White Gold Jewlery Facts for You

Jewelry has been popular in many forms since the beginning of human civilization. Of all the metals used for making jewelry gold has been very popular because it does not lose its luster. Many people don't prefer yellow gold because they think that it is too loud for their choice. For these people silver is an alternative and fine silver jewelry is quite popular. However silver loses its luster easily. For these people platinum and white gold are good alternatives as they don't lose their luster.

As platinum is very expensive, white gold is becoming increasingly popular. But what is white gold and how does gold become white? Although many people don't know it, pure gold is never made into jewelry because it is very soft and bends and breaks very easily during handling. Therefore all commercially available gold jewelry is a gold alloy. The term carat is used to express the purity of gold the purest being 24 carats. White gold metal is an alloy of nickel and gold or palladium and gold. Nickel and palladium give it the white color.

Although in the beginning nickel was the metal of choice for alloying with gold to make white gold it was found that a small percentage of the users were allergic to nickel. Therefore palladium is increasingly used in white gold. For those who like the subdued color of platinum jewelry over the yellow gold metal, white gold is an affordable choice. A lot of beautiful jewelry is being made from white gold. These days men are increasingly preferring white gold wedding bands. Women have a wide variety of white gold jewelry to choose from.

Be it diamond jewelry or colorful jewelry using precious and semi precious gemstones like garnets, citrine, amethysts, citrine, peridot, blue and yellow topaz, etc., they are all available in white gold. Because white gold is malleable like yellow gold it can be used to make intricately designed jewelry. To give it a platinum like look white gold is coated with Rhodium. This is done because white gold is not purely white and the white color comes with the Rhodium coating.

Traditionally jewelry has been frequently used for many important occasions like engagements, weddings, anniversaries and even used for casual wear. For people who wish to wear jewelry on such occasions but don't like to wear the yellow metal, white gold jewelry presents a simple, elegant and modern outlook. White gold jewelry is normally stocked by all jewelers and being less expensive than gold, it is great for gifts.