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Learn everything with our jewelry education guide you need to know about jewelry. Whether it’s ring, necklaces, earrings, bracelets find everything you are looking for.
There are variety of metals available that allows jewelry to be affordable, there couldn’t be fine jewelry without metals. The metal types commonly used to make fine jewelry include Gold, Platinum, Palladium, Titanium, Silver, Tungsten and Stainless Steel. Below are the most popular types of metals that are commonly worn in everyday jewelry.
Gold is timeless and most popular choice for everyday wear. It comes in a range of colors (yellow, white or rose) and karats (10k, 14k, 18k) 14k gold is the most widely used karat in USA jewelry industry.
Purity: The karat in gold measures the proportion of pure gold mixed with other metal alloy to make up the final metal. The higher the proportion of gold used in the final metal, the more valuable and expensive the metal will be. 24K gold, is 100% pure, 18K gold is 75% gold, while 14 Karat is 58.3% gold. The metals is made up of a combination of alloys for hardness and durability and are suitable for use in all types of fine jewelry. The stamps only indicate the karat of metal.18kt ring will be more expensive than a 14kt ring and a 14kt ring will be more expensive than a 10kt ring.
U.S. Grades Compositions
18K .750 gold/.250 alloy
14K .583 gold/.417 alloy
10K .416 gold/.584 alloy
Yellow Gold: Yellow gold is made of pure gold mixed with alloy metals such as copper and zinc.
White Gold: White gold has a lighter color and is mixed with metals like silver, zinc, or platinum.
Rose Gold: Instead of mixing with zinc or silver, rose gold is mixed with copper to create that signature pink.
Platinum is typically utilized in a nearly pure form that comes directly from the earth for jewelry—ranging from 95-98%. Platinum looks almost identical to white gold but are 30 times rarer than gold and is found in very few places in the world. Alloys used with platinum are Iridium, Cobalt, Palladium, Tungsten and Ruthenium
Like gold, silver is also too soft to use purely, sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver, and 7.6% copper and is usually stamped as 925. So it’s combined with other metals to make it more durable for everyday wear.
Stainless steel has a silvery-white color that creates a shiny reflective finish not traditionally used in fine jewelry. It’s easy to clean, durable, and scratch resistant, so it’s ideal for watches, bracelets, rings, earring, body jewelry
Titanium is the hardest natural metal in the world three times stronger than stainless steel, which has silvery-white metallic color. Much stronger than gold, silver and platinum and yet is very lightweight. Plus, it’s hypoallergenic, which means it’s the least irritating of all metals.
Tungsten is stronger than both steel and titanium, it’s quite heavy and durable metal. Unlike gold, platinum and titanium, tungsten is high scratch resistance. The range of tungsten jewelry is more restricted than for other metals. At this time, tungsten is generally only available in men’s rings, bracelets and some watch lines.
Palladium is a shiny, silvery metal was first used for jewelry when platinum was declared a strategic metal and reserved for military use in 1939. Palladium is starting to be used for alloying with gold in the USA. Alloying Palladium with white gold avoids allergic reactions. The 950 palladium will stay white, never requiring the “renewed whitening” via rhodium plating white gold does.
There are quite different types of stone setting for rings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and earring. We’ve got the widest array of settings to choose from. One of which will match your style to perfection. Whichever setting you choose your jewelry will be a beautiful reflection of you.
The most common and classic setting style is called a prong setting. Prong setting can be rounded, pointed, V-shaped. Prong setting is typically has four or six prongs that are used to hold up the diamond extend up from the ring basket and over the diamond. The prong setting is one of the most popular styles and comes in a number of variations.
A basket setting is a type of prong setting, but with a little difference. Four or six prongs rise up from the base of the metal band to secure a center stone, but then more horizontal prongs are added to create a basket shape.
A pave setting pronounced “pa-vay,” originates from the French word “to pave” as in paved with diamonds. The pave settings hold small diamonds with tiny prongs or metal beads to create a seamless look. There are four types of pave settings that is pave, micro pave, petite pave and french pave. Petite pave settings do the same thing as pave setting. But they are smaller prongs that allow more of diamonds to be seen. Micro pave setting takes the pave to a tinier level create an extremely seamless and brilliant look. Lastly french pave setting which cover less diamonds and creates a stylized look. French pave setting features U-cut and V-cut prongs that add an intricate and stylish textured element to a piece of jewelry.
A channel setting will set the stones right next to each other with no metal separating them. The stones set in such a way to form a row into the band of the ring. The outer ridge of metal is then worked over the edges of the stones. This protects the girdle area of the diamonds and provides a smooth exterior surface.
A bezel setting is where the stone is surrounded by metal rim that holds the stone in place. The metal is shaped like a dome and the stone is inserted in the middle. There are no prongs, therefore the look is smooth and clean.
Invisible setting is the style where the stones are set in a way that the metal is not easily visible. In this setting the stones have been carefully set very close to each other and are cut with grooved metal, girdles that are locked into a framework.