Plating
Plating can give a long lasting shimmer to the precious metals in your next jewelry design. Jewelers often plate jewelry after doing jewelry repair work such as soldering/heating, welding, and polishing because these processes will remove much or all of the existing plating during the work. Almost any precious metal can be plated, but white gold and sterling silver are the most common types of jewelry that would be plated (usually using Rhodium) to give them a whiter brilliance. There are many types of plating solutions available including rhodium, karat gold, silver, nickel, copper, and more. It’s important to keep safety in mind when purchasing plating materials because many of the chemicals used in jewelry plating are harmful and special ventilation and handling is absolutely necessary.