How Much Gold is in Your Gold Jewelry?

I'm getting ready to restock my chains and have been searching for some new suppliers. I only have a couple of chain styles available in gold vermeil, and haven't been interested in adding gold-plated or gold-filled pieces, but I do want to add more vermeil. Mr. LuckyGirl and I ended up having a huge discussion about the differences between plated, filled, and vermeil jewelry, and to settle things I did a bit of research. I thought I'd share my findings with you (while sparing you a recap of the bickering).

• Gold plated jewelry has a fine layer of gold coated to the outside of a metal base (often nickel). The gold layer must have a minimum thickness of .5 microns.
• Gold electroplated jewelry has a fine layer of gold coated to the outside of a metal base (often nickel). The gold layer must have a minimum thickness of .175 microns.
• Gold filled jewelry is created by using heat and pressure to permanently fuse a layer of gold over a metal base. The minimum layer of gold must equal 1/20th of the total weight of the finished item. An item stamped with "1/20 14k GF" means 1/20th of its total weight is 14 karat gold.
• Rolled gold plate is similar to gold filled, but the quantity of karat gold is less than 1/20th of the total weight of the finished metal piece. An item stamped with "1/40 14k R.G.P." means 1/40th of its total weight is 14 karat gold.
• Heavy gold electroplated jewelry has a thick layer of gold coated to the outside of a metal base (often nickel). The gold layer must have a minimum thickness of 2.5 microns (100 millionths of an inch).
• Gold vermeil jewelry has a thick gold layer over sterling silver with a minimum thickness of 2.5 microns (100 millionths of an inch).

I prefer vermeil: it's much more affordable than solid gold made completely with precious metals.

What about those karats and colors?

24 karat gold is solid gold, with no added metals. It's too soft for most jewelry, so the gold is mixed with other metals like nickel or zinc for hardness. The number of karats tells you what fraction of gold was used in creating the metal of your piece. For example, 14 karat gold is made of 14 parts of gold and 10 parts other metals. Copper is added to create rose gold, silver to create green gold, and nickel or palladium are added to create white gold. Much of the white gold being produced in the U.S. is also plated with a thin layer of rhodium to give a brighter white color.

New from the Kiln

Things have been so hectic here with My LuckyGirl working out of town and me still learning to fill the role of full-time wicked stepmother that I haven't been able to list many new things in my shops. I've been making new things, but most are stuck somewhere in the line-up of taking photos, cleaning up photos, and writing descriptions.


So you get to see some of my new favorites here first! The incense burner and the plates will make it into my Etsy shop soon, but if you're interested in something before then just let me know.

Zero Shipping!

I've been working on ways to lower my shipping costs, and I'm excited to announce that I'm changing the shipping price for the majority of my items to $0.00! I've updated almost 75% of the eligible listings in my eBay store, and as soon as I've finished up there I'll move on to changing the shipping costs in my Etsy and ArtFire shops.

Heavy items like plates, slumped bottles, and jewelry boxes won't ship for free, but just about everything else will. If you've got your eye on something and I haven't adjusted the postage cost yet just let me know and I'll move it to the top of my list.

Wholesale Slumped Bottles

I've finally got things in order here so I can expand a bit. My first project has been getting my slumped bottles ready for wholesale orders. They make great impulse purchases in wine stores, gift shops, and even bars; and are unique serving pieces for the right appetizer or dessert.

The lucky thing is that before I had my line sheet half finished, I had my first wholesale order! My bottle plates are being used in an upscale restaurant in Raleigh to serve appetizers. I'm hoping to get a photo or two of them in action, and I promise to share if/when that happens!

The bottles are heavy, so shipping is expensive. Although I'm happy to ship them, I've decided to concentrate my efforts locally. People will have the option of picking up their order, and if they order enough bottles I'll deliver them for free.

If you have a business in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina area and want more information, you can get my wholesale slumped bottle details in PDF format.