Starting Out and Understanding What We Are Buying
Since I decided to learn jewellery making, I’ve learned a lot along the way, thanks to the people I’ve surrounded myself with, and to the mistakes I’ve made, the many mistakes I’ve made. I eventually found my style, which is quite far from traditional fine jewellery, by following my intuition and being encouraged to explore by the best teacher I could have had. In this first post, I’d like to briefly touch on some basic concepts that were once new to me, and little by little turn this blog into a place where I can share curiosities and learning from this universe.
When starting out, we worked directly with metal—learning how to saw, file, polish. The first pieces were made with brass or copper, and later on I started using recycled silver or occasionally recycled gold. And from here came the first distinctions worth remembering. Surely you’ve heard the word Carat before—but what exactly does it mean?
GOLD
The different types of gold according to their purity are:
9 Carat: The lowest carat gold, and the hardest, since only 37.5% consists of pure gold (24 Carat). It’s the most affordable, but also the one that requires the most maintenance and has a duller yellow tone. The remaining 62.5% is made up of copper, silver, nickel, or zinc.
14 Carat: Increasingly common in jewellery shops. Here, 58.5% is pure gold, which means the piece requires more maintenance and tends to develop a slightly coppery tone over time.
18 Carat: The most common standard in jewellery, as it offers a perfect balance between beauty and value, with greater durability and resistance. It consists of 75% pure gold (24 Carat) with 25% of other metals such as silver, copper, or palladium, creating alloys in yellow, rose, or white gold.
24 Carat: The purest form, extracted directly from mines. It serves as the base to create other alloys but is rarely used in jewellery because it’s too soft, the hardest to work with, and scratches very easily. Its best use is for plating, when we want a stronger yellow tone. This is also the type of gold used for investment bars.
The name of each variant indicates how many parts of pure gold are in the alloy, out of a total of 24. For example, 9 Carat means 9 parts gold out of 24, 14 Carat means 14 parts, and so on.
SILVER
This type of alloy is also found in silver. The most common are Fine Silver (999), too soft for jewellery, and the more widely used alloys like Sterling Silver (925), which combines 92.5% silver with 7.5% copper for greater durability, and Silver 950 with 95% silver and 5% copper, preferred for fine jewellery.
PLATING OR VERMEIL
Gold plating is a very thin layer of gold (less than 1 micron) over another metal, while gold-filled or thicker plating is more durable, and if it’s applied over sterling silver with more than 2.5 microns and at least 10 carat, it’s called vermeil. So when you see the concept GOLD VERMEIL now you know it means a sterling silver 925 piece with a gold plating.
Microns measure the thickness of this layer (1 micron = 0.001 mm): logically, the more microns, the more resistant and durable the piece. Although in practice the difference between, for example, 1 or 3 microns is so minimal that the most economical and logical option would be to go for a 1-micron plating and renew it over time to make the piece look new again, instead of applying a 3-micron layer just once.
CARATS IN GEMSTONES
Once the concept of Carat is clear, then comes the concept of Carat with a “c”, which refers to the unit of weight of gemstones (1 carat = 0.2 grams). The density of each gemstone varies, so one stone may look larger but weigh fewer carats than another that’s smaller. To understand the value of a gemstone, size alone isn’t enough—we also have to consider the cut, as well as the rarity, quality, and demand of the stone. For example, an Asscher cut with many facets will be more expensive than a simple cabochon cut. Another key factor is hardness: you’ve probably heard of the Mohs scale, which ranges from 1 to 10 and measures resistance to scratching. Talc is the softest at 1, and diamond the hardest at 10. For everyday jewellery, gemstones with a hardness of 7 or higher are recommended.
Minerals: Stones in their raw form, as created by nature. They have a specific chemical composition and defined crystal structure. Like uvarovite.
Rocks: Aggregates of one or more minerals. For example, granite is made of quartz, feldspar, and mica. Lapis lazuli is composed of lazurite, pyrite, and calcite.
Gemstones: Minerals (or sometimes rocks) that have been enhanced—cut, polished, etc. Not all minerals can be turned into gems.
Precious stones vs. semi-precious stones: Traditionally, only four are considered precious—diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire. The rest fall under semi-precious, although this classification is somewhat outdated and doesn’t always reflect their real value.
Some gems are better known by their commercial name but come from different minerals. For example: emerald comes from beryl, ruby and sapphire from corundum, and peridot from olivine.
It’s very important to know the gemstone or mineral you’re buying in order to understand the true value of a piece. Nowadays, you’ll also find pieces with Swarovski crystals or cubic zirconia (CZ), which may look striking but hold much less intrinsic value than gems such as aquamarine or peridot.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you like the stone and know what you’re buying. A cubic zirconia can be beautiful if you know what it is—but it’s important to make that conscious choice.
Leave me a comment if there’s a particular topic you’d like to explore.
In the next post, I’ll write about sky-blue gemstones and their value—from blue tourmaline to cubic zirconia.
Sandra.