ABOUT THE JEWELLERY
What is Sterling Silver 925?
All our pieces are made of Sterling Silver - also known as 925 Sterling Silver. It is a metal alloy used in jewellery. Traditionally, it has 92.5% silver (Ag), and 7.5% copper (Cu). Occasionally, other metals account for 7.5%, but the 925 hallmark will always indicate 92.5% silver purity.
As beautiful as silver is, it can be susceptible to tarnishing.
Tarnishing is actually the result of a chemical reaction between the silver and sulfur-containing substances in the air. The silver is actually combining with sulfur and forming silver sulfide. ... When a thin coating of silver sulfide forms on the surface of silver, it darkens the silver. That's what we call 'tarnish'.
So, pretty much all silver can tarnish with time, especially if it's not worn often.
Here's the good news - wearing your jewellery can actually help prevent tarnish. The oils on your skin 'clean' the metal, which means you don't have to worry about that dirty look.
Even if your sterling silver jewellery does dull, there are easy ways to restore its original shine. We recommend using something like Goddards Long Term Silver Polish followed by a jewellery cleaning bath. They are not expensive and with just a little work your pieces will be shining once again.
Variation in Pieces -
We have photographed all of our collection as you can see in the piece images, pictures have been taken with a few different backgrounds - this is to give you a better idea of how the jewellery looks. Being bright silver it reflects light and colours of surrounding objects very easily, so you may see some light and colour variances in each picture but we can assure you that all the silver is bright silver!
Shell Pieces -
You will see many of our pieces have shell detailing and accents - these are mainly Mother of Pearl and Abalone Shell.
Mother of Pearl -
Mother-of-pearl is the iridescent inside lining of a mollusk shell. It is most commonly found in three types of mollusks—pearl oysters, freshwater mussels, and abalone. ... This multi-coloured iridescence is caused by the way light reflects on the layers of nacre on the shell, it is also the material of which pearls are composed of. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Normally white in colour.
Abalone Shell -
Abalone shells are a thick seashell which shimmers with the gorgeous iridescent colours of blue, green, turquoise, white, purple and more...
Abalone shells are thought to hold the energy of the ocean and bring a strong calming and healing energy, allowing you to remain connected to the sea - even when you are landlocked.
As Mother of Pearl and Abalone are naturally made no two pieces are ever the same.
Opals -
However, lab created opals, also known and created opals, have many advantages over their natural counterparts, yet without any compromise on that stunning end result look.
We live in an era where our natural resources are diminishing, so by choosing a lab created Opals, you are actually actively avoiding depletion of naturally derived Opal stocks. Not only is there no need to physically mine Opal, but you’re also avoiding unnecessary use of mechanical equipment and the associated travel and pollution that comes with it. Created in a laboratory using processes mimic nature, lab Opals have all the beauty that you expect from the natural opal yet it would take a highly-trained professional eye to definitely distinguish the difference between the two.
These cultured gemstones are chemically and almost visually the same as naturally created opal and offer a way smaller impact on the environment with no risk for human endangerment. Cultured opals also offer fewer flaws and way smaller carbon footprint than traditionally mined opals and instead of taking over millions of years, they can grow an opal in less than a 1 year.
When they are made in the lab it means they can be brought to you at a much lesser cost than a natural gemstone and bring you that iconic opal look yet at a much lesser cost.
One of the advantages of creating opals and gemstones in a laboratory environment is that you can ensure that they are perfect in their look. If you’re asking yourself the question “are lab created opals stronger?”, then the answer is yes as the manufacturing process enables this to occur. This means that when you are buying a synthetic opal, that you have assured longevity, making it the perfect item to gift to somebody as a keepsake or sentimental gesture.So when looking for a stunning piece of opal jewellery, whether it be earrings, necklace, bracelet or other, it is worth considering just where your opal is from. And instead of dismissing it if it is a synthetic lab manufactured gemstone, treasure it instead as it is just as precious as the natural product itself.
Cubic Zirconia -
Is a colorless, synthetic gemstone made of the cubic crystalline form of zirconium dioxide. Cubic Zirconia can appear in nature within the mineral baddeleyite, although it’s extremely rare. In all Cubic Zirconia jewellery, the gemstones are exclusively lab-created.