Bronze, a combination of copper and tin (not to be confused with brass which contains copper and zinc), jewelry comes in all shapes and sizes. As per the piece in the illustration, one can acquire bronze jewelry with various Celtic designs.
Category: Celtic Knowledge (page 7 of 21)
Information about Celtic Culture including history, myths, heraldry, Saints, etc.
Gold is the metal of choice for most people when it comes to jewelry. It is very attractive and wears well. It also holds its value quite well. The thing to consider when buying gold jewelry is how much gold is actually in the piece of jewelry. Fortunately, the amount of gold is indicated by the carat stamp on the piece (always indicated with a “K”…such as “10K”). The powers that be decided to divide the amount of gold into 24 pieces (thus a 1K stamp indicates the piece is 1 part gold and 23 parts of some other metal). The typical gold content is 10K (less than half gold), 12K (exactly half gold), 14K (more than half gold), 18K (three fourths gold), and 24K (99.9 % gold…there are always some impurities). Naturally, Celtic Jewelry comes in various grades of gold.
Sterling Silver jewelry is widely used in the jewelry industry. It wears well, looks attractive, and is relatively inexpensive. Most silver jewelry is sterling silver. Sterling silver is a mix of 92.5 percent silver and another metal. A mix of this nature is necessary because silver by itself is too soft. It doesn’t hold its shape very well and wears very quickly.
In fact, if you look at your sterling silver jewelry, it should be stamped with “925” to indicate that it contains 92.5% silver. If you can’t find this mark, the piece can’t be considered sterling silver. The ring illustrated above uses sterling silver with a dragon design.
Rings with Celtic designs adorned with diamonds are particularly eye catching. The eternal interconnectedness of Celtic knot design and the eternal nature of diamonds make these rings very popular as wedding rings.
We will discuss the quality of gold in another entry in this blog (10K gold being less than 1/2 gold and 24K being pure gold). Diamonds also vary in their quality. The are rated vis a vis Clarity, Color, Cut, and Carat Weight. Clarity has to do with internal and external blemishes ranging from F (flawless) to 13 (obvious inclusions that are easy to see without any form of magnification).
Color is assessed via comparison with a set of master stones or via a computer assisted method. Thus, a stone can be graded via its color.
Cut refers to the proportions, finish, symmetry, and polish of the diamond. These factors relate to fire and brilliance of the diamond. As with color, the cut of a diamond can now be accurately assessed using a computer program.
Carat is the unit weight of the diamond. One carat is equal to 0.20 grams. Value per carat increases with carat size because larger rough diamonds occur less frequently in nature. Put differently, two 1/2 carat stones are not worth as much as a 1 carat stone because 1/2 carat stones are much more readily found than are one carat stones.
These factors taken together determine the overall value of a given stone. A large stone with a number of flaws might grade out to be less valuable than a smaller stone with minimal flaws. If you are purchasing an expensive diamond, the seller should provide you with an assessment of the color, cut, clarity, and carat value of the stones you are considering and be able to point out clearly why one stone is more valuable than another (don’t just accept carat size as the determining factor…. it is just one of 4 important characteristics).
Citrine was used by the Celts as protection from others evil, bad, nasty thoughts about them.
