FAQs
Do you do Fundraisers?
Yes! We love helping our community by raising funds at special events or on-line specials and sales. Simply email us or give us a call and we can discuss your fundraising goals and choices. We can come to your event or create a special jewelry piece or entire line of jewelry to meet your needs. How fabulous! Call or email Colleen MacIntosh (The Sassy Apple owner) at 609-206-0506 or colleen@thesassyapple.com.
What is the Story of How My Hand Stamped Gift is Made?
Great care and time is taken to create your unique, one-of-a-kind pendant. Our artists start with a blank sterling silver disc and stamp each letter or number – one precious character at a time onto the disc before punching a centered hole in the top. Since the stamping is created by a real person, you’ll sometimes see slight variations on spacing which adds to the character of this gift. The artists will ink the entire disc by hand and then remove the ink except in the grooves of the letters. This process is where the magic happens and the letters and numbers appear! Then, a lengthy hand-sanding process removes minor surface scratches, though the sterling silver disc is made of a very soft metal and will always maintain many of its organic imperfections – which we love! If your gift is going to be domed, the disc is then placed on a wooden dapping block while the artist uses a dapping mallet to gently mold the pendant into its cupped shape –hammering in a circular motion all around the disc. A lot of muscle goes into the making of the domed disc! After careful magnified inspection and more sanding, the disc is placed in a burnishing tumbler for 3-6 hours which adds to its shine. Now you know just how special you and your gift are!
Sterling Silver
Some of our jewelry is made with Sterling Silver components and is noted on the product page.
Sterling Silver (marked .925) is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. The sterling alloy produces a metal that maintains the lustrous white color of silver while increasing the strength and durability.
Argentium® Sterling Silver, (marked .925) a patented sterling alloy that includes germanium to produce a metal with both increased strength and resistance to tarnish. The name Argentium ® is derived from the Latin word for silver, Argentum (hence the use of Ag as silver’s symbol in the Periodic Table.
Sterling Silver Filled
Some of our jewelry is Sterling Silver Filled and is noted on the product details.
Items are made by combining a durable outer layer of sterling silver (.925/20) surrounding a copper-alloy core. Fabrication is completed with an anti-tarnish coating to preserve the beauty. Sterling silver-filled items handle like sterling silver.
Silver Plated
Some of our jewelry is Silver Plated and is noted on the product details.
A fine silver film deposited on a base metal by electrolysis, in the same kind of electrically-charged bath used to make gold electroplate. The film can be as thin as seven millionths of an inch. A silver plate item cannot be called sterling or bear a marking of “silver.”
Pewter
Some of our jewelry is made with Pewter components and is noted on the product details.
Our non-sterling silver “lead free pewter” charms supplier uses an alloy called Britannia, composed of 92% tin, 7.5 % antimony and .5% copper. Tin is refined from ore that contains other metals, including lead. A chemical process is used to remove the lead, but trace amounts still remain. Although all pewter contains trace amounts of lead, the term “lead free pewter” is used to describe pewter that meets the stringent FDA standard of less than .05% (or 500 parts per million) lead content in pewter in contact with food.
Pewter is a metal alloy, traditionally between 85 and 99 percent tin, with the remainder consisting of copper and antimony acting as hardeners. Lower grades of pewter may contain as much as 60% lead, giving them a bluish tint.
The Federal Trade Commission and the American Pewter Guild define pewter as a “metal alloy product of which the chemical composition shall be not less than 90% Grade A Tin, with the remainder composed of metals appropriate for use in pewter.”
Antiquing
Some of our jewelry is made by the Antiquing process and is noted on the product details.
Antiquing is the process of artificially inducing (or mimicking) the natural process of the tarnishing of metals. Depending on the plate type, parts are either darkened with chemical solutions or with specially formulated metal marking inks. Both approaches are carefully monitored to achieve a consistent appearance that creates polished highlights and dark contrasting recessed areas.
Gold Plated
Some of our jewelry is made of Gold Plated components and is noted on the product details.
An electrolytic coating with gold, or with an alloy of not less than 10% fineness to a minimum thickness throughout that is equivalent to seven millionths of an inch. This means that where the fineness is less than 24Kt, the thickness must be proportionately greater, so that the same amount of fine gold is seven millionths of an inch, it may be marked as heavy gold electroplate.
Gold Filled
Some of our jewelry is made of Gold Filled components and is noted on the product details.
A gold alloy plate made by soldering, brazing, welding or other means that is not less than 10Kt fineness, where the plating constitutes at least 1/20th of the weight of the metal in the entire article. The term must be preceded by the karat fineness of the plating, such as 14Kt Gold-Filled. When using the term gold overlay, manufacturers are permitted to use a layer of gold that is less than 1/20th the weight of the entire piece, but they must stamp the proportion of the gold layer on the jewelry.
Swarovski Birthstones
We use genuine Swarovski brand crystals. We purchase from only the finest jewelry suppliers.
How long will delivery take?
We try very hard to completely orders within 48 hours of receiving them and shipping out within 72 hours depending on the size of the order. For emergency orders, contact Colleen at colleen@thesassyapple.com or 609-206-0506.