Guidelines and Advice for customers
Jewellery Care
We recommend that you periodically bring your gold and stone jewellery to our stores for professional checking and cleaning.
In the meantime, however, we can give some advice on how to take care of your gold jewellery.
Gold jewels (both yellow gold and white gold) with diamonds can be cleaned with hot water (40/50 degrees Celsius) and detergent (excellent for dishes). Better to use a soft toothbrush and then dry the object with a new cloth. For quick but effective cleaning (especially for diamonds) you can use a paper towel soaked in ethyl alcohol spirits. You will immediately notice that the diamonds will appear cleaner and obviously more brilliant.
As for gold jewellery, with coloured stones or pearls, it is better to use only warm water and dry them with a soft cloth.
Another tip we can give you is to rinse your rings thoroughly (especially with aquamarines) after washing your hands, to completely remove the soap from the bezels and crevices, as it attracts a lot of dirt and dust.
Choosing Jewellery as a gift
First of all, we need to understand what kind of person the gift is for.
For a person with classic taste, we must opt for jewels with linear shapes suitable for everyday use. It could be a solitaire, a wedding ring or a pair of light point, hoop or pendant earrings. Tennis bracelets are very popular, like all simple, linear bracelets with clear lines. Coloured stones are also recommended, such as sapphires, emeralds, rubies or aquamarines, depending on the colour preference of the person for whom the necklace is intended. Necklaces in gold, both white and yellow, are also very popular, perhaps with a pendant that is not too whimsical or too flashy.
If, on the other hand, we want to give the gift to a person with a particular taste, perhaps a little eccentric, we must first of all identify the use to which the jewel is intended. For daily use, it is better to opt for a jewel with diamonds. Maybe not with too classic lines but still not too demanding. If, on the other hand, you prefer a gift for occasional use, then you can indulge yourself in more important shapes, colours and sizes.
Why buy Jewellery?
There are many reasons that lead a person to buy jewellery. It can be for a gift for yourself or for a loved one. To remember or celebrate a very important event such as the birth of a child, a stage in one’s life such as a degree, a religious event or to seal or consolidate love for one’s partner. There are hundreds of reasons and situations for owning jewellery.
So, the more time passes, the more a person gets richer with jewels. Obviously it won’t be practical to wear them all at the same time, but wearing them separately depending on the mood, flair or inventiveness. All these jewels will represent and constitute a treasure. A strictly personal treasure which in addition to having an economic value also has a sentimental value. A value of memories, traditions and obviously monetary value to own, enjoy and also to hand down.
What does the price of a diamond depend on?
The final price of a diamond depends on many factors, such as weight, symmetry, cut proportions, colour, clarity and fluorescence. For example, with the same color, clarity and weight, a diamond with a higher cut grade, symmetry and proportions will cost more than one with a lower cut grade.
We can summarize everything with the 4Cs of the GIA (Gemological Institute of America), the most famous and recognized by all as the most important gemological institute in the world.
CUT: Excellent – Very good – Good – Fair – Poor.
CARAT (weight)
CLARITY (Purity): FL – IF – VVS1 – VVS2 – VS1 – VS2 – SI1 – SI2 – I1 – I2 – I3
COLOUR (Color): D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
What is the difference between Zircon and Cubic Zirconia?
Cubic zirconias are erroneously commercially called zircons by almost everyone, even in good faith, but gemologically and professionally speaking it is not permissible, one cannot and must not call and therefore promote cubic zirconia with the name of zircon.
Zircon is a natural mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates with the chemical formula ZrSi04 and usually has a blue, yellow or orange color. However, it can also be colorless. Cubic zirconia, on the other hand, is nothing more than the crystalline form of zirconium dioxide and, since it is not found in nature, it can only be synthesized in the laboratory. It is generally colorless but can be created in many colors.
In essence they are two completely different stones with different characteristics.
The Value of Coloured Stones
The most well-known coloured gems are emerald, ruby, sapphire and aquamarine. However, there are many others, more or less known. You see tourmalines, garnets, alexandrite, labradorite, various types of opals and so on. The value of a colored stone is given by its weight, internal characteristics, degree of cut and, most importantly, its colour. It must be beautiful, full and bright.
When purchasing a coloured stone, it is essential that the seller has the qualification of “GRADUATE GEMOLOGIST” or a graduated gemologist from the GIA, HRD or IGI of Antwerp and that he is equipped with a modern gemological analysis laboratory. This is because a simple goldsmith or jeweler, however serious, honest and with a long tradition, will not have the technical knowledge and equipment to identify the new treatments and the latest generation synthetics, nor be able to participate in specialized refresher courses.
Furthermore, we must be wary of “commercial” names that are assigned to synthetic stones, to make them more attractive, creating further confusion for the end customer. There are many such as “grown on a natural basis”, “crystallized”, “has undergone a hydrothermal treatment”, “reconstructed”, “recomposed”, “eco” and so on. These are all just synonyms of synthetic stones.