Interview With Reactive Metals Studio

Based in Cottonwood, Arizona, Reactive Metals has been in business since 1981 and partnered with Ganoksin for many years. As their name suggests, they are in the business of metals - supplying findings, tools, wire, and alloys, as well as the necessary items for coloring their metals. The use of their products is expansive with applications in the jewelry industry as well as knife-making. Some can even be used in the preparation of medical implants. The company prides itself on its ability to provide anyone, from seasoned jewelry professionals to amateurs attempting their first project, with the materials and information they need to realize their artistic vision. Most of their products can be shipped anywhere in the world. 

I recently spoke with Michele Watters, the company's current owner, about what Reactive Metals offers the jewelry-making community. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

How long have you been with the company?

About thirty-four or thirty-five years. I started out at the lowest level and now I'm the full owner of the company for a little over two and a half years. This job was my introduction to the jewelry industry. I was actually hired to run the new accounting software that they had purchased, and I didn't know anything about accounting. I knew a little bit about jewelry only because my parents had dabbled here and there in various areas. So, I was green in almost every sense of the word. I learned everything from scratch by doing, listening, participating, and trial and error. And now I know how to do everything!

How big is the Reactive Metals team?

There are three of us. It has always been like a little family.

How would you describe your products?

We primarily do stuff that is out of the norm like hypoallergenic niobioum and titanium metals. We also sell anodizing equipment for those metals. We have Mokume Gane metals. Our latest addition is the ear wire making equipment we have purchased from TierraCast so we now make all our ear wires in house. 

Your company has products that people from many different fields can use. How do your customers find you?

We do a little bit of Google ads but there is great word-of-mouth out there. Ganoksin is the only place where we put up an advertisement.

Do people need an account or are required to provide any special information in order to purchase your products?

We take orders from everybody. We do not have an online shopping cart because many of the products that we carry require extra help. People may think that they need one thing when they really need something different and might purchase the wrong thing without our advice. There are conversations that need to happen. We have always been available to answer questions and guide people to the products they need. We can take orders by phone, or you can download our order form and fax or email it to us.

What percentage of your client base is part of the jewelry making field?

I would say that at least seventy-five percent of our business is with jewelry people. We started in that field. All these other individuals like the knife-makers and the medical professionals found us later. We were not courting them at all. Our focus has always been on jewelry. Each of our products has some application in jewelry.

Is there a product that has the widest appeal for people shopping your site?

A lot of people use the Victory Etch which removes the natural layer of oxide on titanium allowing a full color range and bright colors when anodizing. The bits and parts of titanium dental and medical implants need to be etched. Beyond jewelers, knife makers use the product to etch titanium knife scales. So anyone who wants to anodize titanium in whatever form can use the Victory Etch, whether its medical, or crafts, or jewelry, or knife making, or whatever else they want to etch. It can even be used on some motorcycle parts. There are a bunch of areas where they do this. 

Once the Victory Etch has be used, people can then purchase our anodizing equipment to color and finish their project. 

Since your company sells so much titanium and niobium, let's talk about that first. Where do you get those metals?

With respect to niobium, there hasn't been a US mill for wire for about twenty years now. We have had to go to China, unfortunately, to get the niobium for our findings wire. It is a difficult metal to find and process. Niobium is notoriously finicky for machining. It's a fussy thing.  

The titanium all comes from US mills, and we have it custom made to what we need like we do with the niobium. We just get what we need.

Now, of course, we are making our own ear wires. There are other parts that we send out to have made like our head and eye pins. We have a US company do those for us. We send them the wire and they take care of that. Same with the jump rings. 

You said that titanium and niobium findings are a cornerstone of the company, but some people are unfamiliar with the qualities of those metals. How long have they been used to construct jewelry?

Well, it has been used since the Reactive Metals founder, Bill Seeley, started the company. It was the premise of Bill's Master's Thesis entitled "The Studio Preparation and Coloring of Titanium", which we still offer today as a book. We sell it with every anodizer. When Bill was writing this thesis, he was like, "Why aren't jewelry makers using this titanium?" From there, he figured out that niobium, which is the sister metal to titanium, is in many respects more user friendly than titanium. He started talking and networking and getting samples from mills and that is how Reactive Metals was born. 

After that, he went out and started teaching and showing college jewelry instructors how to use the materials. That is how it started. We have this whole archive with every flier and catalog that we ever sent out.

And since titanium and niobium are reactive metals, that is where the name of the company comes from. 

In what form do you sell titanium to artists? Is it already processed and colored or is it up to them to shape and color? 

We do not offer sheet pre-colored. This is because anodizing (the process that gives the metal its color) is usually the last thing that you do. The reason for that is the color oxide on the surface of the metal is very delicate. It is not great if you put it in a high friction area like a bracelet or ring because the color will wear off. 

So, any tooling that you do like punching out a disc, you would have a raw edge color because the color is only on the surface of the titanium. If an artist does more work like tooling, sanding or forming, they could scratch that color right off. 

So, you want to do all that production work and manipulation of the metal before, and then the last step is the anodizing. 

We sell the niobium as sheet, wire, and tubing. We have titanium sheet and wire. 

What about the colored findings that you sell?

Yes, those you can order colored in advance because you are not manipulating them as much. So you can buy the ear wire the color that you want. 

If you do want to color it yourself, you just buy an anodizer. Technically, each volt is going to give you a different shade of color going through the rainbow. We offer nine standard colors but in between those colors are variations so you can customize to any shade that you want.

There are some rules. You will never be able to get red or orange. Those are not in the natural light spectrum which many people believe because of our standardized rainbow. These colors are interference colors. If you see something that is red or orange, that is probably not titanium. It is probably aluminum because aluminum coloring is a dye process so they can make any color dye that they want. We do not sell aluminum. 

Can people get the ear wires and findings already assembled or is each individual part mailed separately? 

Previously we did not offer pre-assembled ear wires (with a bead and/or coil) but when we purchased the equipment from TierraCast, we also got the machines that do that so we can now offer assembled pieces. We have such a range of beads and coils and ear wires that can be mixed and matched. If you want a silver bead with a bronze coil on a green ear wire, we can do that! You choose what you want. There are thousands of combinations. 

If you have ever tried to fit a bead or coil on an ear wire and loop it, you know that it is a pain in the butt to do by hand. Making consistent loops is really hard. So this saves a lot of time for a lot of people. We do them all one at a time. They have to be loaded individually, then the machine does its' business and makes the loop. 

One of the two people I work with is my husband, Chris. I actually poached him from his other job when we got the TierraCast machines and got him to work more hours for us operating them. We have deemed him "The Maker of Things". He had to learn to use these machines, which are cantankerous to put it mildly, but he has figured it out and keeps everything running smoothly. 

You spoke earlier about your Victory Etch product before which preps titanium for the anodizing process.Are there other ways to color titanium?

You do have choices. With titanium, you can either heat color with a torch, but you won't get the full-color range that you can get with anodizing. You will get lots of earth tones, golds, purples, browns, and some blues. You may get lucky and get up to some yellows and pinks. But it is harder to do with a torch. 

With anodizing you control everything. Once the Victory Etch has removed the oxide layer, you can anodize that and get that whole color scale and really bright colors. If you try anodizing without etching, the layer that sits on the surface will prevent coloring and you will get a really matte finish with pastel, muddy colors. And you won't be able to get the full-color range. It will look kind of burnt. 

How user-friendly is this etching and anodizing process? Does it require any specific training or experience?

It is very user-friendly. Titanium does have some rules which you have to learn to what you can do and what you can't do. But the process is quite simple. Anodizing is the easiest part. There is a learning curve with the etching because the time that you have the metal in the bath varies between what grade of metal you are using. But our Easy Heat Bath Kit works perfectly with the Victory Etch. You can have your hot etch in five minutes then do your rinsing and then you are ready to anodize. You can easily finish a simple piece of jewelry in under an hour. 

How are your masking materials used in this process?

Masking materials give you a lot of options. 

Let's say that you are anodizing niobium. Normally you just put your piece in the bath and turn it up to the desired voltage. Let's say 65 volts and you get a lovely hot pink. Ok, but what if you could take it further? You could put a resist on first which is an electrically resistive material, and you put the mask in a flower shape. Then you anodize the piece at 65 to make it pink. The artist can then remove the resist which shielded the metal underneath it and change the voltage to create a secondary color on that uncolored space. Then anodize at a lower voltage, say 55 volts. The formerly masked area will now be yellow. So it allows you to have multiple colors on one space with nice crisp edges.

You can also use masking materials as sandblasting resists to create a contrasting dull and shiny surface. It also works as an etching resist.

We carry a line of masking materials. Some will do all three things. Some of them will do one thing. It depends on what you need and how you are getting there. 

You have many titanium chains and clasp options available on your website. Why would jewelers choose these titanium options over traditional gold, silver, etc.?

There are a couple of benefits. One is that it is hypoallergenic. People who are super sensitive and can't wear other metals can wear titanium, so it is ideal for them. Also, it is super lightweight. It's strong but very lightweight. These are the two main reasons it works well for people. We offer classic chain styles so people can get the same look. 

Some people think that the chains are stainless steel but then they lift it and are shocked by the lightness. You think that they will weigh a ton, and they just don't.

Your website has a whole section dedicated to Mokume Gane. Can you explain what that material is and how it is used?

Mokume Gane is a Japanese technique that was originally used to make Japanese sword furniture; tsubas (hilts) and the like. Similar to damascus used in knives and sword blades, instead of steel, it uses jewelry metals like karat golds, silver, copper, and Japanese alloys like Shibuichi and Shakudo.

We sell lots of precious metal rods for jewelry. A lot of people make Mokume Gane rings.The wedding industry uses them quite a bit.

Some of the metals in your alloys like copper take on a natural patina but I see that you also sell patinas to speed up that process.

Yes. The process can take place naturally over time unless you seal the metal somehow. If you don't the copper will darken, but the trouble is that the silver tries to do that as well. 

Our patina products will do that instantly. We carry two patinas. One is Ready Patina which colors copper and copper alloys only. It won't touch the silver so any of our alloys with copper will react. It turns copper chocolate brown. Shibuichi becomes gray while Shakudo becomes black. But the silver remains the same. It is the quick and easy way to get that patina.

The other product we sell is traditional Rokusho which is also from Japan. That is what the old sword makers used. It is a little trickier to use and it isn't as instantaneous. But it gives the copper a nice chocolate brown color. We import this product from Japan. To my knowledge, we are the only ones they will export it to. We can send it to people all around the world because it is not hazardous. I can't ship the Ready Patina outside the US because that one is considered hazardous. 

Are the mini nuts and bolts you sell specialized for jewelry?

The nuts and bolts we carry are sourced here in the US. You can't solder niobium and titanium using the normal method. These days you can laser weld them if you have an argon gas feed. But most people who can't afford a laser welder have to use cold connection techniques which is why we carry these little nuts and bolts. 

It sounds like you carry everything an artist needs to begin and complete a project.

We don't carry standard jewelry making tools like saws and bigger tools. But, all of the accessory items that you need to work with our metals we have. 

Can you say if there is anything new on the horizon for Reactive Metals?

We do have some ideas for new things. They mostly have to do with the niobium and titanium metals. Over the years we have added new anodizing tools like the anodic paint brushes and the anodic marker lead which gives you extra ways to color your metal. So we are trying to get some new things going. R&D takes a long time to get places. But, dang, we are busy with everyday business! 

Do you have any final thoughts that you would like to share with current/prospective customers?

We have always prided ourselves on good customer service and overall knowledge. We have a lot of knowledge about our products, and we will tech support you all day long. That is what we do.