Topaz, such a magestic name, also known as the precious Imperial Topaz which is usually fine apricot orange. Birthstone of the month of November, Topaz is a symbol of love and affection. A true Topaz is rarely seen in jewelry stores. What most people know as Topaz is the Quartz Citrine.

Topaz occurs in transparent yellow, yellow brown, orange, orange brown, pinkish brown as well as light red and blue. The latter has increased in popularity lately, blue topaz work best in whote gold settings and the color is a bright blue. Most of these are heat treated and hard to determine from the non treated ones.

You will come accross many gemstones bearing the name Topaz but they are misleading as they are citrine and quartz. The following are some you may have heard:

Smokey Topaz
Spanish Topaz
Rio Topaz
Occidental Topaz
Scottish Topaz
Madeira Topaz...

Overall Topaz is a versatile, hard and brilliant gemstone with a range of colors. The orange Topaz has long been associated with the November gemstone but today you may wish your Topaz in any hue you desire.

Gold was among the first metals to be mined because it commonly occurred in its native form; not combined with other elements, and because it was beautiful and imperishable, and because exquisite objects could be made from it. Artisans of ancient civilizations used gold lavishly in decorating tombs and temples, and gold objects made more than 5,000 years ago have been found in Egypt.The graves of nobles at the ancient Citadel of Mycenae near Nauplion, Greece, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, yielded a great variety of gold figurines, masks, cups, diadems, and jewelry, plus hundreds of decorated beads and buttons. These elegant works of art were created by skilled craftsmen more than 3,500 years ago.

PURE (100%) GOLD
Pure gold is too soft, and is usually mixed with other metal alloys (silver, copper, nickel and zinc) to make it stronger and more durable for jewelry.

18K GOLD / 14K GOLD
18k gold contains a higher (75%) percentage of pure gold and therefore is more valuable than 14k gold (58.3%). A marking such as ’14k’ or ’18k’ indicates the karat, and you may sometimes also see the manufacturers registered trademark or the country of origin.

YELLOW, WHITE, & ROSE GOLD
Pure gold (which is always yellow) is too soft for making jewelry. The metal alloys that are mixed with pure gold for strength can also modify the resulting color to produce different shades of yellow, white, and pink gold. White gold was originally developed to imitate platinum, and usually contains 25% nickel and zinc or palladium. Nickel is cheaper than palladium and therefore more widely White gold is also rhodium plated to make the white gold whiter.

A side note about Rhodium: It is also a precious metal yet not feasible to make solid jewelry. Believe it or not it is about ten times if not more costlier than gold but it is a great for plating white gold jewelry, it is much more whiter, chrome like and makes a piece dazzling. It can also be used on silver, preventing it from quickly tarnishing. Rhodium plating will also make diamonds look bigger and brighter, nothing sets off diamonds like rhodium plating.

VALUE
There are many other factors that determine the value of a gold jewelry piece: Weight - gold is sold by weight - grams(gr) or pennyweights(pwt), the heavier the piece, the higher the gold content, therefore it is more expensive.

Design - designer jewelry is more expensive, especially if it is a one of a kind piece.
Finish - special finishes to the metal such as matte, or sand-blasted finish add to the cost of the gold jewelry piece.