I know you shouldn’t write a blog post in anger but a friend of mine recently told me about a post in a babywearering group where members were claiming I was breaking the law because Tree of Opals hallmarking wasn’t applied to their piece. So let me clear a few things up.
First of all, the only problems I’ve ever had have been with clients who didn’t read my terms and conditions. If any of the people making libellous claims had bothered to do so they would have seen my very clear Tree of Opals Hallmarking Policy. The Hallmark legislation in the UK is that a piece of gold (any carat purity, I work mostly in 14ct) over 1g and any piece of silver over 7.78g must be hallmarked.
Tree of Opals Hallmarking
I’m very proud to say that I have my own hallmark “sponsor’s mark” which is a TO in a pentagon. The rings I make are usually about 1.5g so if they’re gold I send them off to be hallmarked. I have about two a month so I make sure I do two months’ worth of jewellery in need of hallmarking together because it costs me almost £25 just in shipping. Tree of Opals Hallmarking is only applied to silver pieces when they’re over 7.75g so that’s some of our larger Sterling silver bits like the heart necklaces and the pet’s nose and paw print pieces.
925 Stamping for Sterling Silver
Sterling silver rings and Sterling silver clay pieces under 7.75g will usually be 925 stamped if I remember and have room! It’s NOT a legal requirement and is only done to state a piece is Sterling silver. It’s very easy to apply myself with a little stamp that I bought online quite legally. In fact, it means so little that you can purchase 925 stamped pieces from China on Ebay that aren’t silver, they’re silver plated. A good example is the 925 stamped charm beadcores that lots of makers use in the early days believing them to be solid silver.
I won’t write too much more on this because I’m recovering from an operation I had yesterday and I hope the people who posted in the group are ashamed of themselves. It’s not easy to be a work at home mum (WAHM’s) and parent at the best of times without having to defend myself to people who could have chosen to read the terms and conditions in the first place instead of trolling groups making libellous comments through what I can only imagine is jealousy! Support independent artists and don’t compare them to high street brands!