What pulls an outfit better than a coordinated look? Don’t go running away – it is easier than it sounds. You can wear matching jewelry or you can wear coordinated jewelry. I love to coordinate instead of match. It is more fun and more personal. I’ll explain.

This is a matched set or demi parure in poured white glass and gold tone or plated metal.

Milk White Poured Glass Vintage Necklace and Earrings

It was designed and produced as an exact matching set. It is not signed but it has the feel of an early Coro or Trifari piece. Easy and looks great, but not really fun as you are wearing something another person decided would look great together and had it produced that way.

18k Gold Coral Necklace, Pre-ban Ivory and Coral 14k Gold Huggie Earrings and Pre-ban Ivory Antique Bangle.

Now look at how these three pieces look together.  In this group are 18k Gold Coral Necklace, Pre-ban Ivory and Coral 14k Gold Huggie Earrings and Pre-ban Ivory Antique Bangle.  Isn’t that much more fun?

The secret is in the earrings – they are the key piece that holds the look together, they tie in the bracelet and the necklace together. It’s Pret-a-Porter or separates for jewelry. It works the same way. The best is you can wear each of them with something else or by themselves as each piece holds it’s own. So pick a favorite piece, match color or style or shape. Find something in common with something else. Find something that looks good and most importantly, looks good on you. After all style is all about how it makes you feel, you need to be comfortable in it and it looks great.

18k Gold Large Round Coral Beads Necklace and 14k Gold and Pre Ban Ivory Huggie Hoop Earrings

Go look in you jewelry box – you probably have some coordinates already. It works for Costume Jewelry and works for Fine State Jewelry too. And you can be your own stylist!

There is a lot of confusion about the term “Vintage Jewelry” or “Vintage Jewellery”. Let me try to clarify this issue for you once and for all and give you the proper definition of this term plus a few others related to jewelry.

For a piece of jewelry to be authentic vintage it must be at least 20 years old. Some dealers and collectors classify vintage as 25 years or more. One cannot make “vintage jewelry” as it has to be at least that old. You can use vintage parts, beads and findings but that does not make your jewelry vintage as it does not make it old. If it is made today, it is new Contemporary Jewelry.

When defined as Vintage at our Vintage Jewelry Site, it means that piece is 20 years old or older. When you shop with us, if a piece is called Vintage it is authentic Vintage, at least 20 years old. For the current time frame, jewelry of the 1980s can be classified as Vintage as it falls between the 20 and 25 years old parameter. Jewelry from the 1990s or newer is not vintage yet.

Antique Jewelry must be 100 years or older. If it isn’t that old, than it is vintage, even if it looks older. If it is not 20 years or older than it is neither vintage nor antique.

If a piece of jewelry is a worthy piece but not 20 years old, than it is defined as pre-owned until it reaches the minimum threshold of 20 years of age to become Vintage.

Unfortunately, these terms are used, misused and over-used to describe many styles made today. That is not correct.

For Contemporary Jewelry with a vintage or antique flair, they should be described as vintage inspired jewelry, vintage style jewelry, antique inspired jewelry or antique style jewelry, even if parts of the jewelry made today are old.

The terms upcycled and recycled jewelry could apply to Contemporary Jewelry if the bulk of the piece is old. It requires that a complete (broken or not) old piece be used as the core for a new design. I would certainly hope that anyone making Upcycled Jewelry would use a broken old piece that cannot be repaired and not destroy a perfectly good old piece of jewelry to make something new, unless it can be easily reversed. I do use old hopelessly broken vintage and antique jewelry to create some of my new designs. I have seen several designs made today from perfectly good and quite valuable old jewelry. Some of these are sold at a lower price than the original older piece is worth!

I have been in the jewelry business for a long time, both as a designer and as dealer. I carry both Vintage and Antique Jewelry and sometimes use vintage and antique parts in my new contemporary jewelry.

Whatever definition is used in our jewelry site, rest assured we have invested lots of time researching and are absolutely positive of the authenticity of the jewelry being offered.

Hope this helps to clarify this issue!

Scratch Testing Gold – What is not written on the test kit instructions

Over the years of buying lots, jewelry boxes and estates,  little bits and pieces of Antique and Vintage jewelry accumulate. Some of it can be solid gold, some of it can be just plated or gold filled.

Sometime ago, I decided to cash in on these and sent them to my trusted buyer to be melted. There was quite an amount and I thought I was in for a small treasure.  Much to my disappointment, 1/3 of it was not solid gold!  I had tested each tiny piece by scratching it on the test stone, following the given directions and it had reacted as gold should, so how come it was not right?

As it turns out, rubbing the piece or removing shavings from it is not a sure way to test. Read on and I will share my secret.

The Basics:

It is important to note that gold filled or rolled gold and gold plated are not the same. They are very different and have very different values.  Gold filled or rolled gold actually has a gold content. The gold content in plated jewelry is negligible.

The process for making Gold Filled is similar to making a sandwich.  One or two sheets of gold and one sheet of base metal are layered. Generally speaking, brass is used for Yellow Gold Filled and Copper is used for Rose Gold Fill.  If two sheets of gold are used, the base metal will be in the middle (like a sandwich).  The sheets are then heated and passed through a rolling mill, hence the name rolled gold.  The heat and pressure cause the sheets to bond permanently.

Gold plated is a different process all together. The jewelry or metal piece is attached to a wire on the negative side, a piece of pure gold is attached to the positive side of the same wire.  The two ends are submerged into a special liquid (plating solution). A low voltage current is then applied. The current causes gold molecules to move from the pure gold to the surface of the metal being plated.  Older antique and vintage jewelry tends to have a thicker layer of gold, but as you can tell from the process itself, that layer is still very thin, generally 7 microns for better quality. Nowadays, most plating is done with a maximum of 3 microns. A micron is one thousand of a millimeter. That’s really thin!

Back to our testing for gold and silver content with an acid test kit.

First let me start with a very big warning:

Use extreme caution! Always follow test kit manufacturer instructions and use loads of common sense.

• These chemicals are dangerous, they are acids and very destructive, they burn the skin and surfaces of furniture.
• Do not leave where children and pets can reach them.
• Work in a well ventilated area. Do not breath the fumes or stand with your face right above the testing area. Do not let it splash.
• Wear goggles to protect your eyes. Do not get it on your skin!
• Do not allow testing liquids to touch gemstones, enamel or any ornamentation on the jewelry.
• Always start with the 10k Gold Testing Solution and go up from there as described below.
• If the piece is of lower than 10k it might be damaged as well.

Testing for gold with an acid test kit:

Clean the piece well.  Examine every area of it carefully with a jeweler’s loupe. If you see that the edges or high profile areas are a different color you can probably stop there, the piece is gold plated.  Another sign to look for is the quality of manufacturing. For instance, very rarely you will you see gold necklaces that do not have soldered links. I have never seen one, all of the vintage and antique gold necklaces I have had had soldered links.

Look for quality marks. I test all jewelry, even when it is marked. Until the 1980s it was acceptable to have some variation on the gold content per karat. So you may come across jewelry marked 14k that might have a content as low as 12k!  Once or twice, I also tested jewelry fully marked 14k and it was just plated.

Now you have looked at the piece carefully and there is no indication that it is plated, no costume jewelry company name on it, no metal quality mark.  We go to the next step.

Some very important things to keep in mind:

The acid can destroy or at least damage the piece of jewelry tested if it is not solid gold. Be extremely careful and try to find an area where it will be seen the least.  Make sure to have a clear surface for the test stone. Have some Baking Soda handy to neutralize the acid right away. Place some in a shaker or small cup, have it with you while testing.

Because gold filled has a thick layer of gold, rubbing it on the test stone is sometimes not enough to determine if a piece is gold filled or solid gold. My experience is that the older it is the thicker is the layer of gold.

You need to make a tiny incision in a hidden area. Using a single edge razor blade, carefully make a small but fairly deep cut, no bigger than 1/16″ . Take care not to go through it!  What you want to do is to get to the metal underneath the surface layer. At that spot, drop the smallest of drops and wait a second or two.  If it turns green you can stop, it is gold filled. It will bubble like crazy. As soon as you see the green color throw some baking soda on it to neutralize the acid. Do not breathe any fumes. Then wash the piece well and polish with a Sunshine Cloth (not affiliated, just think it does a great job).  If instructions are followed carefully you should have no problem returning the piece to it’s original condition and removing all the marks, if any, left by the testing liquid.

If you had no reaction with the gold testing acid, congratulations!  The piece is solid gold and now we will determine what karat it is.

Take the test stone that comes with the kit.

Choose an area on the jewelry you want to test that is not easily seen. Rub it carefully and evenly to create a fairly healthy streak on the stone. Avoid keeping the same spot against the stone as it will sand down the surface. Drop the 10k Gold Testing Liquid on to the streak on the stone. If the color of the scratch remains unchanged, it is 10k or higher. Proceed by repeating the process using the 14k Testing Solution. If the scratch color remains unchanged, it is at least 14k and you should repeat the process with liquids for 18k and until 22k or 24k solution, whichever is included in your test kit.  When the color changes from one step to the next the last karat solution which caused no change is the karat gold for the jewelry you are testing.

It is always good to replace the test kit with a new one about every 6 months.  I have been told the liquid gets stronger with time, which would cause a karat reading lower than the actual karat weight of the jewelry being tested.

And one more reminder:  Use extreme caution and loads of common sense!

Please also note that I am not responsible for any mishaps that might occur. This is how I do it and I am just sharing my experience. There maybe a better way for you. And if you do not feel comfortable doing this, by all means, bring it to your trusted jeweler and have him or her do it for you.