Gold jewelry doesn’t just come in yellow gold. Yellow gold may have been very popular in the past, but ounce per ounce, gold has become very expensive for jewelry. It is also very soft, if not alloyed with another metal, making 24 karat gold, the pure gold, jewelry easily damaged. These don’t work that well with the latest designs – open setting jewelry – as they are too soft. You can get different karat weights for gold, and that will lower the price and raise the strength, but many people want to opt for different color choices, not just yellow gold to match the modern settings. That’s why many other alloys can be used in conjunction with yellow gold to produce golds in other colors. While they’re not going to be as valuable as the yellow gold, they will allow for designs and tastes that are more modern. They will also help you to add a little gold to your jewelry box, without breaking the bank.
White Gold
This is created using a nickel or palladium metal alloy. There are differences in softness, depending on the alloy chosen. Nickel alloyed gold is stronger than palladium alloyed golds. In general, the color of white gold jewelry would be a whitish hue, although not silver or platinum-like in appearance. That’s why much white gold today is plated with rhodium to produce the silver look most sought after in modern designs. The problem with white gold for jewelry settings is that the plating will rub off after much use and needs to be re-plated to get back to its original appearance. However, as a substitute for more expensive pieces that have a similar look (even though not as white), like platinum, it is easier on the pocket book. If you want to avoid the maintenance, choose white golds that are not plated, although the cast of white may be less dramatic.
Rose Gold
Gold can come in shades of pink and red. The alloy used is copper and depending on how much copper is in the mix, the color varies. There is also silver added in the mix sometimes to make it rose, instead of red. This color of gold is more popular in other countries than the United States. People in Mexico and the Middle East have long favored rose gold for their jewelry designs.
Other Colors Not As Popular
You can even get gold in green, gray, purple, and black hues. Each of these contain different alloys, but they aren’t as popular for jewelry uses, and some are used for other purposes. For the most part, even if you get a different color to show up, people prefer neutral colors for their jewelry settings, rather than opting for something as avant garde as green. Many of these shades, even though they are possible, aren’t even offered in retail or online jewelry stores, just because they aren’t very popular or available for mass consumption. Most people prefer to stick with yellow, white, or rose/red gold mixtures. If they want a real white metal, they’ll move to platinum.
Other Golds Can Cause Skin Sensitivities
If you’re one of those people that get ear infections unless you’re using 18 karat yellow gold, then you also need to be careful with other alloys of gold, even if you love the color. Nickel alloys that create white gold can cause some people to have allergic reactions to the jewelry. Not all rose golds have the same alloy concentrations. You may find that you can wear rose gold in one design and not in another, due to the varying alloy concentrations. For instance, crown gold is the name for rose gold that is 22 karat. If you get a different karat weight in rose gold, you might be looking at copper concentrations ranging from 25 to over 40%. Generally, if you are going to try a different color gold, opt for the higher karat until you know if you are going to be sensitive to mixtures that have greater concentrations of the alloy which gives the gold a different color. This way, if it doesn’t work with the highest karat weight of gold in the alloy, you can be pretty sure it’s not going to work with the lower ones too.