Trends : Yellow Golds

Over the past 15 years or so, the traditional look of yellow gold jewellery has very much fallen out of favour – has even been shunned – and the white metals of platinum, palladium and white gold have dominated.

This sentiment is slowly changing – yellow gold is set to make a big comeback!

The jewellery industry is seeing a dramatic increase in requests for yellow gold wedding rings, earrings, chain and watches, prompting jewellers to increase their display supply ratio from the typical spread of 30% yellow gold and 70% white metals.

Changes in fashion, changes in the economy and the promotion of yellow gold jewellery by red carpet trendsetters are amongst the reasons for this and today yellow gold wedding rings are becoming a hot trend. Fashion trends are ever changing.  What may be fashionable one month is completely out the next. While fine jewellery designers always keep fashion trends in mind, because of the high expense of gold or diamonds, and the need for the piece to be ‘timeless’ enough to last a lifetime, wedding rings and other fine jewel trends a far more constant.

With the recent volatility of the economy, investors have been eager on gold – pushing prices sky high – and this has also have prompted the yellow gold jewellery trend as it is seen as far more desirable to exhibit your jewellery as being golden. Also, many people down on their luck are exchanging old gold jewellery for cash, and this has brought on a surge of ready made wedding rings and other items to the market.

The recent yellow gold trend has been heating up in Europe and continues to grow – the rest of the world is sure to follow.  The rich warmth and shine of yellow gold has been seen all over the red carpet, surging the interest in golden wedding rings.

Vintage styled weddings and wedding dresses have become popular with brides choosing champagne coloured wedding dresses and yellow shades for flowers – warmer colours are ‘in’. The look of a yellow gold wedding ring perfectly matches a nostalgic lacey dress so many brides are going with the warmer toned metals. Yellow gold offers warmth, luxury and a royal flair that white metals simply cannot.

Yellow gold also does not require yearly plating to keep it’s white shine – so for practicality’s sake – yellow gold does offer a more hassle-free option.

Platinum Beauty

Platinum setting with 1.6ct Centre Round Brilliant cut Diamond – adorned with smaller stones set in micro-setting bars – 26 Round Brilliant cut Diamonds totalling 0.22​ct G/H VS/SI

Pearl Rings

9ct Yellow Gold Solitaire 7mm Pearl Ring

Ashleigh and Tony

18ct White Gold Half Eternity Ring with Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds G/H VS/SI

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Tony was reffered to me via his brother and lovely wife - who are good friends of mine. It was for a surprise engagement – and was very important for the ring to suit her very active lifestyle!
Ashleigh is a Cape Town based Animal Behaviourist and Dog Trainer - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yazoo-Dog-Behaviour-Socialising/296075907132?ref=ts&sk=wall

This setting style is ideal for Ashleigh as the stones are very well protected in a channel setting, where the stones are set side by side, without claws.

Ashleigh and Tony are expecting a son in a few months – I wish them all the best in starting their family - much love and many blessings!

Their story …

“The first time we met was at a club in Newlands called “Springfield” in 1997.  I was there with my school friends and a friend Belinda introduced me to Tony.  I told her straight afterward that I wanted her to hook us up and she did, next thing I know we were chatting then dancing on the dance floor for hours.  I had to soon leave with my friends, but he organised a lift to take me home with his friend Jason.  While on the way home, Tony wanted my phone number but we only had a box of matches, so he took a burnt match stick and wrote my number on the back of the box.  As it turned out, it rubbed off straight afterward, but Tony had memorized the number and soon contacted me to ask me for another date.

I would just like to add that its been 14 years since we met and I’m still madly in love with Tony and think I’m the luckiest woman on the planet.  Tony – I can’t wait to have our baby with you as I know you will the best father any boy could have.  I love you dearly xxx “

The facts : Diamond

Diamonds are typically colourless, yellow and brown to grey. Less often they are pink, blue, green, violet, orange, purple and red.

Diamonds derive their name from the Latin word adamas, meaning unconquerable or invincible and is the hardest natural material known to man. The strength of a diamond has been known since
antiquity, but it’s hardness is defined as resistance to scratching and is graded between 1 (softest) and 10 (hardest) using the ‘Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness’, which was developed in the 1820’s by the German mineralogist Friedrich Mohs.
Diamond has a hardness of 10  – the hardest – on this scale.

The hardness of diamond contributes to its suitability as a settable gemstone. Because it can only be scratched by other diamonds, it maintains its polish very well. Unlike many other gems, it is well-suited to daily wear because of its resistance to scratching—perhaps contributing to its popularity as the preferred gem in most engagement and wedding rings, which are traditionally worn daily.

Diamonds are thought to have been first recognized and mined in India and have been treasured as gemstones since their use as religious icons in ancient India. Their usage in engraving tools also dates to early human history.

The popularity of diamonds for jewellery has risen since the 19th century because of increased supply, improved cutting and polishing techniques, growth in the world economy, and innovative and successful advertising campaigns, marketing their ideal suitability for an engagement ring and symbol of enduring love. The dispersion of white light into spectral colours is the primary gemological characteristic of gem diamonds. Methods of grading diamonds is based on the characteristics most important to their value as a gem.
For Diamond, four characteristics, known informally as the four Cs, are now commonly used as the basic descriptors of diamonds: these are Carat, Cut, Colour, and Clarity.

Carat refers to the diamonds weight, with one carat being 200 milligrams.

Cut refers to the diamonds polished shape, one of the most popular being a Round Brilliant cut.

Colour – The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) classifies low saturation yellow and brown diamonds as diamonds in the normal colour range, and applies a grading scale from “D” (colourless) to “Z” (light yellow). Diamonds of a different colour, such as blue or green, are called ‘fancy coloured’ diamonds, and fall under a different grading scale.

Clarity relates to the existence and visual appearance of internal characteristics of a diamond called inclusions, and surface defects called blemishes.

Diamonds are formed under extreme heat and pressure deep within the earth’s crust, and come to the earth’s surface through volcanic eruptions that form kimberlites and lamproites.
Most diamonds found in nature are between one and four billion years old.

Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a high-pressure high-temperature process which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earth mantle.

The largest diamond ever found was the Cullinan Diamond, discovered in South Africa in 1905, weighing a whopping 3106.75 carats!

Care & Cleaning:

Diamond jewellery can be cleaned using store bought solutions for jewellery cleaning, but can just as easily be cleaned at home with warm soapy water with a few drops of ammonia and a soft brush or cloth.

Moss Agate Earrings

Sterling Silver Earrings with Stamped Silver Elements and Oval Moss Agate Beads

Millenium Ring

18ct White Gold Millenium Split Shank Ring with 0.40ct Centre Round Brilliant Cut Diamond and 40 Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds totalling 0.20ct G/H VS/SI

Roxanne and Graham

18ct white gold Eternity ring with pave set round brilliant
cut diamonds

9ct Gent’s wedding band with engraved message

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Roxanne asked me to make up her and Graham’s wedding bands for their ceremony last year. She had been surprised with her engagement ring - but wanted to select her own eternity ring to complete the set. We went with a pave set half eternity wedding band – sparkly and pretty - the perfect match! Graham selected a broad wedding band – and Roxanne later added a surprise message to be engraved inside.

These two make an adorable couple – it was a real treat to work with them!

 

Their story …

“Graham and I first met when I was on welcome duty at our church. I didnt notice him, He jokes that it was the first time he met me but not the first time I met him. We were finally properly introduced at drinks one evening. He then came to a dinner with a few friends and we couldnt stop chatting and laughing- there was a lot of chemistry. It however took 7 months for us to finally get together.
We got married on a farm out in stellenbosch called bontevlei, we had a circus themed wedding with lots of colours, music and dancing! it was a magical day “

“Lindsay worked with me at a jewelery company thats how we met- she has always had a great eye for design, when she started designing jewellery and showed me a few images- I immediately loved her ideas and designs!”

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Photography by Sean Kelland from http://www.kellandphotography.com/

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My florist was amazing! And she did a great job : http://www.ellefleur.co.za

Pretty Little Thing

18ct Yellow Gold Cluster Ring with 0.45ct Oval Blue Sapphire surrounded by 12 Round Brilliant Cut Diamonds totalling 0.36ct G/H VS/SI

Such a pretty little thing!

Amy and Ed

Platinum engagement ring with round brilliant
cut diamond totalling 1.10ct G VS2 in 6 claw setting and
18 round brilliant cut diamonds totalling 0.09ct G/H VS/SI
in pave settings with millgrained edges

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Amy and Ed are based in London. Amy is Irish and Ed is South African and was reffered to me via his brother, whom I also arranged an engagement ring for.

Amy and I chatted over numerous e-mails to get the design of her ring just right – a beautiful 6 claw setting with a very timeless and elegant feeling!

They are planning a wedding for August this year, a Catholic service in Ireland, followed by a reception at an Irish Castle. I wish them a beautiful celebration – Amy is going to make one stunning bride!

Their story …

“We met in Boston. Ed and I were both living in New York – I’d lived there for almost a year and Ed had just arrived a couple of months previously. I had met Ed’s cousin on a ski trip to Killington in Vermont. She told me she was planning a trip to Boston – as I had never been and was planning on going back home to Dublin soon, I decided to take her up on her offer and go too. She had also invited Ed, as he had recently moved to New York. We met that weekend…and started dating pretty seriously as soon as we got back to New York.
I left New York 2 months after we met to go travelling (Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Australia) and Ed and I talked every day for 2 months while I was on that trip! When I got back to Dublin, I decided that our relationship had a chance (!) and so moved back to New York. We lived there for about 6 months and then moved to London – the rest is history…. ”

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Photography by Kait Husmann from http://www.chemistryphotography.com

“We did our engagement shoot in London a few weeks ago and it was great fun – Kait superimposed us onto the balcony at Buckingham Palace – our engagement shoot was the weekend after Will and Kate got married, so that was great fun!!!”