Jewelry Tips: For those with metal allergies, titanium is an exceptional choice–good enough for artificial hips means good enough for body jewelry. Tungsten is also hypo-allergenic unless processed using cobalt or nickel, to which some people are allergic.

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Jewelry Tips: Frequent wearing of silver jewelry does prevent a lot of tarnish, but not all; silver must be cleaned occasionally. Many commercial polishes or polishing cloths are excellent; they work best when tarnish first appears and the tarnish layer is thinnest. Silver is considered the most reflective of precious metals, so keeping silver jewelry bright will allow you to show it off at its fullest beauty. Gold and platinum require less, but the occasional thorough cleaning is also a good idea.

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Jewelry Tips: Gemstones from Kenya, Madagascar, Israel, India, Belgium and South Africa: Gemstones mined in Myanmar (Burma), which supplies some of the most valuable rubies, jadeite and semi-precious stones in the world, come from mines rife with forced labor and human rights abuses.

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Jewelry Tips: Gold filled is not what it sounds like. It isn’t something filled with gold, it is gold filled with something. Most common is a thin gold sheet heat-bonded to brass; second is gold bonded to silver (this is called vermeil). The gold surface is far thicker than “gold plated”; to be sold as gold filled, gold must be 5 percent or more of the total metal weight. In plating the gold layer is electrostaticly deposited on the base metal and may be just a few microns thin. It can chip and will wear off eventually, but the purchase cost is substantially lower, and replating is more economical than buying new jewelry (although, if you insist, Overstock.com will sell you some of that instead).

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Jewelry Tips: Gold has a magic all its own; rare is the person who does not react when hearing that word. Since man’s earliest records, gold has been the ultimate mark of wealth and remains the hallmark jewelry metal.

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