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Fine Jewelry University Articles matching: “pure platinum”
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Fine Jewelry University (Show All FJU Articles)
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Caring for and Cleaning Your Jewelry
… chlorine or products that contains it. Don’t use a hard toothbrush because they tend to scratch the metals (gold, platinum, etc.). Abrasive cleaners and toothpaste or toothpowder will also scratch the metals. This will take away the shine. … hardest at 10. Talc is listed as 1 the softest. Pure gold (24 karat) is Mohs 2.5, 14 and 18 karat list at Mohs 3. Platinum list at Mohs 4.33. Sterling silver list at Mohs 2.5. This shows why jewelry metals get scratched by things like hard …
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How Are Lab Grown Diamonds Made?
… over 1.5 million pounds per square inch and temperature above 2,000 degrees Celsius. In this environment, the pure carbon melts and begins to form into a diamond around the starter seed. On December 16, 1954, a belt press was used to …plasma using microwaves, lasers, or other techniques. The ionization breaks the molecular bonds in the gases and the pure carbon adheres to the diamond seed and slowly builds up into a crystal, atom by atom, layer by layer. The CVD …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Morganite
… it from other pink gemstones. Morganite is commonly heat treated to remove yellow and orange hues and to achieve a purely pink stone. This type of enhancement has an excellent stability rating, and the stone requires no special treatment…As you may know, the most important factor in determining the value of a colored gemstone is: color. Morganite of a pure, medium pink color is the most valuable. If the pink color is too light the stone often looks washed out and if the …
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Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau Style Jewelry
… were not just adornments but works of art. Many Art Nouveau jewelry pieces were made in silver, but white gold and platinum were quite common as well. The diamonds used in Art Nouveau jewelry were typically Old Mine cuts, but Old European …embraced symmetry, bold colors, and streamlined forms influenced by Cubism and the Machine Age. Precious metals like platinum and white gold alongside rare and valuable gemstones such as diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires, were the materials …
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Jewelry Solder: What You Should Know
…the sake of simplicity, we will focus our discussion on gold jewelry, but the same concepts also apply to silver and platinum as well. If your ring is made out of 14 karat gold, you know that approximately 56% of it is gold with the rest … is a new molecule that does not have the same color properties as the old one which leads to discoloration. Unlike pure gold, base metals are not nearly as resistant to tarnishing. These metals can easily have those chemical reactions …
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How to Tell If a Diamond Is Natural or Lab Grown
…there are some tools available to help us do this. One of the best indicators of whether a diamond is lab grown is whether or not it is a Type IIa diamond. Type IIa is actually a gemological variant of the diamond that relates to how pure the carbon is that makes up the diamond. In nature, less than 2% of all diamonds are Type IIa, however, most gem quality lab grown diamonds are Type IIa. So, if a diamond is Type IIa, that’s a pretty good indication that it is lab …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Topaz
…in, “You’re both crazy, it’s like a beautiful peach.” Then, a passerby contributes, “You all are nuts, it’s like a rainbow with all the colors at once.” And of course, all of them are right. History and Lore Topaz in its pure form is naturally colorless, clear like a diamond. The famous “Braganza Diamond” was thought to be the largest diamond ever found (prior to the Cullinan Diamond) at 1,680 carats and was set in the Portuguese crown jewels as such. It wasn’t until …
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Gem in the Spotlight: Blue Zircon
… is known for its variety of colors. Blue zircon is the most popular color. But, zircon can be almost any color you can imagine including red, yellow, orange, brown, green, champagne, golden, saffron, and colorless. Zircon colors are pure and have that distinctive fire that sets it apart from other gems. The Gemology of Zircon Why does zircon have so much more fire then other colored gems? Zircon has a high refractive index (1.92-2.01). The refractive index (abbreviated…
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Gem in the Spotlight: Pearl
… the bodycolor), and orient (iridescent rainbow colors that shimmer on or just below a pearl’s surface). Pearls come in a range of colors, from white to black, with many shades in between. The most valuable pearls are those with a pure, even color, such as white, pink, or silver. Luster: Luster is the intensity of light reflected from a pearl’s surface. Pearls with excellent luster have sharp bright reflections on the surface. Pearls with high luster are more valuable …