[Jewelry making - Article 01791] - Re: [Orchid] Repairs on imported gold

[Ian W. Wright]

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>     For some reason a lot of high karat imported gold is plated. I
>     always warn customers of color changes when the pieces are worked
>     on. I'm not really sure why this is done as the high karat metals
>     have a great color without plating, but it is common practice. I
>     refuse to do plating so the customers are just warned ahead of time
>     and told there will most likely be a difference in the color. 

    This seems to be a common practice in Europe, at least, for all
    types of jewellery and I understand that it is done to mask solder
    seams and different colours of metal where, for example, a ready
    made setting is applied to a cast or fabricated base. I think the
    practice probably originated with the producers of the kind of cheap
    jewellery seen on QVC and in the supermarkets etc. and has spread to
    other monufacturers who now feel the need to produce similarly bland
    and uniform-looking items. What is really annoying is the trend to
    rhodium plate all silver items. As rhodium is an entirely different
    metal to silver, it has a different appearance and so, when it
    inevitably burns off during a repair, the piece then has a different
    appearance which is not usually as flashy and showy as it was when
    new - and that's without showing the firestain that the rhodium was
    applied to cover up! 


Best wishes,
Ian
Ian W. Wright
Sheffield UK
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