(upbeat music) – This is Jill Maurer
with Your Jewelry Minute and today I'm answering the
question, "What is black gold "or blackened gold?" With silver we can blacken silver because we can put it in a
chemical and get it to tarnish, polish off the high points and then you have this beautiful combination of black and silver. So you'd think, "Oh that
must what blackened gold is." No because gold does not tarnish.
Gold comes out of the earth looking that beautiful gold color that it is and there is nothing you
can do to tarnish it. It doesn't oxidize in the
air and there's no chemical that you can put on it
to make it look black. So there are pieces though
that sort of have a black look and a gold look and people will refer to them as blackened gold. So what is that really? What that is is a coating
has been put on top of the gold to make it look black. It's either been electro-plated
in Dark Ruthenium or Dark Rhodium or its
actually been enameled, usually in a flat-black color. So the short answer is there is no such think as blackened gold and then the longer answer is that we cover it with something to make it look black
and people do that to get that nice contrast between
the black and the gold.
In some ways it can be a pity because your covering up beautiful gold but I will admit it does
make some beautiful jewelry. This has been Your Jewelry Minute. If you have a jewelry question for me, just ask me in the comments below. Until next time.
(upbeat music).