio Ortega of RCJ Jewelry, and RuiΜz, his metalsmith, who formulated the custom metal for the brand. While most black jewelry on the market is in fact black rhodium-plated gold, and loses its luster over time, the new metal that RuiΜz and Ortega developed for SK is actually black through and through, and retains its color permanently. Itβs also denser and more valuable than 18 karat gold, as it comprises a mix of gold and opulent palladium. βItβs more valuable than platinum and gold together,β says Ortega. βItβs a very special metal; a very special combination.β RuiΜz spent years tinkering with the formulations out of his down- town Los Angeles workshop to get the blend just right.
βYou wonβt find that color at the market,β RuiΜz says, and indeed, itβs an innovation that required ex- tensive trial and error. βI did hundreds of tries to find the right mix of metals and get the quality they asked for,β he explains. There are lots of things that can go wrong when mixing metals. βLaymen will say, letβs just experiment and throw all kinds of different alloys in and see what colors we can come up with and thatβs not really the way it works,β Spinelli says. βBecause it needs to be pulled into wire, it still needs to be set with stones, it canβt be brittle and crack.β βSometimes the metal doesnβt melt; if it doesnβt get to the right temperature it breaks,β Ortega adds.
Fortunately, RuiΜz is something of a genius with mixing colors and metals (βheβs almost like a scien- tist,β Spinelli asserts), having already formulated SKβs signature yellow and rose gold hues from scratch, rather than relying on the premixed concoctions widely available from gold distributors. Since Ruiz was a child growing up in Oaxaca, Mexico, he was fascinated with color, and had an affinity for sorting the vibrant hues of baby clothing at his familyβs in-home factory. βI never imagined Iβd still be sorting colors when I grew up,β
he says.
For Black Gold, SK reimagined some of the classic bestselling silhouettes of the Core collection, the all- silver grouping of rings that they first started with as a new company in 2010. βIt was before we had the money to use a lot of diamonds and gold, so our designs back then were based mostly on silver, and as weβve elevated the brand itβs something we missed doing,β says cofounder and creative director Dwyer Kilcolin. βItβs exciting to use more expensive materials, but weβve been wanting to bring attention back to those classic, more street-looking styles that are focused on pure metal.β Styles that got the Black Gold treatment include the Orion, which stars three bands in different gauges with yellow gold connectors and rose gold annulets, and the Vela, which features five bands in different gauges. New styles include the four-band Cassini BG, which incorporates gray diamonds, and the Cici BG, which has three black gold bands flanking one made of yellow gold. βYellow serves to make the black look a little bit darker, and the dark bands around the yellow really make the gold band pop,β says Kilcollin.
Back in their workshops, Ortega and RuiΜz labor over each ring with the image of the SK customer in mind. βWe work thinking about the looks on the faces of people admiring the beauty of the pieces,β RuiΜz says. βWhether itβs a girlfriend or a mother putting on the ring for the first time and seeing it on her hand, and saying βLook!ββ
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- Written by Christine Whitney