Stainless steel and titanium choker, c 1976.

Stainless steel and titanium choker (jewellery collar) made by Lexi Dick, first exhibited Goldsmith's Company, 1976

Titanium is widely distributed in nature. Of the structural metals only aluminium, iron and magnesium are more abundent.However the extraction, melting and fabrication of titanium are all expensive because titanium is contaminated by oxygen, nitrogen and carbon, all of which are present in air.Titanium is used for highly stressed components in missiles, rockets and space capsules.