User Profile

What is Byzantium Lotus?

We make unique, handcrafted jewelry designed for individuals who like well crafted, elegant pieces. Our jewelry can be fun, glamorous, sexy, or simple, but whatever the style, it is always made with the best materials. We use sterling and argentium silver**, gold fill, fine crystal, genuine precious and semi-precious stones, and one-of-a-kind glass beads made by artisan lampworkers right here in the US. Each piece is crafted with both style and durability in mind, and we stand by our work.

We believe each piece of jewelry should be as unique as the person who wears it. If you buy a piece of jewelry from us, you won't walk into a jewelry store and see exactly the same piece behind the glass. We also take custom orders, so if you see something you like that's already sold, e-mail us and we'll see if we can make you something similar.

**A note about argentium silver: Argentium silver is the newest advance in silver technology. Instead of the standard copper used to harden regular sterling silver, which is disposed to tarnish over time, Argentium silver uses germanium, an alloy which hardens the silver to workability, the same as copper, but also makes it tarnish resistant. Argentium silver is beautifully white in color, almost reminiscent of white gold, and is rapidly gaining in availability and popularity among jewelry artists for its special properties. In addition to tarnish resistance, it is also fire scale resistant and can easily be hardened in the oven, making it much more durable than standard silver. Just like regular sterling, it is .925 pure. Argentium is a few dollars more expensive than sterling per troy ounce, but is still much less expensive than the less workable, softer fine silver. IMO, it has all the advantages of sterling with all the beauty of fine.

We at Byzantium Lotus use Argentium silver whenever possible, and believe the slight price increase over the cost of sterling is well worth the advantages. Not all findings and silver beads are available in argentium as of yet, so many of our pieces still have some sterling - still a very beautiful and under-appreciated metal. We list all materials used with each piece we make.

***A note about silver and gold prices: For the past several months, the price of silver and gold has been on the rise. Particularly the cost of silver has tripled in the past year, making the raw materials for crafting jewelry more expensive, and thus the price of the finished product more than what you might be used to seeing for silver in the past. Byzantium Lotus is committed to giving the best price we can on our jewelry. Our prices will reflect the market value we paid for our materials in all instances. (Please keep in mind that each piece is handcrafted, and our prices reflect that as well.)

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