Buy
jewelry as a gift?
Jewelry
can be a perfect gift, whether it's for
your anniversary gift, a wedding gift or
a birthday or graduation gift. It is a perfect
gift suitable for any women, be your valentine
or your mother.
However
several things need to be aware before you
pull your your credit card.
1. If it
is a pearl jewelry and says made of pearls,
find out if it's real pearls or imitation
pearls. Real pearls are made by oysters
or mollusks; imitation pearls are man-made,
mostly by plastic. Real pearls are organic,
might have minor imperfection, imitation
pearls look perfect since they are made
by machines usually cost less.
2. If it
says it is a gold jewelry, find out if it's
real gold or gold plated jewelry, and also
find out how many karat it is. Gold used
in jewelry is almost always alloyed with
other metals since gold in its pure form
is very soft and malleable, and would not
wear well by itself. Much gold jewelry from
the 19th century and before is not marked.
Tests must be done to determine if it is
solid gold and to determine purity. For
example, fourteen karat (14K) jewelry has
14 parts of gold, with 10 parts of base
metal, so it will be stronger than 18K gold
since the higher karat of gold, the softer
it gets. The karat number refers to the
parts of pure gold per 24 in the alloy.
So a 14K alloy is 14/24 parts pure gold,
or about 58% gold. Pure gold which is 24karat
has no other base metal mixed in it, so
it is usually very soft and easily bendable.
The karat number refers to the parts of
pure gold per 24 in the alloy. So a 14K
alloy is 14/24 parts pure gold, or about
58% gold. It is also common in many European
and other countries to mark gold with a
three digit number indicating the parts
per thousand of gold. Thus gold jewelry
is often marked "750" for 750/1000
gold. (Equivalent to US 18K).
If it is
a gold-plated piece of jewelry, it means
the jewelry has al ayer of at least 10K
gold bonded to a base metal. Gold plated
jewelry eventually wears away and shows
the metal inside which will tarnish eventually,
but it will also depend on how often the
item is worn and how thick and how many
layers the plating has on top of its base
metal.
3. If you
are buying a piece of gemstone jewelry,
you need to find out if it is a laboratory-created
gemstone and a naturally mined stone. If
you only care about the look, it doesn't
make much difference from appearance since
lab created stones look pretty much similar
to stones mined from the earth. However
if you want to sell it someday, your lab
created stone will worth considerably less
than its natural counterparts. If you are
more concerned about the value of your natural
stone, you might also want to find out if
the gemstone has been treated or not since
heating, bleaching or other processing methods
can improve a stone’s appearance or
durability which may has an impact on the
value of the gemstone.
4. If you you’re buying a diamond,
cut, color, clarity and weight, usually
stated as carats are the four factors determine
the price of your diamond. Brilliance is
a test of the amount of light which enters
the stone and gets reflected back. It is
affected by the quality of the cut of the
stone. Fire is the ability of the stone
to break light down into it’s component
colors and is also affected by the cut.
“Fire” can be seen as color
coming out of the stone. Luster is the amount
of light reflected back from the surface
of the stone. A diamond can be described
as “flawless” only if it has
no visible surface cracks or other imperfections
when viewed under 10-power magnification
by a skilled diamond grader.
5. Sterling
silver is becoming one of the most popular
metals in the jewelry industry. Most people
that have allergic reactions to some metals
are able to wear sterling silver. If you
are buying a piece of silver jewelry, make
sure it has layers of gold plated over it,
since sterling silver itself is very easy
to get tarnished when exposed to air. This
occurs more quickly in damp and foggy weather
and even sunshine, but is inevitable in
any climate. Tarnish first appears as a
golden hue on your sterling silver then
turns to black. Usually if you have a cleaning
or polishing cloth with a little rubbing,
and it will look good as new. However, now
days with quite a few choices with either
18k or 14k gold can be plated over sterling
silver, it might be a good choice.
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