Jewelry Care and Metallurgy

General Care: With a little knowledge your fine jewelry can easily be maintained for a lifetime of enjoyment and wear. Gold and platinum are very durable metals, but they can be scratched and damaged if your too rough or attempt to unclog the garbage disposal with them. Remember to remove rings during activities such as moving heavy objects, biking, rock climbing, weight lifting, etc. Metal against metal will cause the greatest amount of damage to your rings! Another enemy of gold(and silver) is chlorine, it can stain and deteriorate gold, we suggest that you remove all of your jewelry if entering a hot tub, swimming pool or if using strong cleaning chemicals.

Cleaning Diamond Jewelry: Click on the following link to read the blog post on cleaning diamond jewelry:

"How to Clean A Diamond, Let Me Count the Ways"

Cleaning Colored Stone Jewelry: Colored gemstones vary greatly in hardness, durability, and sensitivity. It is a common practice for colored stones to be treated in some way to enhance their color or durability. These treatments, while mostly stable, can make them more sensitive to light, heat, and chemicals. That is why we recommend you only use warm water, mild soap, and an extra soft toothbrush to clean your colored stone jewelry at home. DO NOT use any chemicals or an ultrasonic or steam cleaner on these pieces as the color may fade or disappear completely.

Yellow Gold: Gold is graded by karats. The karat system for gold, unlike diamonds, is a method of expressing the proportion of gold to other metals in a particular alloy. Pure gold is 24K, 22K gold contains 22 parts of gold to 2 parts of other metals, while 9K gold contains 9 parts of gold to 15 parts of other metals. The color of pure gold is a rich metallic yellow. Copper and silver are the principal metals used for gold alloy, though zinc, cadmium, iron and aluminum are also used.

White Gold: White gold is achieved by combining pure gold(24K) with alloys such as silver and palladium. As the natural color of white gold has a gray-ish hue, almost all white gold jewelry is plated with a metal called Rhodium, which is a member of the Palladium family of metals. Rhodium is used to brighten the color of white gold. Rhodium is very white and very hard, but it does wear eventually, particularly on rings. It is a common practice to have rings re-plated with Rhodium, and most local jewelers will offer this service. 18K white gold can be polished and does not require rhodium plating.

Platinum: The name platinum is derived from the Spanish term Platina Del Pinto which literally translates into "little silver of the Pinto river ". Platinum is a dense, malleable and precious metal resistant to corrosion and incredibly hard wearing. As platinum is naturally silvery white in appearance, it does not require rhodium plating like white gold. Its wear and tarnish resistant characteristics make it highly suitable for fine jewelry.

Sterling Silver: Sterling Silver is an alloy of 925 parts per thousand silver with the remaining 75 parts being other metals, usually copper. As pure silver is too soft for manufacturing into larger objects and for everyday wear, copper is generally used to give it strength while at the same time preserving the pliability of the metal and its beauty.

Gold Vermeil: Vermeil is a French word that became a popular term in the 19th century as an alternative to the term silver-gilt. Vermeil is Sterling Silver with a layer of gold gilted onto the surface. To be considered vermeil, the gold must be at least 10k and at least 1.5 micrometres thick. Vermeil can be produced by fire gilding or electrolysis. Fire gilding is an antiquated process and most vermeil these days is produced by way of electrolysis.

Pave Setting: Pave is an antique stone setting technique that, when done properly, is a method of setting small diamonds or melee as close together as possible by pushing the gold up around the stone creating small prong-like beads as fasteners. The desired result is a paved diamond surface. Many companies that mass produce wedding bands and engagement rings claim to set pave, but the fastening beads are pre-made on wax ring models and are then pushed over the edges of the stone after casting. The results of these settings are the diamonds are further apart and will not have the individual characteristics or charm of hand set stones.