Our eternal fascination with all things gold remains. We love the stuff, can’t seem to get enough of it and this got me thinking…what is it that makes it so appealing? Does it remain desirable just because it always has been? Is there something special going on with the colour, the actual material itself or is it the rarity and difficulty in obtaining it that makes us want more?

Used as currency – coinage – the most traded commodity in the world & and the wealth of nations linked to the International Gold Standard until the twentieth century. A gift from the Magi to Jesus. Religious relics, icons, votives, depictions of the divine/spirit world, magical amulets and all manner of decorative adornments all made in gold. The stuff of Kings (Louis XIV- The Sun King & the Enlightenment/Golden Age of Art & Literature). The sun is golden and we associate gold with light, life, abundance, well-being, prosperity. The highest accolades and winners’ rewards for all manner of endeavours…GOLD.

The word contains ‘old’ – We celebrate fifty years of marriage as the Golden Anniversary. Wedding rings are traditionally made from gold and gold jewellery connotes sophistication, affluence and success. It is also considered a very uplifting and positive colour. It makes one feel optimistic, enlightened and spiritually heightened. It’s apparantly not totally impossible to make but it’s taken thousands of years of alchemy to discover how & scientists have debated for centuries on its origins on earth.

In its purest form gold is a soft, reddish yellow, malleable, ductile metal. It can be heated, hammered, exposed to acid and doesn’t disappear, fracture, dissolve – pretty tough and stable stuff to work, which is probably why so much STUFF has been made from it. It can occur in native form as nuggets, aluvial form as particles (seawater contains gold!) or alloyed with other elements such as silver, copper and palladium.

Gold’s ‘fineness’, like other precious metals is measured in Karat weight. Pure gold is 24 karat which is soft for making jewellery from as it will wear quickly. It is often alloyed with copper, palladium and silver which lowers its karat weight to typically 14, 18 or 22karat and increases the durability of the piece being fashioned. It does also alter the colour of the gold and rose gold contains both copper and silver alloyed with yellow gold.

If you’ve already paid a visit to the shop you’ll have spotted our lovely gold Ottoman Hands and Acus jewellery and our range of both yellow and rose gold Body Bangle pieces made locally by the wonderfully creative and quirky Jane.

Featured above are a few of our personal favourites in stock currently…

Happy shopping :)))

 

 


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