The History of Black Hills Gold Jewelry

While there are several manufacturers of authentic Black Hills Gold jewelry, Landstroms is the oldest and most famous. Landstrom’s roots date back to 1878 when S.T. Butler, trained by French prospector and goldsmith Henri LeBeau, opened the first Black Hills Gold jewelry manufacturing store with his son, George M. Butler in Deadwood, South Dakota. In 1919, the company was divided into two companies, the F.L. Thorpe Company and the Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Company. In 1944 Ivan Landstrom bought the Black Hills Jewelry Manufacturing Company and in 1995 The History of Black Hills Gold Jewelry went was changd forever when Landstroms acquired the F.L. Thorpe Company making Landstroms the sole owner of all the original Black Hills Gold designs.

How Landstroms Black Hills Jewelry is Made

Each new design begins with a two-dimensional drawing and becomes a three-dimensional design carved in wax. The wax is surrounded by a plaster-like substance and when heated, the wax melts and leaves a void that molten gold can be poured into. This creates a casting in 10 karat gold.

Beginning with 24 karat* gold bars, alloys of 12 karat gold are rolled into sheets of gold. Leaves and other component parts are punched out of these gold sheets and are then individually hand-soldered to the casted gold frame. Depending on the design, select pieces of Landstrom’s are dipped in liquid 24 karat gold to create a bright eye-catching finish.

Then it’s time for the “Wriggling” process, a handcrafted finishing method that creates the rich frosty depth in Landstrom’s leaves. The veins of each leaf are then meticulously hand engraved to produce unique light-catching prismatic cuts.

From the first step to the final inspection, each piece of Landstrom’s Original Black Hills Gold reflects the skills of up to 50 different highly trained artisans.

* What’s the difference between a Karat and a Carat?
A Karat is a unit of measure for the fineness of gold, equal to 1/24 of the total amount of pure gold in an alloy. Thus, 24k is pure gold. A Carat is a unit weight for precious stone, equal to 200 milligrams.

No two pieces of Original Black Hills Gold Jewelry are alike as each is hand made. Each piece of Landstrom’s jewelry reflects great pride in craftsmanship by talented artisans with skills taught by their predecessors over 100 years ago. Landstroms has been admired and sought after for over a century.

Gypsies traveling through South Dakota in the 1950’s started a legend which says, “To one who wears the Black Hills Gold, good luck and fortune will unfold.”

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There are also stones that are associated with astrology signs and these do differ from monthly birthstones. For some people it is a matter of personal taste in regards to which stone, the astrology sign or month that they choose as their own.

A List Of Months And Stones

January is linked with the Garnet, which is traditionally a red stone. The Zodiac sign for January is the Capricorn and its gemstone is the Ruby which is also a red stone. Either stone would be fitting for a birthstone jewelry selection however, or as both are red this can be easier to choose.

February is the Amethyst stone which has a deep purple color, the Zodiac sign associated with February is Aquarius which is associated with the Garnet stone. Some people have birthdays at the end of a month, which means their Zodiac sign is set in the following month, so keep that in mind when looking at birthstone jewelry and Zodiac stone jewelry.

March is the Aquamarine stone that is a beautiful shade of light blue. The Zodiac sign associated with March is Pisces and its stone is Amethyst. Either would do well for birthstone jewelry.

April is the month of the Zodiac sign Aries, its traditional birthstone is the diamond and the stone that represents its Zodiac sign is the bloodstone. Other countries also may have different stones for a particular month. For example, in Russia the traditional stone for April is the Bloodstone.

May has the traditional stone of Emerald and the stone that symbolizes Taurus is the Sapphire.

June has a birthstone of Alexandrite which is a fascinating colored stone. In the daylight this stone seems to be a green or bluish-green color, in darker light the color can appear red. This is a very unique stone and birthstone jewelry with this color can be hard to find. The Zodiac stone for this month is the Agate stone.

July brings the Ruby stone for the month and the Emerald for the Zodiac sign of Cancer.

August is the month traditionally associated with eh Zodiac sign Leo the Lion and the stone that represents that sign is the Onyx. The month of August is given to the Peridot stone.

September is known for the Sapphire which is traditionally a blue color. The zodiac stone is the Carnelian.

October is the sign of Libra and the zodiac stone is Peridot, while the month stone is the Opal.

November brings us the birthstone of yellow Topaz and the astrology stone is the Beryl.

Finally, December is the Blue Topaz and the Zodiac stone is also Topaz.

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