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Saturday, August 28, 2010

Tips for Choosing Wedding Jewellery for Bridesmaids

When planning your wedding, you want everyone to look great, but your bridesmaids should look simply spectacular. After all, bridesmaids not only offer support to the bride during her time of making wedding plans, they also add beauty and elegance to the actual wedding ceremony. Bridesmaid's dresses are carefully chosen to match the bride's favorite colors and designs. Then the dresses can be adorned with beautiful wedding jewellery and wedding hair accessories to complete the ensemble. Here are some ideas to help you choose beautiful jewellery for your bridesmaids.

Jewellery Gifts

First, decide if you want the wedding jewellery for your bridesmaids to be given as a "gift" or for cosmetic purposes only. If it is your gift, then you'll want to spend a little more money to get higher quality wedding jewellery sets, such as a necklace and earring sets. If giving as a gift, place the jewellery in a gift box and wrap it to give to your bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner. They'll be able to try it on just in time for the wedding.

Design Choices

There are hundreds of wedding jewellery fashions to choose from, including sparkling crystals, diamante, pearls, gold, silver, etc. You can either match the bridesmaid jewellery to your own bridal jewellery or select a similar, but more low-key design. Consider how the bridesmaids' dresses are made in the neckline area. Do the dresses have a high or low neckline, or are they sleeveless with or without jackets? Do the dresses have fancy designs or embroidery, or are they made in a simple style?

The wedding jewellery should complement your bridesmaids, but it should not be the most noticeable item in your wedding. Be sure to select jewellery that will not capture the eyes of everyone and distract them from the main theme of the ceremony - you and your groom!

Accessorize

You can also buy wedding hair accessories and other items along with bridesmaid jewellery and offer these together in a gift set. The hairpieces can be simple bows or lovely fascinators. Make sure they look similar to your bridal hair accessories to create harmony in everyone's wedding attire.

Other accessories to consider for bridesmaids include jewellery stands, anklets, bracelets, pendants, brooches, scarves and jewellery cleaner.

**Hint: Make sure none of your bridesmaids is allergic to a certain type of jewellery. Some people are allergic to silver or gold, so you wouldn't want anyone to break out in a rash on the wedding day!

These are just a few ideas to get your wheels turning. Wedding jewellery is an important part of your wedding. Choose jewellery for yourself and your bridesmaids wisely, and consider shopping online to easily compare designs and pricing for high quality wedding jewellery sets.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Buying Jewelry and Watches

So you've read about gemstones, diamonds, and maybe even engagement rings. Now you know what you're looking for. But how do you find it?
You could always go to a jeweler in person, but what about this vast Internet? Everything else is for sale online; why should this be different? Good news. It isn't! If you follow the guide below, you'll know how to buy jewelry online with greater trust and confidence than you would in person.

Why and How to Buy Online

  • You will have written documentation of what the e-tailers are promising you. If they lie to you, you can put a chargeback on your credit card and they'll have no defense.
  • Any e-tailer worth buying from will gladly send the piece in question to an independent appraiser before you purchase it. Make that a habit.
  • Online stores can offer lower prices because they don't have all the brick-and-mortar overhead costs.
  • They have larger inventories and a better selection.
  • You can shop at your leisure without the pressure of salespeople.
  • You can comparison shop without having to worry what snobby passers-by think of you.
  • You can take an online price and go to a jeweler in person and haggle a price further down.
  • If the piece is incredibly inexpensive and you can't imagine how you got such a deal, you're being cheated. Don't buy it.
  • Gemstones need to be appraised and certified by some objective criteria. Given this, their prices are fairly standardized. If something is much less expensive than its brethren, it's of a lower quality.
  • You could possibly cut down on some costs by taking your prospective piece's certificate to a brick-and-mortar jeweler and seeing if you can get a lower price.

What to Look For

Diamonds

Darling, if you want diamonds , you simply must read our Diamond Buying Guide. It'll tell you all about the four Cs, and how to find what you like.
  • Make sure you know the stats of your diamond and get it in writing.
  • Diamonds are so highly regulated and evaluated that you will not get an incredibly cheap price on quality, anywhere. The smartest thing you can do is get exactly what you're looking for a haggled down price. Do not be baited and switched.

Gemstones

If you want to buy a gemstone , you're going to have to read our guide. It'll let you know what to look for and what the options are before you.
  • Make sure you know whether stones have been treated for flaws or if they're totally natural. This will affect their price (and value) greatly.
  • Just like with a diamond, make sure you have a certificate documenting everything about your gem's four Cs.

Gold

Gold  can come in so many varieties of quality, online and off.
  • All gold should have a trademark certified by the government. Be suspicious of pieces that do not.
  • Know your terminology:
    • 24 karat  is totally pure but very soft. It won't make the most durable jewelry.
    • 14 karat  is 14 parts gold mixed with 10 parts other metals.
    • The same extends to 18 karat  gold.
    • Solid gold  means the piece is not hollow. It could be any percentage pure, though.
    • Gold plated  means that the jewelry has a layer of gold bonded onto its non-gold surface. This will wear away with time, depending on how thick the plate it.
      • Gold overlay , rolled gold plate (RGP) , and gold-filled  jewelry have a gold plate of at least 10 karats.
        • The piece should have the karats listed as well as the proportion of the piece that is gold, if under 1/20 of the weight. e.g.. -- 1/20 12K Gold Filled Necklace .
    • Gold electroplate  means that there's a layer of at least 10 karat gold at least .175 microns thick secured on a base plate.
    • Gold flashed  and gold washed  jewelry have a layer less than .175 microns thick. This will wear away very quickly. Not a good purchase.
  • If you only buy gold that meets your quality specifications, you won't be disappointed online.

Silver and Platinum

Silver  jewelry is very popular for anything except engagement and wedding rings. (Many people have engagement/wedding rings that are silver, but they're not the same level of popularity.)
  • Just like gold, your silver must have a trademark noting its purity.
    • Something qualifies for the label "silver" if it's 92.5% pure. It may also be labeled 925 Silver.
    • Silverplate  is a layer of silver that is bonded to another metal underneath. As with gold, you risk it rubbing off.
Platinum  is more precious than gold or silver.
  • Its purity is measured in parts per thousand. e.g. -- If a piece is 850 Plat or Pt. it is 85% platinum and 15% other metals.
  • It may also be marked with the parts per thousand of pure platinum and the parts of a platinum group metal (like iridium or palladium). This would look like 500 Plat 400 Irid, with 10% being other metals.

Pearls

Pearls can be natural, cultivated, or imitation. Make sure you pay accordingly.
  • Pearls may be impressive colors by nature or by dying them after-the-fact. While the former is rare and incredible, the latter is often regarded as tacky. Know which you're buying.
  • Natural  pearls form inside of oysters from an irritation inside and are harvested in the wild. They are very rare, beautiful, soft, and flawed.
  • Cultivated  pearls are formed when an irritant is purposely introduced into an oyster. They are also beautiful but not nearly as rare or valuable. They are measured by their size and lustre.
  • Imitation  pearls are made of plastic, glass, or other materials and roughly resemble a pearl and size, shape, and color. They are no where near as valued or impressive.

Watches

If a watch is what you need, check out our watch buying guide. Here are a few pointers to get you started.
  • You have your choice of analog , digital , anadigi , and chronograph  watches.
  • Watches come in many styles: dress , sport , casual , retro  and calculator .
  • You can also buy a pocket watch  if you prefer.
Mechanical watches  require winding; self-winding watches  wind as you wear them but may need to be reset periodically. Battery-powered watches  are a relatively new invention and never need winding.
Watches can be inexpensive with plastic straps  or very expensive, with gold , diamonds ,platinum  or other precious ornamentation.
  • Popular Watches that may be just what you're looking for===Important Questions===
Before you fork over any money, make sure to ask these important questions.
  • Is this company legitmate? What are its credentials? Its address and phone number?
  • Is this real or made in a lab?
  • Is it doctored?
    • Are the fixes permanent or will they need upkeep?
    • How much do the fixes downgrade its value?
    • Is the price similarly downgraded?
  • Has this been independently appraised?
    • By whom?
    • Where is the certificate?
    • Will you send the piece to an appraiser of my choosing before I buy?
  • Will you make this piece to my specifications?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Fille-Lilly--Sterling Silver Gemstone Jewelry

The little girls stared at the sterling silver gemstone jewelry in the case at the store. The small lights perfectly positioned within the showcase made the fifty dollar necklaces jump with so much life, it was as if they cost five thousand dollars. The young girls began to be whisked away in their imaginations as they talked back and forth about how they would like wear such glorious necklaces on their wedding day when all eyes would be just on them for a few hours. The store clerk wore a bemused smile as she also remembered a time when she often stared at wholesale silver gemstone jewelry in her grandfather's small trading post in the southwest. She remembered not the bright lights of an expensive showcase, but rather the pride in her grandfather's eyes as he pulled out the cases of sterling silver gemstone jewelry from his small safe in the back of his store. Her grandfather had made every piece by hand, and when each piece was sold, he asked the customers where they were from, so that he could envision where the handiwork was headed.

The term sterling silver is a term to describe the precious metal that has been mixed with copper in a 92.5/7.5 ratio. Copper is the one metal that doesn't harm the color of this precious metal in that proportion, which is needed to give the metal a degree of hardness. The precious metal that is pure is quite soft and malleable, and can be damaged very easily, so for certain jewelry pieces, copper is employed for longevity. Adding copper to this precious metal in that proportion does not affect the price of gemstone pieces. Instead, this precious metal jewelry is priced by the intricacy of design and quality of the craftsmanship. The popularity of this precious metal appeared to be at its height from 1870 to 1920 when the metal appeared in everything from jewelry to flatware. Since the Victorian period dictated that there should be a separate fork, spoon and knife for every course, societal dictates did not call expectations unreasonable to find three or four or more of the same utensil at every place setting.

The term silver plating ought to be a term meaning "run and hide from anything with that moniker." If a well meaning person gives you a silver coated fishing pole because that person thinks you have everything, thank them and smile, but soon it will be black. Plated fashion accessories with this metal is a recipe for disaster, because the precious metal will soon show its true colors, and it won't be the gray we are used to seeing. So if there is a thirteen year old boy reading this blog that wants to give a first girlfriend a piece that is plated with this precious metal, don't do it! Wait till you are eighteen, then give her something in a sterling silver gemstone piece, or find some wholesale silver gemstone jewelry. One will be very surprised how much things change in five years. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." (John 1:1)

This precious metal has always been the metal for the common man. It is very common and therefore the cost is very reasonable. A trip online to price wholesale silver gemstone jewelry will find the surfer discovering gemstone pieces for as little as four dollars from a wholesale outlet. From more high end retailers, beautiful jewelry with gemstones from all over the world including amethyst, topaz, larimer, pearl, jasper, garnet and citrine and almost twenty other gemstones. These delicately made pieces are much pricier, but far more beautiful than the wholesale sterling silver gemstone jewelry mentioned earlier. Again, the price of sterling silver doesn't vary, because the real thing is always advertised as true 92.5, or ninety two and a half silver, seven and a half percent copper. It is the intricate work, the details and the craftsmanship that makes the price of fashion pieces made from this precious metal rise.

Wholesale silver gemstone jewelry comes from a number of countries around the world, including Spain, Italy and the United States, but the greatest supplier is the country of Thailand. There are a number of websites originating in Thailand that offer beautiful sterling silver gemstone jewelry at very reasonable prices, as well as American websites with competitive pricing also. There are also many sites that are helpful in ways to clean precious metal jewelry, but often differ in the advice give. Some recommend the commercial metal cleaners, while others advice to use only something like baking soda. With gemstones as part of the items being cleaned, it might be more advised to stay with something like baking soda.

Our young girls continued to stare at the pieces in the case. From across the store, the grandmother who had brought them watched as a spectator might carefully watch the movement of athletes on a field. One of the great joys of this woman's life was observing the stages of the granddaughters' life unfold. She was careful not to disturb the wondrous moment and at the very last moment, came up behind the two and placed a hand on each of their shoulders. The girls pointed out the necklaces and told the woman of their dreams. The grandma did the magical thing and bought a necklace for each of the girls, but said she would keep the fashion pieces at her house until they were old enough to take care of their possessions. When they arrived back home, she made the young ones sit down and write about the new items they now owned.

Sixteen years later, when both girls were engaged, the now aged woman pulled out the little box in which each necklace had been kept. Included in the box, folded up tightly were the letters the girls had written. The stories told of dreams in a future time now here. The girls wept at the amazing memory both had forgotten. Sterling silver gemstone jewelry was pinned to two wedding dresses that may have seemed out of place, but very much belonged.

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