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Black Hill's Gold can be distinguished by it's hues of pink and green grape leaves, vines, and grapes. Although the gold does not have to come from the Black Hills, it must also be made in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Black Hill's Gold Jewelry orginated with the Gold Rush in 1849. At that time, the Gold Rush attracted not only prospectors but traders and artisans, too. Since grape leaves were plentiful in California, jewelry makers would craft a single grape leaf from the gold in the camp where they were at.

The artisans followed the goldminers from gold strike to gold strike. Eventually, they ended up in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was then they began alloying gold with sliver and copper to come up with the beautiful green and rose-colored hues, respectively.

In 1876, J.B. Le Bau and another man with the last name of King arrived in Central City, South Dakota with their designs in hands from the western gold camps and opened up a shop. Two years later, another two men, Charles Barclay and S.T. Butler, opened up another shop in Central City and started creating jewelry with the grape leaf and cluster designs they brought with them from Virginia City, Montana. Although Barclay was no longer involved in the business after 1896, Butler and his family continued running the business for four generations. Today S.T. Butler is considered the father of Black HIll's Gold Jewelry.

Another legend about Black HIll's Gold jewelry surrounds a Frenchman, Henri LeBeau. After he moved to America, he decided to seek his fortune during the Gold Rush in 1849. However, when he reached South Dakota, he became lost. After wandering around for days without food and water, he had a life-saving vision. The vision of grape leaves floating in a stream by a nearby vinyard saved his life.

He never made it to California but continued to stay in South Dakota. His designed his jewelry with grape leaves, vines, and grapes.

Pure gold is yellow. However, gold by itself is too soft to use for jewelry. By adding other metals to the gold you cannot only increase it's strength, but you can change the color of gold, too. Gold's carat weight is a term that tells how much metal is mixed with the gold. For instance, if a piece of jewelry is 18K, it is 18 parts gold to 6 parts some other metal. Thus, a piece of jewelry that is 18K gold would be 75% gold. As the carat weight of gold goes down, the amount of metal alloys increase. Furthermore, the lower the carat weight of gold, the more durable the jewelry. In the United States, 10K gold is the least amount of gold a piece of jewelry can contain to be considered gold.

For white gold, nickel or palladium is mixed with gold. Nickel can cause skin irritations whereas palladium doesn't, but it is more expensive. For rose and pink-colored golds, copper is added to the gold. Green shades are created by mixing silver with the gold.

When making Black Hill's Gold jewelry, certain pieces are stamped out of gold sheets while other pieces are cast using molds. Since gold is malleable, presses roll out the gold bars into sheets of varying thicknesses.Using patterns and dies, different components are stamped out.

To make the cast pieces, the artist draws the design. Following the design, a process called lost wax casting is used. In this process, hot wax is poured into a metal model. The wax mold is mounted to a wax stem called a sprue. Multiple sprues form an object similar to a tree. The tree is dipped into a cylinder of plaster and baked in an oven for several hours. During the baking process, the wax melts away, and a perfect plaster mold is the result. The plaster mold is filled with molten gold and placed in a vacuum. After the vacuum process, the cylinder is quenched in cold water, and the plaster shatters. The gold casts are cut from the tree and either hand-polished using a wheel or tumbled. In tumbling, the cast pieces are put in a cylinder with other materials in a liquid solution and agitated until polished smooth. The final step is to attach the cast pieces to the stamped out pieces.

The beautiful hues of pink and green gold combined with the delicate grapevines and leaves is beyond comparison. Amazon has 1,223 pieces of Black Hill's Gold jewelry available with some items up to 70% off. After you own a piece of Black Hill's Gold jewelry, you will fall in love with this exquisite, legendary jewelry. Whether for yourself or a gift for someone special, buy a piece of Black HIll's Gold jewelry today at Amazon's affordable prices! Furthermore, if your order is $25.00 or more, most pieces qualify for FREE Supersaver shipping. Ditch the Christams madness and your item delivered right to your doorstep.