Advice for White Backgrounds

[margosoriginals]

I am trying to photograph silver jewelry on a white background. I've learned that this is very hard to achieve
I have a cheap version of an EZcube, a canon speedligt, 2 flashpoint lights, and a contraption I built to suspend the jewelry and hold it in place with mono filament string. I'm sitting by a window with the light coming in from the right side.
I'm having a really hard time getting the background white, without overexposing the silver which is so reflective. Does anyone have any tips?
I am opening a retail website for my jewelry, and I would like to be able to achieve white backgrounds so I can do a white website (I just think it would look better). I gave up yesterday, and just started photographing them on black, but before I scrap the whole white theme, I wanted to ask for some advice to see if there is something I am missing.
The biggest problem is the chain. I use dainty silver chain, and the detail gets lost. I was wondering if anyone has experience photographing silver jewelry against a white background, and if you have any tips for me? Any equipment I might need? This is so frustrating, It's becoming an obsession at this point- I just want to prove to myself that I can do it! I've tried it with flash, without flash, tripod with slow shutter and small aperture, moving lights around, etc.

 

[KmH]

An inexpensive book that explains most of what you need to know to effectively light your jewelry is Light Science and Magic, Fourth Edition: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting

 

[margosoriginals]

thanks, I will check that out.

 

[Village Idiot]

There's several threads with links to Zack Arias's seamless tutorial that will help with what you're asking in the Lighting forum.