Copper Plated Totem Straight Barrel Spacer

Put gold plating beside bare brass and the difference in colour is plain: one leans true yellow, the other red. This straight barrel is plated, the same diameter top and bottom, with rings of angular zigzag cut around the body. The turns are hard, as though laid out with a rule. In the light each zigzag breaks into segments, because every turn is cut with a small flat on which the light pauses before moving on. A narrow border at each end frames the pattern.

Electroplating means depositing a layer of another metal onto a surface, driving metal ions out of a plating bath with current. The gain is an even, bright colour that covers corners as well; the price is a thin layer, and hard wear will expose the copper underneath, after which the colour no longer matches. Pieces like this are not for daily rolling. They suit life as an accent bead in a fixed position where there is little friction. To judge the plating, look inside the hole: if the bore is bright as well, the bath reached it and the process was done properly.

The zigzags on the body are geometric. They depict nothing in particular; the rhythm comes from repetition and from the changes of direction. Patterns of this kind turn up in weaving, in textiles and on balustrades, and no one owns them. They are a shared habit of craft rather than anyone's patent. The word totem is used loosely nowadays; more often than not it means a few sets of zigzags running back and forth, aiming at nothing more than a tidy, even surface.

There is a crude way to judge plating thickness: look at the mouth of the hole. The mouth is the first place on any piece to wear, and if a new piece already shows white there, the plating is shallow and will not last long. The corners of the zigzag expose the base as well, since current reaches them least; pale colour at a turn is the same warning. The copper beneath is red, so exposure is easy to spot.

A straight barrel stretches things out. Round beads set against round beads read as a run of dots; drop a barrel between them and the rhythm opens up, so the string looks less crowded. Below the guru bead as the first piece, or at the join between two different materials, it works equally well. Plating dislikes hard objects and sweat, so wipe it in summer and do not let sweat dry into marks on the surface. If the base copper is already showing, do not try to rescue it with polishing paste; the patch only grows. Better to accept it and let the piece age as it will.