Almost all of your favourite Eleanor Jewellery Design pieces are available in recycled 18 carat gold vermeil as well as recycled sterling silver. Many people have heard of gold plating before and maybe even gold filled but often have heard or understand the term gold vermeil. I hope this helps you to understand the differences between the three.

Gold plating is a term used to describe an item of any base metal - often cheaper materials such as brass or copper, that has been lightly coated in gold. Gold plating covers items of any metal that have been plated with 0.5 microns of gold (or flash plating 0.25 microns). This is often used for machine made, low priced, high street fashion jewellery.

Gold vermeil is a term used to describe higher quality, more durable items, specifically made of sterling silver that have been coated in a thick layer of gold (2.5 microns as a minimum).

Gold vermeil lasts much longer than gold plating and ensures that the base metal is sterling silver. I still choose to use recycled sterling silver as the base metal for all of your gold vermeil items and the gold used is of the highest quality 18 carat recycled gold.

I do use gold filled necklace chains as the gold is bonded to the chain using heat and wears very well. Giving the optimum balance between quality and durability for the piece as a whole.