pepper post #1

recently i dropped my wedding band and engagement ring off to get inspected and rhodium dipped, which means my left-hand ring finer is necked! what i do during times like this is wear a substitute ring.

currently, this is the ring i have chosen as my substitute:



it's a fabulous little hand-crafted sterling silver ring, with a teeny-tiny diamond accent, that i bought this summer for $10 at a flea market in Havre DeGrace, MD.

love it!

only problem is it doesn't fit my skinny ring finger so i have been wearing it on my middle finger...



i guess this whole situation is not really a substitute for my wedding rings. but oh well!

i wouldn't be in this predicament if white gold didn't yellow. i swear my white gold yellows at the speed of light! i am dropping these things off every 6 months. it seems that everybody's white gold yellows, but at different rates. i've looked in to it - online and at my jeweler.

anyhow, here are some things that factor in to why different peoples' white gold might be more or less yellow than the next and why your white gold may be yellowing faster than their's as well:

• first of all, there is no such thing as white gold
  what we so fondly call white gold is actually an alloy of your typical yellow gold. these gold alloys consist of yellow gold mixed with another metal, like nickle or palladium. and depending on the metal used to for your white gold, the yellow appearance may be more or less noticeable.
• what karat yellow gold is used in the (white) gold alloy - like, 18k vs 14k vs 10k
  
• how thick the rhodium plating is - rhodium plating is what gives white gold its white appearance
• how much wear and tear a person puts it through - like, getting your hands dirty and having to constantly wash your hands or excessive use of hand sanitizer(s) and lotion(s) while wearing your white gold

the only solution to keeping your white gold white is getting it rhodium dipped, every now and then.

............jfk...........