Precious Metal Comparisons
Your Metal Options
We work in all precious metals such as Silver, 9ct, 14ct and 18ct Yellow, White and Rose Gold. Each metal has a different colour and different properties. Nearly all of our designs can be made in any metal. When settling on your metal choice the main things to consider are the durability of your metal for your lifestyle, your colour preference, and your budget.
When shopping for an important piece of jewellery, most of our clients have done their research in terms of style and know the type of design they've set their hearts on. But when it comes to preference for precious metals, and understanding your wide variety of options, that even if you’re sure of your preferred metal colour, you may not know the physical properties of your choice and why that might be the best choice suited to your lifestyle.
Strength Of Your Metal Choice
From the strongest to weakest of the metals we work with:
Platinum, 18ct white gold and 14ct white gold, 18ct gold, 14ct rose and 14 ct yellow gold, 9ct golds (white, yellow and rose), silver.
We recommend basing your decision on your preference of metal colour and your budget.
Silver is the softest precious metal, and as such we don’t recommend it for jewellery intended to be worn everyday and forever like your wedding rings. It will inevitably suffer from surface scratching, wear down over time and eventually need to be replaced. The best suited precious metals for heavily worn jewellery such as engagement rings or wedding rings are typically gold or platinum.
Generally we would advise to match the metal of rings to be worn together such as an engagement ring and wedding band. This is because the harder metal will likely wear the softer metal down over time, this would especially affect stone settings and therefore could lead to compromising the security of your stone. There are always exceptions to this and if you have your heart set on mixed metals we can advise on your design options.
Finish Of Your Metal
We offer both a matte and high shine polish, however once the piece has been worn for a while either the matte or the polished finishes will change, and after a year or so, the pieces will settle into their own finish that suits your lifestyle. We’ll provide you with a polishing cloth or scouring pad with all of our wedding and engagement rings dependent on your choice of finish which you can use to easily bring back the finish you choose. We also offer a free re-finishing of your Islewear ring’s for a year following making, to bring your jewellery back to best and looking brand new again. If you have your own heirloom or sentimental pieces, or even engagement or wedding band you would like to bring the sparkle back to you could consider our ring TLC service.
Metal Allergies And Sensitivity
All of our work is hallmarked to prove its purity before we send it out, so you can be sure of the quality and purity of your metal. We do not use nickel within any of our gold alloys so that we can avoid reactions. Most commonly reactions occur when in contact with metals like nickel, brass or copper, but sometimes even silver can set off the most sensitive skin. In these cases we recommend a high carat of gold or platinum as these metals are very fine and pure.
Temporary discolouration which appears when you first begin wearing the piece is likely caused by small amounts of polishing material residue and will fade shortly having no lasting effect on your jewellery. Alternatively, the natural oils of our skin can interact with the metal and cause small amounts of discolouration but this fades quickly as you wear the piece in.
Of The Metals We Work With
Precious metals are worth more the less ‘available’, or more ‘rare’ that they are. The precious metals we work with include platinum, silver, gold, and rhodium for plating purposes.
A list of precious metals we work with in their order of value:
Rhodium
The most valuable of all precious metals is rhodium, we solely use rhodium for plating. This silver/white coloured metal is extremely rare and is used for its highly reflective properties, which is why we use rhodium to plate white gold, it is a process which gives the white gold its bright white colour by placing a coating of rhodium over the metal.
Rhodium is hypoallergenic, meaning you won’t get any skin reactions by wearing rhodium plated jewellery. If you own a piece of jewellery causing you skin reactions, rhodium plating the piece can be the solution to eliminate this problem.
Something to keep in mind when choosing a rhodium plated finish is that as it is only a thin layer, it will wear away over time revealing the metal underneath, and will require maintenance and needs to be re-plated regularly. Typically, a ring would need to be re-plated once every 12 to 18 months, to keep it looking its best.
Platinum
Platinum is considered among the most pure and precious metal used in modern-day jewellery making, and has become synonymous with luxury and longevity. It too is a silver/white coloured metal, and unlike white gold (which retains its whiteness only by being plated with rhodium) platinum will never need re-plating. It too is a hypo-allergenic metal so can be worn on the body with no adverse side effects or skin reactions.
Platinum is known for being a ‘noble metal’ it is un-reactive, meaning that it will not tarnish or corrode over time. Platinum is the strongest precious metal used in jewellery, it is incredibly durable and robust so it as an excellent choice for wear on a daily basis. It is also incredibly dense, making it the heaviest of our metal choices and four times stronger than gold. Whilst being hardwearing and durable, many people believe platinum is “scratch-proof”and this is not exactly correct. As a metal platinum can still incur surface scratches and develop a patina of wear, a satin sheen that develops on the surface of a ring produced by daily wear, this is often seen as a very desirable trait that only platinum has. However if you prefer the highly reflective shine and mirror lustre, this can easily be restored by a jeweller at any time.
‘Platinum is an extremely rare element - it is said that if all the worlds platinum reserves were poured into an Olympic sized swimming pool, there would only be enough to cover your ankles. For comparison, all the world's gold reserves would fill three pools of equivalent size.’
It is due to its rarity and durability that platinum is also a more expensive choice of metal. On one hand Platinum jewellery is initially an investment and more expensive than white gold options, which can be limiting to a budget. However it could also be viewed that it is more cost-effective in the long run with no on-going maintenance costs associated with re-plating.
Gold
Gold remains the most timeless metal, and suits most peoples preferences as it is available in a diverse colour palette- yellow, white and rose tones. The process of alloying, mixing metals together gives the raw gold used in the alloy more durability, and can also be used to create different colours. Pure gold is an extremely soft metal, which is the reason why gold is combined with other alloys, to create necessary strength. If pure gold was used on its own in jewellery, that piece would not stand the test of time.
You may have heard the term “carat”, abbreviated as Ct or K for American jewelry terminology. These are measurements used to describe the purity of gold. It tells you how much pure gold is within the gold alloy that forms your jewellery. We work with 9ct, 14ct and 18ct gold in yellow, rose and white.
White Gold
Not everybody knows, but white gold doesn’t exist naturally, it’s created from mixing yellow gold with white metal alloys such as palladium (from the platinum family) or silver. White gold is created through alloying pure gold with these white metals, when opting for a white gold that is mixed with palladium it becomes much harder wearing, similar to platinum.
Depending on which carat of white gold you opt for, there is the option to plate your white gold with rhodium for a bright white finish, or leaving the natural raw white gold which has a warmer tone.
Rose Gold
The inclusion of copper in the alloy results in the soft pink hue of rose gold.
Silver
The silver that we use is an alloy called sterling silver, marked as 925 silver, meaning that the metal itself is made up of 92.5% pure silver, and the remaining percentage being other metals that aid to its hardness and durability.
Silver will tarnish with time, tarnishing being a surface coating that occurs due to a chemical reaction when exposed to air over long periods of time. Whilst silver does require more care than some other precious metals, it can easily have its shine brought back with silver polish, polishing cloths and silver dips.
Comparatively to metals such as gold and platinum, silver is a much more abundant and less ‘rare’ making it an affordable option, suited to day to day wear.
It’s worth while keeping in mind that silver is also the softest precious metal. As such we cannot recommend it for jewellery intended to be worn everyday that is needed to stand the test of time such as your wedding rings, as it will inevitably suffer from damage and eventually need to be replaced.