Niobium is quickly becoming a favorite
of metal artists seeking to add splashes of color to their work.
BY SUZANNE WADE

Dianne deBeixedon’s Meandering Squid brooch, shown in detail. deBeixedon wanted to capture the near-iridescent appearance of a squid in the ocean; she used an electrified paintbrush to apply patterns on the chased and forged niobium, then attached sterling silver tentacles.>>

Dianne deBeixedon’s Meandering Squid brooch, shown complete. (Detail above)

When your design inspiration is a squid, what on earth do you use to make your jewelry?

Niobium, decided Dianne deBeixedon, a metalsmith and professor of metalworking at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. “These little squid [brooches] wanted color,” she says of the project. “I never imagined them in gold or silver or anything else.”

Dianne deBeixedon’s Night Color Squid brooch, made of chased and forged niobium and silver

DeBeixedon turned to niobium because the metal’s unique colors seemed perfectly suited for recreating the squid’s translucent color. “In some of the pictures I’ve seen [of squid], they look iridescent when the light hits them,” she says. “I thought [niobium] would be perfect for that shimmer.” Using an electrified paintbrush, she applied patterns resembling those found on the sea creatures onto a piece of niobium she had chased and repoussed. She then used forged sterling silver to back the piece and create tentacles.

Although deBeixedon’s source of inspiration might seem a little unusual, her choice of niobium for her artistic endeavors is no longer likely to raise eyebrows. From humble beginnings, niobium has quickly become a favorite choice for artists seeking to add a splash of color to their work. “I would say niobium has become the dominant metal of the reactive metals,” says Bill Seeley of Reactive Metals Studio in Clarkdale, Arizona, a distributor of niobium, titanium, and other exotic metals to the jewelry industry.

Niobium is part of the same family of reactive metals that includes titanium and tungsten. Of those metals, only titanium and niobium are sufficiently workable to be practical for jewelry applications. (For more on titanium jewelry, see “Metal with Attitude,” and “Polishing a Titanium Ring,” both in March 2000.)

DIFFERENT REACTIVES. The reactive metals all produce brilliant colors when heated or anodized, a process in which the metal is placed in an electrolytic solution and subjected to electrical charge. Both anodizing and heating cover the surface with a natural oxide of the metal that has a very high refractive index. Depending on its thickness, this transparent oxide layer produces interference colors, like a beetle’s back, or oil on a puddle.

Holly Hosterman and Paul Lubitz have made their company, Holly Yashi, almost synonymous with the colors of niobium. Starting out making the most of the bright, intense hues, Hosterman is now experimenting with niobium’s potential for softer shades of blue, green, and coppery gold. Photo courtesy Holly Yashi.

Although both niobium and titanium produce brilliant colors when anodized, coloring niobium is significantly easier. While titanium requires etching with nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid, or an acid substitute before coloring, niobium can go from the workbench into the anodizer, not only avoiding dangerous chemicals, but also allowing for a variety of surface treatments.

“We use niobium because with titanium we had to etch it with hydrofluoric acid to get the really bright and even colors, and that became very nasty to work with,” says Holly Hosterman of Holly Yashi, an Arcata, California company known for its niobium jewelry. Even with the etch, says Hosterman’s partner, Paul Lubitz, “It was iffy if it was going to work. We had to really control it. Niobium has a degree more [color] intensity [than titanium], and we’ve also found we can really widen the range of colors by doing different surface treatments.”

Although Holly Yashi’s designs initially featured the bright purple, fuchsia, and turquoise niobium is best known for, in recent years Hosterman has begun experimenting with niobium’s softer colors, such as blue, green, and coppery gold. “The really bright colors were what people were wearing and wanting [in the ‘80s],” says Hosterman. “Now we’ve toned down some of the colors, and we’ve also played with the different textures. That’s given us more of a sanded, matte finish, and that’s made the colors smoky — muted colors, too.”

To achieve these muted colors, Hosterman uses a bead blaster or texturing wheel to finish the niobium. “By using different glass beads for different lengths of time, or by brushing the metal with a wheel or some kind of texturing material, we can get all those different surface treatments, and then those treatments affect the color,” she says.

Bill Seeley, a distributor of exotic metals who created this sterling/niobium brooch, calls niobium “the dominant metal of the reactive metals.” Photo courtesy Reactive Metals Studio.

According to Seeley, almost any texturing tool will work on niobium. “You can put any kind of surface finish on niobium and color it,” he says. “You can take it outside, beat it with a rock, and color it, and it’ll come out great.”

John Flynn of Kapaau, Hawaii, has experimented with crushed glass in his bead blaster to create a sparkle effect. “It makes the texture really rough, but it makes for some brilliant colors and sparkling,” he says. “It has a kind of pavé diamond look to it.”

Anthurium flowers, created in niobium by metalsmith John Flynn. Make them in STEP-BY-STEP!

Flynn started working in niobium when he decided to add a little color to his line of jewelry inspired by tropical fruits and flowers. “I was doing silver and gold, and I wanted to get some color into [my line],” he says. “I started to put together tools and equipment for enameling, and then somewhere along the line I saw some [jewelry by] Holly Yashi.”

Niobium offered a less equipment-intensive color option, and an entirely different look. “[Niobium and enamels] aren’t even comparable — they’re way different,” he says. “When you’re dealing with enamels, you’re dealing with pigments. The niobium gives a much more vibrant color because you’re just looking at refractive light. It’s a very liquid, clear color.”

Emergence brooch/pendant shown here is of 18K gold/sterling silver bi-metal, sterling silver, niobium, and a stick pearl; 4-1/2" x 2" x 1/2". Photo: Michael Cunningham.

Flynn also found coloring niobium easy to master. “Niobium goes through a real set range of colors, and you can pick the color by the voltage,” he says. “At the lowest [voltage] it’s bronze, and then a navy blue, and then a light steel blue, and then almost clear, then into yellow, rose, bronze, then pink, then into magenta, then into deep, deep midnight, then into the green range.”

Flynn uses “masks” or “resists” — non-reactive agents painted over portions of the niobium — to get more than one color on each piece. For example, Flynn paints “S” curves down fan-shaped pieces with clear nail polish. After the polish dries, he anodizes the piece, uses acetone to remove the nail polish, and then anodizes a second time at a different voltage to add a different color.

This double-dipping can be done an unlimited number of times, as long as high-voltage colors are applied first. Niobium’s color is determined by the thickness of the oxide layer, with thicker layers deposited by higher voltages. Anodizing at lower voltages has no effect on areas colored by higher voltages, permitting artists to add lower-voltage colors to uncolored areas without ruining previously applied high-voltage colors.

This effect can also be seen in Holly Yashi’s pieces, which sometimes require up to seven trips to the anodizer to develop their many distinct hues. “We also have some proprietary methods of using resists, such as a batik process,” says Lubitz. “We’ll put a resist down and then do one color or one texture or both, then we get rid of the resist and do another color or texture.”

Brian Halawith of Scottsdale, Arizona, particularly likes the greens and pinks niobium produces, and combines them with other metals, such as 14-karat gold and Japanese alloyed metals, for contrast. “I really like the iridescent colors and the fact that you can do a rainbow effect, you can grade from one color to another, you can paint your designs on, or you can use a resistance step” for a variety of effects, he says.

Rick Hamilton heats niobium to achieve a dark charcoal color, to be used in a line of distinctive wedding bands. Photo: Rick Hamilton.

THE DARK SIDE. While most artists turn to niobium for its rainbow of colors, Rick Hamilton of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, likes the metal for its dark side. Hamilton heats niobium to achieve a dark charcoal to black color, which he has incorporated into a line of wedding rings.

“Bright colors can wear off [in a ring], but the black color is pretty resistant to wear because the [heated] oxide layer is much thicker than an anodized layer,” he says. “I played with anodizing also, but it just didn’t appeal to me. It just doesn’t work in my jewelry the way the black surface does.”

Heating the niobium to a color he compares to hematite takes a little more care than anodizing. “The oxide layer is somewhat tricky,” he says. “I usually preheat the piece and I usually [heat it] several times, pickling in between. I clean it in an ultrasonic so there are no oils on the surface to prevent oxygen from getting to it. It’s the same care you take if you’re welding platinum.

“I’ve been working with it for years, and it’s always serendipitous when it forms a beautiful, even layer,” he adds. “It can be frustrating when it doesn’t, and it can take hours with abrasives to refinish it.”

While niobium’s color is the initial draw for designers, they stick with the metal because it’s also much easier to work with than titanium. “Niobium is essentially more like working with silver,” says Seeley, who compares working titanium to working with stainless steel. “If you want to, you can Masonite die form [niobium], chase it, repoussé it, or pick it up and pound on it. It’s very slow to work-harden. You can’t anneal it yourself, but annealing isn’t a consideration because it moves so well under the hammer or chasing tool. It’s friendly. [Jewelers] are hand tool kind of people, and niobium works very well with all the tools that are already on your bench.”

Betty Helen Longhi uses the subtleties of shading possible with niobium as settings for elements with shifting color - especially pearls and opals. Her Floating Free brooch/ pendant shown here is of niobium, 14K gold/sterling silver, sterling silver, niobium, and a pearl; 3-1/4" x 2" x 3/4".

“Niobium is a lot more fun to work with than some of the other metals because it is soft and it does form nicely,” says Halawith. “I was very creative to begin with. I did texturing and a lot of interesting surface treatments. Cutting and forming is a lot easier [than with titanium], and drilling holes and finishing edges is a lot easier.”

Niobium does offer some challenges silver doesn’t, however. Like titanium, it can’t be soldered, cast, or drawn down for wire without NASA-quality facilities. “We’re talking about metals that when they’re initially melted, it’s done in electron beam furnaces under hard vacuums,” says Seeley. “They need to be annealed [under vacuum], and you use very special lubricants when drawing niobium wire that cost hundreds of dollars per gallon. It’s very high-tech material.”

Because the material cannot be soldered, niobium pieces can only be attached to each other or to gold and silver pieces through cold connections, such as rivets. “All your construction has to be preplanned for riveting or pressure fitting, and that makes it tricky,” says deBeixedon. “You can’t use any heat whatsoever and [if you’re looking to] get some level of sophistication, that can be discouraging.”

In addition, if you make a mistake, there’s not much you can do to correct it, points out Flynn. “If you screw up your design, it’s scrap,” he Flynn. “You can’t remelt it, and you can’t reuse it.”

The Make A Wish brooch/pendant on the opposite page is of niobium, 18K gold, sterling silver, pearl, and diamond; 4" x 1-1û2" x 1û2". Photos: Michael Cunningham.

That one-shot quality means that extra care is required when doing chasing and repoussé, says deBeixedon. “You can’t anneal it, so you kind of have to know where you’re going, and how high you want to go,” she explains. “With silver, you can go back and forth. If it’s too high, you can chase it back. Niobium isn’t quite so forgiving.”

Cleaning the pitch off is also a bigger challenge with niobium than with silver, deBeixedon says. “It’s a little tricky getting it in and out of pitch because you can’t use heat to burn out the pitch,” she says. She herself uses lacquer thinner to dissolve the pitch.

“It’s a little hard to scrub,” she adds. “If you use steel brushes, you can get residual steel [on the piece] that will affect the coloring later. You have to use nylon-bristle toothbrushes, and clean it with soft abrasives like pumice powder. I’ve also been experimenting with buffing compounds and Scotch Brite® pads to keep it clean.”

None of these problems is insurmountable, say jewelry artists; it just takes a little creativity to work around the limitations. And the reward is brilliant color found only in the reactive metals.

“The thing I found when we introduced niobium is that here we had a material that, as a jeweler, I could sniff it, pound on it, form it, twist it, beat it up, and use it like I would another metal on my bench,” says Seeley. “The difference being when you get through, you don’t have just a black patina that you can use. You have a patina that you can paint on the surface in a myriad of colors.”

“Anything you can do with traditional gold, silver, and platinum, you can do with niobium,” says Lubitz confidently. “What niobium adds is the magic of color.”

The artists whose work is shown in this article are: Dianne deBeixedon, (757) 627-9962, ddebeixe@pilot.infi.net; John Flynn, P.O. Box 447, Kapaau, HI 96755, www.kahiko.com; Richard Hamilton, (508) 627-5690, www.rick-hamilton.com; Betty Helen Longhi, (910) 725-2100; Bill Seeley, Reactive Metals Studio, (520) 634-3434, www.reactivemetals.com; Holly Yashi, (800) 274-2714, www.hollyyashi.com.

For more information on niobium, click here for some links and resources.

Suzanne Wade has written about the gem and jewelry industry for more than eight years. Formerly editor/associate publisher of AJM Magazine, she is now a part-time freelance writer and full-time mom.