Is My Jewelry Real?

At craft fairs, we sometimes come across this question: Is this jewelry real?

It's a bit of an odd question, because all jewelry is technically real; it exists, right? You can touch it and wear it. Seems to be real! Snark aside, the question begets deeper issues plaguing the fashion & jewelry industries. As fast fashion has taken the world by storm, so has degradation of quality, lack of transparency, and misleading marketing. 

The term "real jewelry" typically refers to jewelry made from precious or semi-precious materials, as opposed to "fake" or costume jewelry. Costume jewelry isn't bad - many of us have many memories playing dress up with our grandmother's beaded necklaces and clip on earrings - it's just less expensive. Precious jewelry has inherent and universal value in the metal and stones used. 

Of course, we think the jewelry we make is very real. We use solid metals and time honored jewelry making techniques like casting, fabrication, and stone setting. 

Materials

• Metals: We only use solid metals because nothing will ever rub off (like plating or a wax coating), and you can care for your pieces until the end of time with a little polish. 
  
• Gemstones: For the most part we use genuine stones like mother of pearl, malachite, citrine, etc. We choose to use kyocera opals in our fashion jewelry instead of genuine opals because they're easier to care for and less fragile. We also use lab grown diamonds because of ethical concerns with mining natural diamonds. For our fine jewelry made with gold and platinum, we only use ethically mined, genuine stones. 
  
• Hallmarks: Real jewelry often has hallmarks or stamps indicating the metal content. These markings are usually on the clasp, inside a ring, or on the post of an earring. We always do this for our fine jewelry and we can assure you our silver is solid sterling silver :).
  

Tests

• Magnet Test: Precious metals like gold and silver are not magnetic. A strong magnet can help identify jewelry plated with gold or silver over a different metal. Be sure to test the main part of the jewelry, as clasps may be made of different materials.
• Sound Test: Real gold and silver produce a high-pitched ringing sound when tapped against a hard surface, whereas fakes produce a duller sound.
• Wearing: Examine the jewelry for wear. If a gold-colored chain reveals a darker or silvery color underneath, it is likely gold-plated and not solid gold. Solid gold or platinum will maintain the same color even when worn down.