White Gold and Fair-Trade Gold
Our High Palladium White Gold
There is no such thing as "white gold" - Pure gold is naturally yellow.
To create 18karat white gold another metal called Palladium is added. The more Palladium is added the greyer appears the colour of the gold alloy. 10% Palladium White Gold appears pale yellow and approx. 13% are grey brown. Many High Street chain Jewellers use White gold with this low Palladium content, which looks pale yellow. The jewellery then needs Rhodium plating to satisfy the customer. This is especially problematic on rings. The Rhodium-plating starts to wear off after a few months revealing the pale yellow undertone.
At Ortwin Thyssen Jewellery Maker we have created our own 18 karat high palladium white gold alloy which has a pale-grey tone, which does not necessarily need plating to appear white. We recommend not to Rhodium plate our rings created from our white gold. You get what you see.
We do have the skills and equipment to re-alloy your 22karat or 18karat yellow gold to 18karat or 14karat white gold.
Fair-Trade Gold
We offer the choice of making engagement or wedding rings using Fair-Trade Gold that is being mined in north-west Argentina. We can alloy the Fair trade gold as 18karat White-, Yellow- or Rose- Gold.
In addition to this we can also work with fair-trade Diamonds and fairly traded Rubies and Sapphires from Tanzania.
