The best precious metal for a long-term piece of jewellery for the very simple reason it's the hardest (but still soft compared to steel or Titanium). It also has a very good white colour when polished. Although Silver is whiter, Platinum is the hardest wearing precious metal and will keep its finish longer than any of the other precious metals.

The metals natural colour from casting is a deep grey which allows a designer to contrast finishes more sharply. On the down side, when a polished ring scratches over time the scratches will be grey. However, overall, the work will be less prone to scratching because of its hardness and we will re-polish any jewellery purchased from us to greatly minimize this (free of charge).

There are four recognized Gold grades in the UK : 9ct, 18ct, 22ct & 24ct. We don't use 9ct as we don't regard it as Gold (though legally it is) as with only 37.5% pure Gold in it, it's more other metals than Gold.

14ct is over half Gold and is used a lot in Europe, however, there are difficulties with availability in the UK which makes 18ct better value overall.

18ct is the favourite Gold at Dot, with a good purity of 75% Gold and a good colour range in yellow, rose and white.

White Gold of old had a bad press, and for a good reason, when it scratched it developed a yellowy hue. However, the alloy (mix of metals) has been improved now to increase Palladium content which has prevented this.

The natural colour of 18ct white is deeper than most people think as it has become industry standard to rhodium plate the metal without question to make it look whiter. If you`re interested in the colour difference ask for the work not to be plated and we won't, but it can be added later at no charge if you want.

There are different coloured metals, like green, in 18ct but we have had quality issues with these metals so do not use them.

22ct Gold is a very pure workable metal. The purer the Gold is the more malleable it is which can make it a bit on the soft side with a more orange yellow colour.

24ct Gold is pure with no bits added and can only be cast or forged into shapes – if you soldered it (solder is the same metal with other metals added to lower it's melting temperature) it will not be 24ct but will fall into the 22ct camp. This can limit the designs we can make in this grade of Gold.

This metal is going to become more commonplace in the market place as it's priced between 9ct Gold and 18ct Gold. To date we have only been commissioned a couple of times in this metal so we have not got the long term experience in giving advice on it’s where ability (along with the rest of the indostory). The colour is a very good natural white but it is a light metal that give a cheaper feel when compaired to Gold or Platinum.

A nice metal but it does not lend itself to one-off jewellery commissions for cost reasons as designing and making a Silver item takes the same time as an 18ct Gold item. The upshot of this is you will be the proud owner an extremely expensive Silver piece of Jewellery that will have the worst wear properties of all the precious metals as Silver is the softest. It also has the most allergic reactions and metal discolouration problems of all the precious metal family.

We recommend and stock Diamonds of a grade G /vvs1 or better. What this means is:

The colour of a Diamond is very important as a good grade can make the overall look of piece of jewellery and a bad one can spoil it. The colour is graded alphabetically with D being white and Z being yellow, we go for G or better, as a creep of yellow in the lower grade of stones is unnoticeable to the untrained eye. Any grade over G is good and there is a difference but it does impact on the price.

There are different colours of diamond available, e.g, cognac, yellow and champagne. There are sometimes issues of availability but we will contact our Diamond merchants to check availability on any you are interested in.

Clarity of a Diamond is easier to judge, if you can easily see marks in a diamond walk away as it's no good. There are two types of imperfection: one is fractures and the second is inclusions. Inclusions are black specks inside the stone that are un-crystallised carbon. The VVS grade (very, very slight) we like to use as you can't see any inclusions without using 10x magnification. The benefit of inclusions are they prove the stones are real diamonds.

The other big factor in selecting Diamonds is size, which is measured in weight. A 1ct Diamond weights .2g and to make life easier each carat is divided up in to a 100 points. Thus a half carat Diamond is 50pt. The bigger the stone the bigger the price ticket as a general rule of thumb, but colour, clarity and cut also play their part in the price.

With cuts, the more a diamond cutter has to grind away to make a shape the more the stone will cost e.g, heart shapes are more expensive than round stones. As there are so many cuts / shapes available we can recommend and supply a selection of stones for you to choose from.

One point of advice on selecting a stone of any type is to have a good look at it. Only buy gems you think look good because that's how they are going to be judged.

All part of the same family of gems called Corundums. They are lovely stones as they are strong and have a very good range of colour. Rubies are Red but Sapphires can be blue, pink, yellow, green and white.

We could cover all the gem types but with Diamonds & Corundums you have very hard wearing gems that are perfect for engagement ring which are one of out biggest sellers.

If you are interested in a particular stone please let us know & we let you know if it properties are suitable for the jewellery you have in mind.