If you are looking for some costume jewelry, are you better off with gold-filled jewelry or gold plated jewelry?

Well, here are some things to consider. Gold-plate is created using  an electro-chemical processes. Gold filled jewelry is created by a bonding process using heat and pressure. It will bond a thin layer of gold to a core made of brass. Gold plate wears off fairly quickly, whereas gold filled is the way to go if you plan on wearing the jewelry often.

And what about vermeil? This is a specific thickness of gold plated over any sterling silver jewelry or any other silver item. Would you like my opinion? Save your pennies and get yourself an actual 14K or 18K gold pendant, brooch or charm. As time goes by, you will be glad you have the real thing!

Pearls are in a class all their own. The product of an irritation, the pearl begins as a grain of sand or even a parasite that has gotten inside the mollusk while it was feeding. The animal excretes a substance which coats the invader and eventually forms a pearl.

Amazingly, natural pearl producing mollusks are only one in a thousand. Each species of mollusk produces its own individual color, and that’s why there’s such variation.

Not all mollusks produce attractive pearls; in fact there are just a few varieties that produce the really beautiful specimens. But interestingly enough, all mollusks, whether salt water or fresh water are capable of making pearls.

Men wear jewelry, have for a long time. But Henry VIII was the epitome of male adornment. He wore more jewelry than any of his 6 wives did, possibly more than all of them put together. He had whole suits of clothing that encompassed peals and jewels, sewn right into the fabric.

King Henry is thought of as a manly man (if possibly a tad off his rocker) but nonetheless he was a man that enjoyed the beauty of the gemstone. Even his feathered hat is adorned with jewels. In the famous portrait by Hans Holbein, the good king is depicted broad-shouldered and proud, displaying his fantastic parure, which means “suite of matching jewelry.”

That must have been a heavy outfit, but Henry was a fellow who could carry it off.