[Jewelry making - Article 00962] - Re: [Orchid] 10kt gold

[Bud Cravener]

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    I find the attitudes interesting and actually surprising about
    10kt and 14kt gold.  If one of my customers want to save money by
    requesting a piece of jewelry (usually heavy weight link
    bracelets, etc) in 10kt versus 14 or 18kt, I'm more than happy to
    make it up in that karat.  Actually, I wear a rather heavy
    bracelet and smaller link necklace that I deliberately created in
    10kt.  I find that it holds up much better to my abuse than any
    other.  9kt jewelry has long been the norm for England and they
    seem perfectly satisfied with that karat gold.  And 14kt is the
    best balance between customer money and a very nice piece of
    jewelry.  Sure softer gold (18 or 22kt) is nicer to work with
    and easier to create, but other than the color, which MANY people
    do not care for, what is the benefit for the customer?  The same
    thing goes for the latest marketing ploy of pushing platinum in
    every single wedding ad to the consumers.  Nearly all the young
    people coming to me for engagement rings are telling me that
    their girlfriends demand platinum.  This is a direct result of
    the marketing, not that they know any difference between
    platinum and white gold.  So these guys plop down big bucks for a
    setting that I could have made in white gold for half the cost.
    Someone mentioned gold as an investment.  NOT!  All we are
    making is a piece of jewelry that the buyer is proud to wear and
    that we are proud to claim to have made.   No matter how you say
    it, that ring that you are about to sell them, is not an
    investment.  They'll never get the "retail appraised" value from
    it and would be in shock to know what it actually cost to make
    it.  Investing in gold is done on the market with bullion
    certificates, not jewelry. And. all this hype about only 18kt or
    22kt being good enough for "real" jewelry?  Please! All I make
    is custom stuff, and rarely use 18kt and never have used 22kt. I
    advise the customer not to waste the extra money, if they really
    don't care about the added gold content. Depending on how you
    finish it, it's doubtful that the average person can tell the
    difference between 10kt, 14kt or even 18kt anyway.  I'll bet
    that nearly 75% of all gold jewelry is sold at 14kt. My
    opinions...........  Bud Cravener 



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