Tag: Construction

Every Trinket File guide tagged construction: joints, settings, clasps and chains, and how a piece of jewellery is put together.

Plain bands worn on two hands resting on white linen

Everyday Jewellery: What Survives Daily Wear

The jewellery that survives daily wear is not the most expensive jewellery. It is the jewellery with enough metal in the right places. Two pieces can carry the same hallmark and the same price, and on

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Gold rings set with coloured stones along the band

Settings Explained: Prongs, Bezels, Channels and Pave

A setting is usually chosen for how much of the stone it leaves visible. That is the wrong criterion, or at least an incomplete one. The setting is the structure that holds a brittle stone inside a me

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A ten-times jeweller's loupe on a plain surface

Judging a Stone: What You Can Check and What You Cannot

The gemstone trade runs on the gap between how a stone looks and what it actually is. Colourless stones can be diamond, moissanite, cubic zirconia or glass, and the difference is invisible to the nake

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A gold chain with its open clasp photographed in close up

Chains, Clasps and How Fastenings Fail

A necklace that disappears is usually assumed to have been stolen or to have broken in some dramatic way. The common ending is quieter than that. A chain is found tucked inside a collar with every lin

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Hands forming silver links over a bench with pliers and a blowtorch

How to Check Jewellery Construction Before You Buy

Most of the attention in a jewellery purchase goes to what a piece looks like from arm's length. That is the part the maker has designed for. The part that decides whether the piece still looks right

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