Gold - 14, 18, 22, and 24 Karat Color Golds
Looking at the history of gold, you quickly discover it was one of the first precious commodities humans came to appreciate. This high esteem hasn't been eroded through history. Across the world the metal is a symbol of wealth, class and distinction. Its luster and ductility make it ideal for crafting fine pieces of jewelry. Its scarcity has made it a centerpiece of countless wars across the globe.
Our ancient ancestors had great taste picking out this precious metal. Gold's ductility makes it a perfect medium for forming fine art and jewelry. A single ounce of gold can stretch out to 300 square feet allowing it to be formed into very intricate shapes. However, this malleability and ductility comes at a price.
Because it is so soft and maneuverable, gold must be alloyed with other metals to give it strength. This brings us to the issues of karats and color. Before we deal with math, we'll go through the different colors gold takes as it is alloyed with other metals.
As you'd probably guess, adding silver, palladium or nickel to gold lightens the color creating white gold and light shades of greenish gold. Copper has the opposite effect. The addition of copper provides added weight and strength and a reddish coloring. The most common practice in the United States is to use a combination of copper and silver with gold to maintain a even yellow gold color as the strength and durability is increased. Aluminum creates a purplish color. Indium and gold creates a blue color. Using only silver creates green gold.
This brings us to the karat measurement. Like any cool system of measurement, it is based upon a convoluted formula that brings anxiety to any person fearful of math. But it's not that bad! Karats are a measurement of the percentage or purity of the gold. 100% pure gold is 24 karat gold. That is our baseline. Thus, an 18 karat gold ring is 75% gold, 25% alloy. And a 14 karat bracelet would be made up of 58.5% gold and 42.5% alloy.
So is the 24k ring always better than the 18k ring? We must answer with an emphatic no! While purity is always good, a ring made of soft pure gold will not stand the test of time like an 18k ring will. Many fine jewelry designers use 14 karat gold especially when it comes to holding preciouse gemstones such as diamonds, sapphires, and opal because of its ablity to hold up under various conditions presented by the wearer. As we just discussed, there is a wide variety of colors to chose from with alloyed gold.
Now when your special someone discretely drops hints about what he or she would love to see under the Christmas tree, you'll know what you're investing in and how to pick out the perfect gift. We will follow this discution in the future as we look at the stones that pair best with certain colors of gold, as well as other metals.
Our ancient ancestors had great taste picking out this precious metal. Gold's ductility makes it a perfect medium for forming fine art and jewelry. A single ounce of gold can stretch out to 300 square feet allowing it to be formed into very intricate shapes. However, this malleability and ductility comes at a price.
Because it is so soft and maneuverable, gold must be alloyed with other metals to give it strength. This brings us to the issues of karats and color. Before we deal with math, we'll go through the different colors gold takes as it is alloyed with other metals.
As you'd probably guess, adding silver, palladium or nickel to gold lightens the color creating white gold and light shades of greenish gold. Copper has the opposite effect. The addition of copper provides added weight and strength and a reddish coloring. The most common practice in the United States is to use a combination of copper and silver with gold to maintain a even yellow gold color as the strength and durability is increased. Aluminum creates a purplish color. Indium and gold creates a blue color. Using only silver creates green gold.
This brings us to the karat measurement. Like any cool system of measurement, it is based upon a convoluted formula that brings anxiety to any person fearful of math. But it's not that bad! Karats are a measurement of the percentage or purity of the gold. 100% pure gold is 24 karat gold. That is our baseline. Thus, an 18 karat gold ring is 75% gold, 25% alloy. And a 14 karat bracelet would be made up of 58.5% gold and 42.5% alloy.
So is the 24k ring always better than the 18k ring? We must answer with an emphatic no! While purity is always good, a ring made of soft pure gold will not stand the test of time like an 18k ring will. Many fine jewelry designers use 14 karat gold especially when it comes to holding preciouse gemstones such as diamonds, sapphires, and opal because of its ablity to hold up under various conditions presented by the wearer. As we just discussed, there is a wide variety of colors to chose from with alloyed gold.
Now when your special someone discretely drops hints about what he or she would love to see under the Christmas tree, you'll know what you're investing in and how to pick out the perfect gift. We will follow this discution in the future as we look at the stones that pair best with certain colors of gold, as well as other metals.
posted by Fine Art Jewelry Blog at
11:24 AM
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