Sep. 01, 2025
Have you ever wondered “what can aluminium be used for?” For a breakdown guide on the uses of aluminium and how aluminium was discovered, you’re in the right place. Read on to find out more about what aluminium is made of and how anodised aluminium jewellery could be a new addition to your jewellery making repertoire.
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Aluminium is not a material which immediately lends itself to the production of jewellery. It is by contrast an element with huge domestic and industrial capability. Aluminium is more associated with the humble drinks can or the wafer-thin kitchen foil that we take for granted during our everyday activities.
It is a metal of immense strength, but it’s also extremely light and ductile; much lighter than steel. In fact, this makes it ideal for any application where weight can be an issue for example aerospace technology or car production. It actually represents the second largest metal market in the world which is a great indicator of its potential. But more importantly it is 100% recyclable which makes it very much a metal of the future.
Aluminium is not a naturally occurring metal. Aluminium properties mainly include a raw material called bauxite which is only found in a handful of locations word wide. This bauxite is first heated to immense temperatures to produce alumina, which is then transformed into aluminium by way of electrolysis. It is a complicated process which creates many chemical by-products so production is tightly regulated and monopolised by large companies with the means to carry out the whole process from start to finish.
The demand for aluminium is huge and consistently growing with China now consuming 25% of the world’s production thanks to its booming economy. It is largely directed into the automobile industry in a bid to reduce the weight of vehicles thus reducing fuel emissions; a 10% reduction of car weight results in a 9% increase in fuel consumption efficiency and with the EU introducing increasingly stricter guidelines on CO2 emissions, this means big business.
However, things have not always been this way and if you look back at the discovery and history of aluminium, the treatment and usage of it were very different. Aluminium is a relatively new metal, only discovered in by a Danish chemist Hans Christian. Production methods were so complex that it wasn’t until that aluminium was successfully produced on any significant scale and at that time it was considered rarer and more valuable than gold! It is well documented that Napoleon lll served his state dinners on aluminium plates with his rank and file guests given only gold and silver versions!
Aluminium can be anodised to create jewellery. Anodising aluminium is beneficial for jewellery makers particularly due to its capacity to be coloured. Anodising is an ‘electrolytic passivation process used to increase the natural oxide layer of metal parts’. It increases resistance to corrosion and wear but also allows the absorption of dyes and adhesion of paints to stunning effect.
The downside for most jewellers is that aluminium is difficult to solder without the use of specialised welding equipment which most of us don’t have! Most designers tend to opt for cold fixing techniques which produce some interesting and unusual pieces often quite different from ‘traditional’ jewellery.
I think it’s fair to say that aluminium is not one of the easiest metals to use. But it is one of enormous capabilities and potential and due to its recycling properties, we will be seeing it used more and more. In fact, it has even been said that in the future historians will look back on this time and hail it as ‘The Age of Aluminium’, so make of that what you will!
Take a look at our full range of Aluminium Sheet and start making your own coloured pieces of aluminium jewellery today.
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An aluminum Christmas tree is a type of artificial Christmas tree that was popular in the United States from until about the mid-s. As its name suggests, the tree is made of aluminum, featuring foil needles and illumination from below via a rotating color wheel.
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The aluminum Christmas tree was used as a symbol of the commercialization of Christmas in the television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, which discredited its suitability as a holiday decoration. By the mid-s aluminum trees found a secondary market online, often selling for high premiums. The trees have also appeared in museum collections.
Aluminum trees have been said to be the first artificial Christmas trees that were not green in color.[1] It is more accurate to say that aluminum Christmas trees were the first nongreen Christmas trees commercially successful on a grand scale. Long before aluminum Christmas trees were commercially available at least by the late 19th century, white "Christmas trees" were made at home by wrapping strips of cotton batting around leafless branches, making what appeared to be snow-laden trees that stayed white in the home. These non-green trees made perfect displays for ornaments and dropped no needles. After Christmas, the cotton was unwrapped and stored with the ornaments for the next year while the branches were burnt or otherwise discarded. Flocked trees, real or artificial, to which flocking was applied became fashionable for the wealthy during the s and have been commercially available since. A issue of Popular Science advocated spraying aluminum paint using an insect spray gun to coat Christmas trees causing it to appear as if "fashioned of molten silver".[2]
Aluminum Christmas trees were first commercially manufactured sometime around , remained popular into the s, and were manufactured into the s.[3][4] The trees were first manufactured by Modern Coatings, Inc. of Chicago.[4][5] Between and , the bulk of aluminum Christmas trees were produced in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the Aluminum Specialty Company;[6][5] in that decade the company produced more than one million aluminum trees.[4] At the time they were produced in Manitowoc the trees, including the company's flagship product the "Evergleam", retailed for $25 and wholesaled for $11.25.[4]
During the s, the aluminum Christmas tree enjoyed its most popular period of usage.[1] As the mid-s passed, the aluminum Christmas tree began to fall out of favor, with many thrown away or relegated to basements and attics.[3][7] The airing of A Charlie Brown Christmas in has been credited with ending the era of the aluminum tree,[4][6][7] and by their time had almost completely passed.[8]
At the height of the aluminum tree's popularity, the trees were sold in the Sears catalog.[7]
Whether you decorate with blue or red balls . . . or use the tree without ornaments - this exquisite tree is sure to be the talk of your neighborhood. High luster aluminum gives a dazzling brilliance. Shimmering silvery branches are swirled and tapered to a handsome realistic fullness. It's really durable . . needles are glued and mechanically locked on. Fireproof . . you can use it year after year.
By , it was not uncommon to find aluminum Christmas trees for sale in yard sales or at estate sales being sold for as little as 25 cents.[8] In recent years the aluminum Christmas tree has seen a re-emergence in popularity. Collectors began buying and selling the trees, especially on online auction web sites.[3] A rare 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) pink aluminum Christmas tree sold on the Internet for $3,600 in .[3]
Aluminum Christmas trees consisted of aluminum branches attached to a wooden or aluminum central pole.[1] The central pole had holes drilled into at angles so when the aluminum foil branches were attached they formed a tree shape.[4] The foil branches had woven aluminum "needles" as well.[8] Each tree took about 15 minutes to assemble.[4]
The first aluminum trees could not be illuminated in the manner traditional for natural Christmas trees or other artificial trees. Fire safety concerns prevented lights from being strung through the tree's branches;[4] draping electric lights through an aluminum tree could cause a short circuit.[8] The common method of illumination was a floor-based "color wheel" which was placed under the tree.[8] The color wheel featured various colored segments on a clear plastic wheel; when the wheel rotated a light shone through the clear plastic casting an array of colors throughout the tree's metallic branches.[7] Sometimes this spectacle was enhanced by a rotating Christmas tree stand.[8]
Aluminum Christmas trees have been variously described as futuristic or as cast in a style which evoked the glitter of the Space Age.[3][6][7] A Money magazine article published on the CNN website in called the design of aluminum Christmas trees "clever".[8] The same writer asserted that once the trees overcame their cultural baggage as icons of bad taste, aluminum Christmas trees were actually beautiful decor.[8] The Space Age-feel of the trees made them especially suited to the streamlined home decor of the time period.[9]
The aluminum Christmas tree was used as a symbol of the over-commercialization of Christmas in the Peanuts holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas.[4] The program is considered a classic among Christmas specials,[8] and its mention of the aluminum tree solidified the tree's legendary status while satirizing it as well.[3] In the special, Lucy van Pelt implored Charlie Brown to get a "big, shiny aluminum tree...maybe painted pink" for the group's nativity play.[3] Charlie Brown lamented the commercialization of Christmas and, in a lot surrounded by many huge aluminum trees (depicted as hollow cones of sheet metal, and much larger than most aluminum trees of the era), purchased a small, scrawny natural tree on a whim instead.[7]
The re-emergent popularity of aluminum Christmas trees has allowed them to find their way into museum collections. One example is the Aluminum Christmas Tree Museum (officially known as the Aluminum Tree and Aesthetically Challenged Seasonal Ornament Museum and Research Center).[10] The museum, variously located in Brevard or Asheville, North Carolina was called "campy" by Fodor's in .[11] The Children's Museum of Indianapolis holds a vintage aluminum Christmas tree and color wheel in its collections.[12] The Wisconsin Historical Museum has held the "'Tis the Season" exhibition at least twice, featuring a collection of vintage aluminum Christmas trees.[13]
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