Products are Made of?
Here are brief definitions of what some of our products are made of and links to more comprehensive information for them.
ACRYLIC
Acrylic or Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or poly(methyl 2-methylpropenoate) is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. This thermoplastic and transparent plastic is sold by the tradenames Plexiglas, Perspex, Acrylite, Acrylplast, and Lucite and is commonly called acrylic glass or simply acrylic. The material was developed in 1928 in various laboratories and was brought to market in 1933 by the German Company Rohm and Haas (GmbH & Co. KG).
ALABASTRITE
Alabastrite is the product name for a cement-based polyresin material of medium to heavy weight. It is easily moulded, can be painted, and is mainly used for mass-produced, mass-marketed, collectibles. Alabastrite can break down in water. These items may be cleaned by dusting; however, water cleaning should be avoided.
BONE CHINA
Bone china is type of porcelain body first developed in Britain in which calcined ox bone, bone ash, is a major constituent. It is characterised by high whiteness, translucency and strength.
Bone ash was first used in ceramics by Thomas Frye in 1748 to make a type of soft-paste porcelain. In the late 18th century, Josiah Spode further developed its use by mixing it with china clay, kaolin and China stone to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.
Production usually involves a two stage firing where the first, biscuit, is without a glaze at 1280°C (2336°F) gives a translucent product and then glaze, or glost, fired at a lower temperature below 1080°C (1976°F).
GEMSTONES
Gemstones are a mineral, rock, such in the case of lapis lazuli, or petrified material that when cut or faceted and polished is collectible or can be used in jewellery. Others are organic, such as amber, which is fossilised tree resin and jet, a form of coal. Some gemstones which may be generally considered precious or beautiful are too soft or too fragile to be used in jewelry, for example, single-crystal rhodochrosite, but are exhibited in museums and are sought by collectors.
GOLD
Gold is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Au (from the Latin aurum) and atomic number 79. A soft, shiny, yellow, dense, malleable, ductile (trivalent and univalent) transition metal, gold does not react with most chemicals but is attacked by chlorine, fluorine and aqua regia. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks and in alluvial deposits and is one of the coinage metals.
For millennia gold has been used as money, a store of value and in jewelry.
In the U.S. a scale of 24 is used, so 24 Karats (24K) is 100% pure. 18K is 18 parts gold and 6 parts alloy (other metals), and so on. 10K is the legal minimum for Karat-graded gold. The word "Plumb" indicates the exact purity of the piece.
PORCELAIN
Porcelain is a hard ceramic substance made by heating at high temperature selected and refined materials often including clay in the form of kaolinite. Porcelain clay when mixed with water forms a plastic paste which can be worked to a required shape or form that is hardened and made permanent by firing in a kiln at temperatures of between about 1200 degrees Celsius and about 1400 degrees Celsius. The toughness, strength and translucence of porcelain arises mainly from the formation at high temperatures within the clay body of the mineral mullite and glass.
Porcelain was so-named after its resemblance to the white, shiny Venus-shell, called in old Italian porcella. The curved shape of the upper surface of the Venus-shell resembles the curve of a pig's back (Latin porcella, a little pig, a pig).
Properties associated with porcelain include those of low permeability, high strength, hardness, glassiness, durability, whiteness, translucence, resonance, brittleness, high resistance to the passage of electricity, high resistance to chemical attack, high resistance to thermal shock and high elasticity.
Porcelain is used to make wares for the table and kitchen, sanitary wares, decorative wares and objects of fine art. Its high resistance to the passage of electricity makes porcelain an ideal insulating material and it is used in dentistry to make false teeth, caps and crowns.
The earliest porcelains originated in China. The reader is referred to the Wikipedia article on Chinese porcelain for a discussion on the early history of the material.
STONEWARE
Stoneware is a category of clay and a type of pottery distinguished primarily by its firing and maturation temperature (from about 1200°C to 1315°C). In essence, it is man-made stone.
