My engagement ring used to belong to my great grandmother, Dorothy Mae Cook Richardson. My mother wore the ring through my childhood. I fell in love with it when I was very young, and told my mother that I wanted it when she died. Or sooner. It has daises on the side, which was one of the reasons I loved it then and love it now (oxeye daisies are my favorite flowers). I also am a sentimentalist, so the idea of owning a family heirloom only got stronger as I got older.
It is 18K White Gold. As any good girl knows, white gold is not just naturally "white." It is an alloy of gold and white metals. 18kt white gold is made by mixing 75% gold with 25% other metals such as silver and palladium (from http://gilletts.com.au/information.php?info_id=13). Rhodium is then used to plate the rings, and it lasts a while and looks great.
Many times skin chemicals can cause discoloration as it wears down the rhodium plating.
My ring has probably been re-plated at some point- I doubt it could look this good otherwise. I have been wearing it since mid-May, when it got re-sized and fixed up so the diamond wouldn't fall out. Despite the fact that I have only been wearing it for 5 months, my skin is very special and is already wearing down the plating. This doesn't come as a huge surprise; I can't wear 10K because it gives me a rash, and when I got a 10K plated with something to prevent the rash, I wore through it and just got another rash. Still, I am kind of unhappy. This ring is going to have to be polished pretty much every year. Bah. Stupid skin.
Still... it's worth it. :)
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