TierraCast Innovations Saves the Day! ~
The impacts the Corona Virus has had on our business have been significant, including “supply chain interruptions”. Read on to find out about the precarious fate of our -13 Black Ox finish!
The vendor partner that provided our black plate was severely impacted by this year's shutdowns and suffered an unsurmountable drop in business forcing major
reorganization. This seriously impacted their ability to do the black
plating for us and we were looking at the possibility of having to discontinue
the black altogether. Although the black plate is a small part of our line, the
fans of that finish are hardcore devotees and we needed to think fast!
Determined that there must be a way we can develop an in-house alternative our
General Manager, Sarah Wright, gathered her production team to address
the problem. Over a period of months the team went to work with trials and
tests and pulled a figurative rabbit out of the hat.
Tada!
Not only did we develop an oxidization process to create a black finish on our
pewter parts, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that this new oxidized
finish wears better, the quality is more consistent, and the process is more
environmentally friendly! And that’s not all…
Bonus #1 - restocking is
much faster.
Bonus #2 - we are able
to bring back the very popular
Black Buddha Bead, 94-5718-13.
Bonus #3 -
we are able to add the black finish to more of our cast product line as needed.
Our in house Black Ox finish on our cast pewter parts is darker, richer and has
a more matte finish. The prior black plate had more of a “hematite” appearance
and our new finish can be described as “black velvet”.
We have not (yet) achieved the perfect Black Ox in house finish on our Brass Findings: jump rings, head pins, eye pins, crimp beads, crimp covers and lobster clasps. Luckily we were able to secure plating for this limited group of parts in the existing “hematite” black finish. These plated findings, though not an exact match, do complement our new Black Ox finish beautifully.
SEE ALL OUR BLACK FINISH PARTS HERE
Change can be hard, but we know that our Black Ox fans will love this new deeper finish. And don't forget about our Black Niobium Ear Wires! We developed this in-house proprietary finish ten years ago. They are incredibly popular, Hypoallergenic and exclusively ours.
