carats of Gold

[Weathergirl]

I for one would be very interested in the results Strato.

Please compare 14ct too. IMO that is the best colour and price for gold jewelery. "Golder" than 9 ct and not so yellow as 18ct. Buttery?

 

[Vienna]

http://nevada-outback-gems.com/Reference_pages/melting_gold.htm

The above article explains why flux is used. The higher the carat of gold then the softer it is and a lot of old jewellery was made in 22ct hence so many old pieces have the pattern worn off them or are mis-shapen because they were almost pure gold and much softer. I have a bracelet which was made from my late grandad`s watch chain, in fact 3 bracelets were made from it when he died, its rose gold but the colour is totally different than a ring I own which is supposed to be rose gold too. The bracelet was made in 1965 but the chain it came from was made in the 1920`s, the ring was made in 2010. The bracelet has a lovely soft colour to it whereas the ring seems a brighter harsher colour. Of course many recent items are pressed by machines or poured into moulds, not handmade like the old pieces and nowhere near as heavy which can all affect colour too.

 

[Vienna]

An interesting use of different coloured gold is mokume gane which was developed in Japan and the technique was originally used to make samurai swords. They found that by sandwiching several very thin layers one on top of another and then rolling the layers of metals together like you would pastry, it formed a lovely multi coloured bark effect of different coloured gold. Its very popular in America but you don`t see much of it over here sadly. Here`s a pic of a mokume wedding ring.

 

[Weathergirl]

Wow thanks Vienna- that explains it.
My Solid coffee bean earings were made out of my old scrap gold which was a mixture of 9ct and 14 ct. so was the matching pendant but was a different batch. The flux was only a problem with the earings, which were plated in the end, but the pendant was just perfect. My white gold earings and pendant, cast using the same mould, must have been rhodium plated after as with all white gold jewelery. No flux problems with that either.

For any of you who have bits of gold jewelery lying around that you never wear, and have coveted something solid that is hard to find or very expensive, it is well worth asking a proper jeweler to melt the gold and make it for you. I paid about £360 for the labour but received 2 solid pendants and 2 matching sets of earings for that price. It was about 3 or 4 years ago now, so may cost more. I wear the pendant and always fiddle with it and it is my favourite piece by far. It is not hallmarked though, although I am sure this could have been done at a price, but I knew where the gold had come from.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Vienna ... about the watch chain ... my local jeweller, who is brilliant, talks about "old English" gold which is a softer more rose colour but it is still technically yellow gold. And given the age of the original piece I wonder if your bracelet is along those lines.

I have a double strand bracelet that I think was made from a watch chain. It's beautiful and very heavy. Each individual link on the belcher chain is hallmarked and it has a heart padlock. That's one piece my jeweller says is old English gold.

 

[Weathergirl]

That sounds gorgeous Tink. I love heavy belcher links but they are so expensive nowadays.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

It is. I inherited quite a lot of jewellery a couple of years ago now. There were some beautiful and very unusual pieces. I have never had anything properly valued but took some to my jeweller for him to look at and advise on repairs. That's how I know the supposed history of the piece. I think that's 1884 in date but that's the chain itself. It was made into a bracelet at a later date.

 

[Vienna]

Vienna ... about the watch chain ... my local jeweller, who is brilliant, talks about "old English" gold which is a softer more rose colour but it is still technically yellow gold. And given the age of the original piece I wonder if your bracelet is along those lines.

I have a double strand bracelet that I think was made from a watch chain. It's beautiful and very heavy. Each individual link on the belcher chain is hallmarked and it has a heart padlock. That's one piece my jeweller says is old English gold.

Tink your bracelet sounds almost identical to mine. I think when someone passed away it was a common thing to turn watch chains into bracelets because pocket watches went out of fashion and were replaced by wrist watches.
I also inherited a large diamond cluster ring when my Mum diied, the diamonds were small but there were plenty of them and the ring was one of those tiered clusters and it was a bugger for plucking clothes and tights so I hardly wore it. My OH took it to a jeweller and he set the stones into a plain heavy silver bangle in a kind of constellation pattern like stars. I now wear it almost everyday and the stars remind me that Mum is in Heaven. Lots of people have commented on it. Gold and precious stones are so expensive these days it pays to "recycle" them.

 

[BusyMum]

I watched a little bit of the Veronese, has Claire been reading this thread - closing comments were about how yellow it was if you weren't used to it..?!

I like this one tho Diamonique Veronese 0.19ct tw Scatter Band Ring Sterling Silve — QVCUK.com
http://www.qvcuk.com/Diamonique-Ver...=605736-SRCH&cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-13-_-605736 anyone got it?

 

[Silver Fox]

Mmmmm just seen CS finish the Veronese hour & she made a point of mentioning the colour of the 'gold'.I have picked up points made on air after reading comments made on this forum OR are we just getting power crazy?!!!They would be daft not to look though comments as these are 'real' & not the fawning phoning in featured in the programmes.

 

[Silver Fox]

BusyMum Great minds & all that!!!

 

[Tinkerbelle]

Don't forget they will also be getting all the feedback from the reviews, including the rejected ones so there are bound to be comments about the colour on there.

I'm sure they do monitor comments here and anywhere else on the net ... the good, the bad and the ugly.

 

[BusyMum]

I did look at the reviews on the item I linked Tinks and one person said it was "less brassy" than the yellow gold items, so I'm not on me own!

 

[Frazzled]

I tossed up with one below in white gold, which I returned, and the scatter ring. I will probably order the scatter ring but I'm determined to get through this month and longer without buying anything.

http://www.qvcuk.com/Diamonique-Ver...cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-15-_-605744#BVRRWidgetID

 

[Tinkerbelle]

I did look at the reviews on the item I linked Tinks and one person said it was "less brassy" than the yellow gold items, so I'm not on me own!

I'd have to wrack the old brain but I think the only Veronese yellow gold I've bought is for my stepmother. I don't remember it being particularly brassy or very yellow but it was a just a fancy chain. I know she loved it but that doesn't mean it wasn't brassy lol.

 

[Sacha]

This is a rather different piece for Veronese which according to the presenter has been very popular this week...

http://www.qvcuk.com/Veronese-Tanza...t.606986.html?sc=[Ljava.lang.String;@329c329c

...I don't recall them using genuine (they said) Tanzanite in any of their items previously. On the other hand the details give the Tanzanite as sourced from China........pardon?? :wonder:

I wish they would do more coloured Diamonique, it seems to have fizzled out recently. I had to pop off to Ebay to get the ring I wanted, which was 'unavailable' on Q at that time. Also got it rather cheaper and it's a cracker....imo of course! And the gold isn't too yellow as some of them have appeared on screen this week.

http://www.qvcuk.com/webapp/wcs/sto...word=605695&uattrmb=&ddkey=http:CatalogSearch

 

[Frazzled]

That scatter ring is lovely Sacha, would be very tempted by that in a white gold version.