[Jewelry making - Article 00029] - Re: [Orchid] Material choice for Body Jewelry

[Jeff Georgantes]

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>     I've been asked by a customer to make a piece of "body jewelry"
>     for him, and I need some guidance as to which metals I should be
>     working with, if I make it, at all. 

Doug,

    I wrote this days ago and forgot to mail it. Hopefully this will
    still be pertinent. I'll admit that I'm no expert at this topic, but
    like all jewelers and jewelry teachers, its hard to be in business
    these days without crossing paths with the body modification world on
    some level, at some point. Most of us have made earrings. When I
    first made a nipple ring, I just figured that I would make it like an
    earring. My customer wanted it out of white gold, but was intimidated
    by how much it would cost and wanted to explore different metals.
    Ultimately, when she could afford it, she also wanted to get a nipple
    shield (like that thing that Janet Jackson had). I was in a similar
    situation to you. What I did was went to the internet (this was way
    before Orchid). There are so many body jewelry websites out there to
    help. The biggest and by far the best is BME: Body Modification
    Ezine, http://www.bmezine.com/. It is an unbelievably comprehensive
    website on piercing/body modification. They have an encyclopedia and
    history section that will blow your mind and answer questions that
    you would never guess even could be asked. Years later, when I wrote
    my master's thesis for my MFA, this website came in really handy. 

    One of the things that I learned with my nipple ring dilemma is that
    different areas of the body have different levels of sensitivity.
    Piercing through cartilage is different from piercing through flesh
    for example. Cartilage is more resilient, flesh is more sensitive and
    has more quirks. Also, just like with earrings, not everyone is the
    same, some people are sensitive to what others are not. Another thing
    I learned and is why I'm writing, because I don't see anyone else
    mentioning this, is that sensitive flesh vs. cartilage often can't
    handle nickel-based white gold. With sensitive body parts you have to
    use palladium-based white gold. 

    As far as the liability thing goes, I would definitely get your
    customer to sign a statement saying that you are making a custom
    piece of jewelry at your customer's request, to his or her
    specifications and that you take zero responsibility for the results.
    Also I think you know this, but you're not a piercer, don't get
    talked into in any installation. 

    Good luck! Just think what kind of requests you're going to get once
    you get a reputation for this. I helped a local dentist one time make
    a setting for setting a diamond into someone's tooth. After that I
    became the guy in my area that all of the local dentists went to for
    help with setting diamonds into teeth. I thought that was pretty
    funny. 

Jeff Georgantes
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH

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