Category: Jewellery

Many people dream about the day they get engaged. Some people would like a lavish proposal where as others are happy with a low key special moment just with their partner. Choosing an engagement ring can be exciting, some couples chose a ring together, sometimes even after the engagement and other times the proposing partner will choose the ring in advance.

If you are choosing a ring for your partner then you may worry about getting something they like and also something that will fit. To find out the size you will need you can either ask your partner to try on a few different rings or use a ring sizer or if you are trying to keep it a complete secret then you could take one of your partners other rings with you. You will need to check that it fits their engagement ring finger though as all fingers are sized differently.

You have a wide choice of rings when it comes to picking one for an engagement and they vary drastically in cost. You can pick up an engagement ring for as little as £30 or upwards of £3000 depending on what you want. There is no reason to think that you have to spend a fortune on a ring, and do you really want to end up having to save for months on end when you could use that money towards a wedding?

With Christmas fast approaching, jewellery and watch sales are set to increase drastically over the forth coming weeks. Many people chose to buy watches and/or jewellery for a loved one for Christmas but choosing the right one can be tricky. Everyone has their own tastes and what may be attractive to one person could look awful to someone else.

Ideally if you are going to buy a watch for your partner, friend or family for Christmas you need to try and get an idea of what sorts of pieces they like. Take them out shopping with you and ask them to point of watches they like and also watches they don’t like. It may be for example, that they do not like large faces on a watch or that they only like silver straps not leather. Once you have been able to gather this information you can start to shop around for something they may like.

Watches range drastically in price, even in high street stores from £20-£30 upwards of £2000, so you need to have decided your budget before you start to look to know what category you will be looking in.

It may be that you have some expensive jewellery or that you have inexpensive jewellery but it has sentimental value to you, whatever jewellery you have, you will need to be able to look after it in order to preserve it and keep it looking shiny and new.

Silver Jewellery will naturally tarnish over time. Always protect your jewellery from knocks, scratches, chemicals, sunlight and heat/cold to minimise these effects. Simply removing your jewellery before cleaning or washing can help drastically reduce tarnishing.

Ideally you should take your jewellery to a professional jewellers to get it cleaned properly. They will know what chemicals to use in order to preserve the metal and give it a sine.

To protect your jewellery, pieces should be individually placed in a pouch or within a soft lined box to stop them being scratched or tangled. Ideally store your jewellery in a dark, cool and dry place, and try to keep pieces apart, so that they don’t rub together or tangle up.

Ring shopping can make for a very expensive shopping trip. Rings vastly range in price, from a few pounds for costume jewellery upwards in to the hundreds of thousands of pounds for an all singing all dancing gold, diamond ring.

If you are looking for engagement / wedding rings but do not really want to spend thousands of pounds then you may look at substituting the gold for something else. Gold or white gold rings can be expensive, add a carat diamond and you are not going to come away with change from a few thousand pounds.

Palladium rings are harder and more scratch-resistant than white gold rings and, like platinum, palladium holds its shine. The cost of a palladium ring is a lot less expensive than the cost of a gold or white gold ring but, to the naked eye, looks identical. It is also considered hypoallergenic so is often suitable for those with metal allergies.

If you are looking of ways to reuse your old jewellery then look no further. Many of us have a necklace that the chain has snapped or a few odd earrings that have been in our jewellery box for years. Often people just throw these in the bin when they are having a good sort out, but old jewellery can be reused again to make new.

If you are a bit crafty then you may want to try this yourself by buying some cheap chains or earing hooks and seeing what you can design. If not, then why not sell them as a job lot of spare jewels for others to recycle. You can even use them on cards, often jewellery pieces make lovely card decorations and can save you a fortune on buying them in the shops.

If you have quite a few odd pieces that you do not want to get rid of then you could make a charm bracelet, allowing you to still wear them.