Bali Sterling Silver Handmade Beads - »
Silver is a soft metal in its pure form, too soft to be used for
Bali silver beads and jewelry, so it's mixed with other metals
usually copper to make it more durable. A popular silver mixture,
called an alloy, is known as .925 sterling silver.
Vermeil is sterling silver that has been gold-plated. Most of our vermeil Bali beads is plated with 24K gold. The difference between vermeil, and gold-filled, is in the thickness of the gold and the base metal used. In vermeil, the base is sterling silver. The standard is for the gold plating to be much thicker than ordinary plating.