Silver? Gold plated? Help?!

zilver

Most of our jewellery is made out of 925 Stirling silver. This is the purest form of silver from which consumer products are made. 925 means that it is a silver alloy (mixture) consisting of 92.5% silver and 7.5% fillers. This 7.5% is necessary because silver is a very soft material in itself, too soft even to be able to make durable jewellery. Products made of Stirling silver have a content mark, this is a small 925 symbol that is stamped into the product. This is required by law for products with more than 8 grams of silver. This may mean that your small earring or earring does not have a quality mark (for example, our basic silver earrings of 70mm weigh less than 2 grams), this does not mean that the product is fake, but that the product is too small to use the quality mark. The content mark is a very clear signal that your new jewellery is made of good quality silver!

We guarantee that our products are made of Stirling silver. We also have a number of products made of other materials, we have indicated this as clearly as possible on the product page! Has your silver jewellery become a bit dull or have you left it in a closet for a long time? No problem! Silver reacts to sulfur, which can cause a black / brown layer (silver sulphide) to form on it. Sulfur or forms of it are unfortunately just in the air (think of smog and air pollution, etc.) and also in and on your skin.

Also be careful with wool products, as felt is really disastrous for your silver jewellery. Polish it or just put it in a silver bath to make it look brand new again!

gold plated

Solid gold might not be attainable in every budget; that's why we continue to sell our gold plated products as well! But what does gold plated exactly entail? A product is gold plated when it consists of a metal that is dipped in liquid gold. This is also known as gilded or gold filled. Our gold plated products have a Sterling silver base covered with a layer of gold. We ask you to be careful with water and other liquids around your gold plated jewellery, as contact with liquids might cause the gold layer to fade. It is definitely not certain that this will happen but might occur in the long run. We often see this happen to rings kept on during the washing of hands or the earring part that goes through the ear. Not that big of a deal when this eventually happens, as underneath every gold plated piece of jewellery hides a beautiful silver item!

RVS / Brass

The only jewellery we sell that is not made out of real silver or gold are the anklets and some necklaces of the Blue House Project. The anklets are made out of stainless steel (RVS); this is a material that does not discolour and keeps its looks for quite a while as it is covered in a protective layer. We decided not to use real silver for the production of these items to make sure the price point stays attainable. (The anklets would otherwise be around 300 euros, which we figured would be a little crazy! 😇) Messing is a copper alloy (mixture). The same goes for the brass necklaces (messing); prices would simply be too high if we were to make these out of silver or gold plated. Both brass and RVS are known to be hardly influenced by outside influences and keep their looks over a long time. We tried to make it as clear as possible on the website when a product is made out of brass or RVS! Any doubts? Contact us via email or ask one of the girls in our store!

zilver plated

Silver plated jewellery exists as well; however, we do not sell this at Wiezewasjes. This is a layer of silver over another material (such as RVS, for example). We do not sell silver plated products as these won't last a lifetime. We think it is important for jewellery to be durable and sell items that you can enjoy for years to come. (How fun is it to be able to give your jewellery to your kids as an heirloom?)