For many people, obviously this can be a very obvious and tedious question because they know what Costume Jewelleries and Fashion Jewelleries are. They can be interpreted as replacements or imitations for real Gem Jewellery, precious metals like Gold, White gold or Sterling Silver with much cheaper prices and at a fraction of costs compared to real ones and therefore the quality of costume/fashion Jewellery is far less inferior than those of real ones called Fine Jewellery, but not so these days.

One may say that the Jewellery has very long history e.g. gold from Egypt as long ago as 3000 BC and from Greece 1400 BC where they have developed to adorn their personal lifestyle as well as showing off their status and well being in the surrounding society. Then, we have Roman Days and Italian Eras, French Fashion, England and suffice to say the actual fashion came from mostly from Europe and spread through America. Thence, from the 1940s with American Hollywood influence on Europe served big changes in peoples fashion styles and trends and quickly spread back to Europe.

This is when Costume Jewellery really became popular and loved by people because of their quality and diversity. Jewellers like Swarovski, Bvlgari, Christian Dior, Chanel and Tiffany just to name few, have developed and mixed using both natural and man made materials to create fashionable personal adornments with high quality where people can easily and most importantly, afford to coordinate their clothing and life styles.

Hence, they became known as “Costume or Fashion Jewellery”.

These days, there are so many manufacturers produce vast styles and qualities of Costume Jewelleries to suit individual styles and their budget. Anyone can afford to beautify and adorn themselves with ease but the problem is where can one find the suitable style to satisfy their needs and satiate their fashion out of so many Jewellery shops available these days both from shopping stores and from internet. After all, one should always remember that adorning personal fashion is important key factor of showing personal grooming and the life style being either privately or amongst social gatherings.

When buying a gold ring, size will be a determining factor, but there are many other things to keep in mind. Durability, style, and price are also important, but how do you know if you are getting the best deal? Learning more about the way gold jewelry is made, classified, and priced, will help ensure that the gold ring you choose is the ideal one for you.

First, it helps to understand that other metals are alloyed with gold, such as copper, iron, nickel, platinum, steel, silver, and zinc. Alloying gold with different metals makes it easier to work with as well as more affordable. Different alloys can also be used to give gold a different color. For example, nickel or platinum can be used to create white gold and copper is used to create a golden rosy tone.

Another issue that determines cost is the amount of skill and difficulty that goes into the creation of a gold ring. Since gold is a considered a soft metal, it is fairly easy to work with, but it can quickly loose its shape or become scratched. The purer the gold, the softer it is, which is why alloys play an important part in the making of a gold ring.

An everyday ring should be made from lower karat gold or from metal that is gold-plated. Delicate rings with intricate designs that are not intended to be worn everyday can safely be made from the purest quality of gold, which is 24-karat. Being the purest, it is also the softest and the most expensive.

Slightly lower in price is 18-karat gold, which is about 75% pure and 25% alloy. It is still soft enough to create a detailed design for a gold ring, but it is also somewhat stronger and less expensive than 24-karat gold.

The most popular quality of gold used in jewelry making is 14-karat gold, which is perfect for rings. It is slightly over half-pure, and is priced accordingly. It is very strong and is a good choice for frequently worn jewelry, especially a gold ring, such as an engagement ring or wedding ring, which is worn on a daily basis.

For jewelry to be advertised as gold in the U.S., it must be at least 40% pure, which is classified as 10-karat gold. This is the strongest quality for gold jewelry and is also the most affordable.

Once you choose a gold ring, learning to care for it properly is also important. Washing it with a soft towel and warm soapy water, rinsing it completely, and allowing it to dry thoroughly before putting it away will help your gold ring remain beautiful. It is also a good idea to keep special pieces separate from other jewelry. You might want to keep your gold ring in the box it came in when not wearing it, or wrap it in cloth before putting it into your jewelry box.

You ask how durable is an 18k gold plate. Wow, I do wish I could give you an answer in months or years or in any time frame. The fact is, without knowing how thick the plated surface actually might be there is little way to predict wearability. Even if I knew the thickness, the best I could say is, "It will wear better (or worse) than this or that other sort of plate or layer."

So much depends on how often the ring is worn and the conditions of that time when worn. I do believe you will take good care of the ring and that does make me happy. Too many folks will come into our business with a worn out ring, packed with dirt and stones dull from all of it...then proudly say, "I never take it off." What a mistake they make! Gentle and regular care and cleaning is so vital to keeping a ring looking the best and detecting if any stones might have worked loose.

When the ring is worn, if your hands are in contact with surfaces which contact the ring, daily wear will eventually take the plate from that contact area. This wear might come from a desk, keyboard hand support or simply items you regularly handle in day to day work and living. Being more alert to what the ring touches will certainly give you a "heads up" on preventing wear from everyday contact.

The National Gold and Silver Marking Act (USA) requires certain thicknesses of gold plate for a jewelry item to be stamped as gold plated. The mark might be "gold plate", "hge" for heavy gold electroplate or simply "plate" or "plated". These marks indicate a recognized thickness of gold plating. If there is no mark saying gold plated in one form or the other, likely the plate is of the thinner sort and not thick enough to qualify for marking as plated. Sure, it is plated but not thickly enough to warrant the marking. If not marked as plated, the ring is likely plated about as thickly as typical costume jewelry and will wear about as well.

How long? I simply cannot say. My wife wears lots of Avon jewelry items all with only a wash of gold color on them.(She happens to like it..) Still, it is surprising how long the surface does last. I suspect your ring has a thicker plate than that and should last longer.

When caring for the ring, use essentially the same steps to clean as with CZ's. However, do not often use a polishing cloth, especially the chemical or rouge treated ones. These are made to remove tarnish and are capable of eventually wearing away the gold plating on the ring! Wipe gently with a soft cloth only to dry from cleaning in a mild detergent solution. You may use a soft brush to clean behind the stones.

The surface will show some wear from daily contact and that is normal. This will happen long before the plate is worn through. Trying to polish out the wear from daily contact will only help remove the plate and greatly reduce the life of the ring.

I realize this answer is vague. There are simply no fast rules as to how long a plated jewlery item will last since each person has a personal life and conditions are different.

By very wary of the 'SH' though as it is EXACTLY the same upside down, ie: 'HS' which is a mark for H Samuel, a high street jewelry chain in the UK.

The earlier Samuel Hennell is S.H plus you would have to look at ALL the Hallmarks together and check their overall shape to get an accurate date.

There is NO 22ct gold rings which should be scrapped unless extremely thin or worn. The 'f' or foreign mark is a modern mark and shouldn't be confused with the full UK Hallmark.

You can get a complimentary eCourse on Hallmarks from the Jewelry Antiques of the 20th Century website, which will go through some of these aspects for you.

The first mark (KLd) is usually the Makers or Manufacturers mark. Sometimes it could be the Store Mark (like SH) for Samuel Hill Jewelers... This doesn't make any difference to the Hallmark so you can generally ignore it.

The next mark was an 'F' which is the Date letter (I'll get back to that one).

The next is a Crown, which is the 'Quality' Mark which was introduced for 18ct and 22ct gold in 1798 and has been used ever since. The 22 indicates the gold quality being 22 carat gold.

The last mark is a shield so I am going to assume that it was assayed in Chester UK. However each Shield is slightly different.

Now one of the MOST IMPORTANT stamps is the SHAPE of the Hallmark (which you didn't mention). Sometimes they can be oval or square. Many times with the corners cut off. These help with the Date letter 'F' above - see I said I'd get back to it ;o)

MOST date letters come in batches of 20 and they change every 20 odd years (one letter per year). In order to identify them they can sometimes be un Uppercase - othertimes in lower case. This is where the SHAPE comes in too. This is also why I needed to know how old your Aunt was when she died. Most women didn't get married until say 20. This will help you in narrowing down the date RANGE (ie: That Batch of 20 letters).

May I suggest you go to the Antique Jewelry of the 20th Century website, where you will find a complimentary Hallmarking Course. The link is near the top right. You will learn from very easy emails how to understand UK Hallmarks. This will finally narrow down your search to around the 1950's - Hint: 1956 Date letter is an 'F'.

White gold is routinely alloyed down with nickel. Nickel causes allergic reactions in a lot of people. It's probably showing up now, because your ring was plated in rhodium (the whitest member of the platinum family) when you bought it. This is normal, as white gold always has a little warmth to it, so it is almost always plated in rhodium.

The rhodium has worn off. The white gold, alloyed with nickel is in direct contact with your skin. You are reacting to the nickel. One easy solution is to bring the ring in to the jeweler where you purchased it and have it replated with rhodium. Or, you could trade the ring in for a white gold ring that does NOT contain nickel, a palladium ring or a platinum ring. The metal rhodium is essentially inert to the skin, hypoallergenic, no reaction. What the reaction could be is a basic metals reaction and that SHOULD NOT be happening if the rings have a real rhodium plate.

My suggestion? Contact QVC and tell them of the problem. They should either give your money back or replace the item with one with a real rhodium plate! Green is a reaction generally to base metals, such as copper, etc., which are either preplate(done beneath the rhodium on metals like silver) or part of the the meatal alloy the ring is made of.

Either the plate is not rhodium or is a poor job at plating. QVC owes you an answer on this one and your may use my answer when you contact them if you want. Without seeing the ring and actually examining it, I can say little about the ring itself.

"Temporary Fix. Recommended for you to Try: Rhodium is a hard and durable white metal. Most white gold is given a quick plated layer of rhodium when brand new or when repaired.

This thin layer of rhodium gives the metal a whiter look. Rhodium is also a metal that does not react with the skin. A local jeweler should easily be able to refinish, buff up nicely and rhodium plate your ring. The look is good. The advantage to you is the rhodium provided a safety layer between the nickel in the ring and your sensitive skin! The rhodium works very well when the plating is done correctly. You can expect the rhodium to wear off in time but you should get 6mos to a year of wear before the ring should be plated with rhodium again. We often do this service for ladies who love white gold earrings but have problems. With yellow gold problems, we plate the parts touching the skin and it works until the rhodium eventually wears away."

Is your ring white gold? If so, the rhodium plating by a local jeweler should ease the problem immensely and the surface will last a fair amount of time before redoing is needed. If the ring is yellow, there are likely environmental issues here, including swimming pool chemicals and salty air(if living near the ocean).

Chemicals will often build up in a microscopic way and lead to skin reactions or smudges. Salty air can lead to a build up of residue which will cause smudges or even some sensitive skin reactions. For yellow gold, the solution is difficult but involves either avoiding the environmental issues or cleaning the ring quite often(every couple of days) with a good gentle scrub with a gentle dish detergent and rinsing well.

You asked if you "were doing something wrong" when the nickel plate came out dull and not bright. Perhaps it is something you are doing and perhaps it is the solution you are using.

First of all, please keep in mind I am far from expert in nickel plating. I work in a small shop, likely not too different from your work area. Almost all the plating we do is rhodium over white gold. Nickel plating is only needed once in a rare while. Still, I will give you my 2 cents worth.

THE SOLUTION.

Nickel plating solutions as available in the small quart sizes used by small shops come in two varieties. One is simply called "nickel" and the other is called "bright nickel". I don't know the specifics but the makers say special "brighteners" are included in the bright nickel solutions. The solutions I have used are not called "bright" but with proper voltage have produced bright coatings on polished metal. There might be something to using the "bright nickel" solutions. I do not have these solutions in our shop. The additives may help overcome some of the faults we may have in the process.

VOLTAGE, AMPERAGE AND TEMPERATURE.

What I see from industrial websites and other info in the importance of amperage in plating. Of course, voltage and amps work together in a sort of volt/amp curve. In small shop setups, amperage is not so controllable as in industrial applications. We must rely on voltage as the guide for proper plating. Most rectifiers of small sizes do not have milliamp gauges and have an almost crude amp meter so unless amps are going much over full amps, like 1 to 2 to 3 amps, we cannot read the gauge accurately. I installed a milliamp meter on my personal rectifier but found little info with solutions or from solution makers to make the gauge very useful.

With nickel plating, as I understand it, low amperage is desired. Voltage recommendations are best used as the ones with the solution you have. Generally, a low voltage of about 2 volts is desired to produce a bright, smooth plate. The item should be agitated in the solution, a little shake is ok. There will be little visible action on the item and only perhaps a few bubbles showing on the anode. This lack of visible action makes the plating more difficult since time in the bath will affect the coating. Still, do not exceed the recommended voltage for the solution you have on hand.

Temperature is recommended from 70 degrees f to perhaps 120 f. I always had the best results at low temps, closer to room temperature. The plate was immersed at the recommended voltage, agitated and removed after about 30 sec and inspected. Then a following plate was applied with a bit more time allowed to go beyond a simple flash thin plate. Nickel can produce a quite dense plate when repeated and not hurried. Inspection should be done to insure things are not going to grainy or discolored appearance.

BRIGHTNESS OF THE ORIGINAL ITEM TO BE PLATED.

Contrary to what some of our customers believe about "dipping" an item in gold, in rhodium or even in nickel, we know we do not dip into hot metal! We dip into electroplating solutions. When active in the plating bath, the metal ions moving to the object follow every curve and crevice in the object. Scratches and dull surfaces will be repeated by the plate. It is imperative that the item to be "bright" plated be polished to the utmost degree. Once polishing is done, the item should be immediately cleaned and readied for the plate bath. You do not want to allow sterling, in your case, any time to develop even the slightest tarnish which would interfere with good plating result.

Yet, from experience, what I have said rings truth. Please be certain the silver item is well polished and cleaned and plated very soon. Be patient with the plating process and do not try to rush it. Too much voltage can cause a rough and dull surface on a polished item.You might want to try an experiment by masking a piece of silver stock with fingernail polish. Red colored polish is easy to read. Plate an item in the nickel and use a nail polish mask for part of it. Remove the lacquer with acetone and look at the surfaces to compare and note brightness and color difference.

This is a good test. You might want to do the masking to preserve silver as unplated silver and rotate a piece of silver stock to plate one end at one length of time and the other at another time allowance or even use multiple plating. You will have a direct comparison on the same piece of silver which makes reading the differences much easier.

ALTERNATIVE. Did I mention palladium already? Palladium solutions are available and generally at a much lower cost than rhodium. The plate will go on silver directly, for most solutions. The palladium does not have the hardness of rhodium but will provide a tarnish barrier layer to the sterling. This might be attempted. The color is generally bright and in the thin plated layer is close to the original color. Solid palladium has a blue/grayish tint compared to some other metals. In electroplate, the color is just fine in my experience plating on to white gold.

The following web sites offer some but not really important info. When you have time, you might want to check out what is said.

PARTS PLATING...NOT JEWELRY. Interesting Info.

After searching the internet, we found a website that mentions buffing to polish. You might try this. Since nickel does plate with a dense layer, often the surface is gently polished then recleaned prior to other plating, such as rhodium. I have done this with success. I polished with a soft brush in a flex shaft machine using a non-abrasive rouge. The nickel polished from a semi-dull to a bright finish and was dense and thick enough not to be polished away. Polishing of nickel plate is not at all uncommon and should be given a chance.

The best way to repair is often with a cement. Do the edges of the broken pieces fit together closely? If so, a good two-part epoxy cement is best. I recommend an epoxy which cures to a clear color, not amber like most. The brand name is Huges 330 Epoxy. It is made for gemstone material cementing. A craft shop should have this cement or may order it for you. If not, try an exposy cement from a craft shop or hardware store but do not get the quick setting kind. The best will harden in about 2 hours. Quick set cements cure in 5 minutes and this is too little time to make a good joint of the broken ends.

Clean the ends well with alcohol. This is needed to remove any traces of oils, etc. which will lead to a joint failure later. Arrange a means to hold the ends together so the ends will not be moved until the cement cures. Do this arrangement first and be certain it will work.

Then, mix the two part cement according to directions. Apply only enough cement to one broken edge to cover the end with a little cement. Push the pieces together and see if too much runs out the edges. If so, wipe off before the cement starts to cure then place together again. Hold the pieces in place as mentioned already.

Leave the left over on a mixing paper or plastic, whatever is used to mix the cement and place the mixer(toothpick, paper clip or other handy object) into the unused part. When the object is cemented hard on the unused portion of the cement, you know the jade is also cured and may be handled.

Excess if any may be carefully trimmed with a razor edge or left alone. Trimming of extruded cement will often leave a white and easily seen line. Sometimes it is best to leave the cement as is.

If you have way too much cement and way too much is pushed from the joined edges, clean in acetone or nail polish remover. Clean well as you can. Then start again with a new mix of the epoxy. Do not use "super glue" since this will not hold strongly for a long period of time.

If you want to try to do the work, I believe you can. The first try might be messy and you might have to try a second time. If you want someone else to do it, a jeweler should be able to cement the pieces together for your repair depends on the sort of break in the bracelet. If the jade is broken and the ends of the break fit fairly well, a jeweler (or you if handy with such) may use a good epoxy cement to join the ends. A recommended epoxy is Hughes 330, recommended because it cures water clear and is quite strong with gemstone materials. In any case, epoxy cements have no strength when first mixed. The cure brings the strength. If you try it yourself, dry fit first to find a way to support the pieces during the 2 hour cure time.

If the break is jagged and the ends do not fit, the best solution is to have a jeweler make a metal tube, either of silver or gold, to go over the broken ends and bring all together as a jade bangle with "metal fittings". The tube will need to have two ends angled to fit the curve of the jade pieces at each break.

I do hope the break is clean and will fit back together. If so, with a good cleaning to remove all traces of oils, etc., the epoxy solution to the fix will work quite well. If done carefully, there will be little to show obviously at the break line.