Anyone using any of this information is doing so at their own risk . During the past ten years there has been a steady growth in the use of the reactive metals in jewelry and art. Within this group of metallic elements the most common are titanium and niobium .
Titanium remains the most popular for commercial jewelry, followed by an expanding use of niobium.
Niobium is both more ductile and more colorful. These metals can be cut, formed and finished with standard hand and power equipment. The high colorations can then be achieved through a simple anodizing process. In the following discussion of the techniques and processes for preparing and coloring these metals, titanium will be used as the reference metal with notes to any variation as they apply to niobium. The colors produced by these metals are known as interference colors.