Silver

Silver was once called the 'lunar' metal – its appearance being cold and luminous, similar to the moon's reflection on water. It has always been a valuable metal, ever since it was discovered and first mined in Anatolia (now Turkey), more than 6,000 years ago. Classed as a 'Noble' metal, silver has a stable chemical structure that resists oxidisation and corrosion from acids.

At Hot Diamonds we're proud to use quality sterling silver in our silver jewellery collections. Sterling silver is an alloy – 92.5% fine silver and 7.5% copper. Copper is added to fine silver so that it becomes more workable and durable, whilst retaining all of its beauty.

Gold

The chemical symbol of gold is 'au' from the Latin aurum, which means shining dawn. This relates to the exquisite and uniquely warm, yellow glow radiated by gold - an attribute that has helped make it the most desirable precious metal ever known to man.

Gold is the most malleable of all metals and in its purist form is considered too soft for use in jewellery. Consequently, Gold is often alloyed with other metals, usually silver and copper, to make it more durable. The purity of gold is measured in karats, with 24 karat gold being 100% pure, 18 karat gold 75% pure, 14 karat gold 58.3% pure and 9 karat gold 37.5% pure.

White Gold

White gold is gold that has been carefully alloyed with a mix of nickel, zinc, copper, tin and manganese, to give it a stunning platinum-like white sheen.

Rhodium Plating

Rhodium is the hardest of all precious metals and is extremely expensive. At Hot Diamonds, we plate all of our sterling silver jewellery with rhodium to ensure that our products have the most wear resistant finish possible, and that our sterling silver reflects light beautifully.

Hallmarking

A hallmark is an official stamp engraved into a precious metal to confirm its quality. There are 3 elements required in a stamp: the precious metal purity; the assay office it was hallmarked in and a sponsors mark (the mark of the company requesting the hallmark).

At Hot Diamonds we hallmark all of our gold products (although we are only required to hallmark items more than 1.5 grams in weight), and all of our silver jewellery that exceeds a weight of 7.7 grams (this is in line with UK hallmark rules).

Hot Diamonds uses a unique hallmark identifier of 'HDIA' which is stamped on to all of our items of jewellery.

Pearls

Some Hot Diamonds jewellery is adorned with a pearl. A classic combination that is never out of trend. At Hot Diamonds our Pearls are cultivated with to the following specification

Diamond Guide

Most diamonds are thought to be between 1 billion and 3 billion years old, formed deep within the earth's crust and bought to the surface through traumatic volcanic activity – little wonder they're considered rare and precious.

Diamonds are the hardest natural substance found on earth, and consequently cannot be scratched by anything but other diamonds. This incredible resilience allows diamonds to take a superior polish and project more brilliance than any other natural colourless gemstone known to man.

The Diamonds in all Hot Diamonds jewellery are to the following specification

Conflict Free Diamonds

Hot Diamonds always uses conflict-free diamonds and only sources these from suppliers who are signed up to the Kimberley Process

The Diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in the funding of conflict and in conformance with United Nations resolutions. The seller hereby guarantees that these Diamonds are conflict free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the Supplier of these Diamonds.

Diamond Classification – The 4 C's

The quality of diamonds can be graded using the 4 C's, namely: carat; cut; colour and clarity.

Carat

Carat refers to the weight of diamonds. One carat (0.2 grams) is often divided into 100 points, so that a diamond's weight can be easily and accurately measured. For example, a one point diamond is a diamond that is 1/100th of a carat in weight. We use both one and two point diamonds in our jewellery collections. Where Hot Diamonds jewellery is set with two point diamonds, this will be noted within the product specifications section for the product on the website.

Cut

The cut of a diamond is often considered to be the most important attribute. Even diamonds with perfect colour and clarity can lose brilliance if cut poorly. 

A single cut is a simple form of cutting a round diamond with only 17 or 18 facets. Small high quality single cut diamonds are highly prized in the jewellery industry, and because there are fewer but larger facets, they give off a majestic dance of light and colour, that is often lost with full cut stones.

Colour

The colour scale of a diamond refers to how white a diamond looks. The alphabetical scale is graded from 'D' which is the whitest, to 'Z', which is very brown. Why not consider 'A' to be the whitest colour rather than 'D', we hear you ask? This is in case a diamond even more white than the current whitest diamond is ever found!

Clarity

Clarity refers to the lack of internal flaws and inclusions within a diamond. The scale of clarity for diamonds runs from FL (meaning flawless) to I3 (meaning clearly visible imperfections to the naked eye).