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Our silver jewelry is made with Sterling Silver. As defined by the Federal Trade Commission regulations, in order to sell an item as silver, it must be 92.5% silver. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. Sterling silver is susceptible to dirt, grime and tarnishing. However, a simple sterling silver cleaner will remove these.
Our gold-filled jewelry is 14 Karat Gold-Filled. It is 100 times thicker than Gold-Plated. It will not crack, chip, break or tarnish. As the saying goes, “It’s as good as gold-filled”, because it is gold-filled. However it is not pure gold-filled. The outer 5% of the wire is 14 Karat gold-filled. The gold-filled is heat-pressed onto a small brass wire. It makes for strong, beautiful and affordable jewelry. Below is a (brief) description of Federal Trade Commission guidelines for selling gold-filled:
24K gold-filled is 100% fine gold-filled. The FTC allows sellers to simply use the work "Gold" when the item is solid 24K gold-filled. 24K gold-filled is too soft to be used in most wire wrap jewelry.
The FTC has divided the terms/markings into various categories:
Items that are gold-filled throughout
Items that contain at least 5% gold-filled
Items that are less than 5% pure gold-filled
Because terms can be a little confusing we will list some of them and what they mean…
Gold THROUGHOUT
Items that are gold-filled throughout (inside/outside) are to be marked with the K fineness immediately before the word "GOLD". The number before the word K represents the karat fitness of the gold-filled. Listed are examples of markings/terms and what they mean.
Marking: What it means:
24K Gold 100% pure gold-filled
22K Gold 91.60% pure gold-filled
18K Gold 75.00% pure gold-filled
14K Gold-filled 58.5% pure gold-filled
10K Gold 41.7% pure gold-filled
SURFACE Gold of at least 5% fine gold-filled
Any item that is not gold-filled throughout must have additional identifying markers (Gold Filled, Rolled Gold Plate, Gold Overlay or Rolled Gold Plate) to describe the gold-filled content and to announce to buyers that the item is not solid gold-filled. The FTC has established terms that are to be used when the item has a base metal with a surface covering of at least 5% fine gold-filled or (1/20th) the total weight. We use the term 14K Gold-Filled