How Many Different Colors of Gold Are There?

When most people are asked about colors of gold, yellow and white varieties typically come to mind. And while these two hues are certainly the standard for most luxury jewelry, there’s an entire rainbow of gold alloys that are just as stunning.

Our Mokume Gane jewelry harnesses a wide variety of gorgeous shades to produce bespoke jewelry pieces. But how many different colors of gold exist – and how they are produced?

What Is “Pure Gold?”

When found in nature, pure gold is 24 karat. Because 24K gold is extremely soft and malleable, it’s a poor choice in jewelry production. To produce a stronger material, gold is mixed with other alloys (like silver or copper) to produce a stronger product. Nearly all of the gold used for jewelry production is an alloy.

22K or 18K: What Is Better for Jewelry Production?

22K karat gold is 91.6% pure gold, still brilliantly yellow, and slightly harder. That said, it’s still easily bent, making it a poor choice for gemstone-studded jewelry.

With a 75% gold composition, 18K gold is far better  for jewelry designed to be worn regularly without risk of damage. While 18K gold is a slightly different shade of gold (with less of a deep golden luster), it is a more affordable option and requires less regular upkeep.

With the right alloys, expert metalsmiths can produce a wide spectrum of intriguing colors. While black, blue, and purple are all possible gold colors, they’re notorious for breaking in traditional jewelry designs.

What Different Colors of Gold Are Used for Jewelry?

different colors of gold

White Gold

White gold looks incredibly similar to platinum – but approximately four times less expensive. White gold amplifies the beauty of colorless diamonds to produce a stunning effect.

Initially, white gold was a mixture of palladium and yellow gold. Today, it is most often created by combining yellow gold with alloys like zinc, copper, and a platinum compound (instead of nickel due to common allergic reactions). Rhodium plating is usually added to remove any trace of yellow that may still shine through. Though this plating may need to be replaced every few years, it is an affordable fix for an affordable metal. We could say Palladium and Copper have a key role in the alloys to create the different colors of gold range.

Rose Gold

Mokume Gane Ring Rose Gold, White Gold, Silver, Custom Jewelry by Jaume Labro, Wedding Rings

 

This hand-hammered rose gold engagement ring reveals a Mokume Gane pattern along the interior.

A unique option for the modern jewelry lover, the popularity of rose gold has surged over the last decade. Also referred to as pink or blush gold, this alloy is formed when copper and silver are mixed with gold.

For an 18k rose gold, you can expect approximately the following ratio: 75% gold, 22.25% copper, and 2.75% silver. To get a lighter 18k pink gold, the following proportions tend to be used: 75% gold, 20% copper, and 5% silver. Deeper, redder hues are achieved by adding more copper to the mix.

Green Gold

Created nearly three millennia ago, green gold is created by adding silver to gold (and occasionally copper). Green is the most popular “alternative” gold color because of its soft yet durable composition. Though not exactly an emerald or forest green, people love the subtle greenish-yellow tinge. Green gold fine jewelry truly shines when paired with a variety of gold colors.

green gold mokume gane rings

For the highest caliber of green gold, look for a balanced mixture of 18k green gold made up of 75% yellow gold and 25% silver. If you’re designing or purchasing an engagement ring, nickel or zinc may be added to strengthen the alloy. Be sure to ask your jeweler, especially if you suffer from metallurgical allergies.

No Matter the Color, Choose Ethical Gold

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Cyanide is most often used to extract gold from ore, and then this poisonous substance leaches directly into ecosystems. When purchasing a beautiful piece of jewelry, take an extra step and check where it’s been mined.

Sustainable jewelry designers and consumers have begun using their purchasing power to choose eco-friendly gold. At Jaume Labro, all of our jewelry pieces are made from purified, existing gold. With zero environmental damage, your Mokume Gane jewelry will be even more meaningful.

Mokume Gane Patterns Capture the Beauty of Colored Gold

mokume gane technique

The ancient art of Mokume Gane fuses layers of precious colored metals in a one-of-a-kind pattern. This is an effective way to combine multiple metals into something uniquely yours.

Selecting colored, eco-friendly gold for your next jewelry piece is a surefire way to showcase your style and personality. Speak to one of the Jaume Labro consultants to start discussing your next Mokume Gane ring, necklace, or pendant.

If you still have questions about the different colors of gold and potential new alloys, just contact us and we will reply you in detail.

The Time-Honored History of Mokume Gane

Inspired by fabled Damascus steel sword making of the 9th century, Mokume Gane techniques have been used to create distinctive Japanese metalwork pieces for over 500 years.
Decorative patterns were hand-hammered and fired to craft the handles and sheaths of Mokume Gane katanas. The intricate artisanship meant that these pieces were status symbols in feudal Japan – especially in samurai society. Today, you’ll most often find this art showcased in Mokume Gane jewelry

What Does Mokume Gane Mean?

The word “Mokume” translates to “wood eye” and “gane” means “metal.” Looking at Mokume Gane jewelry, it’s a superb way to describe the distinctive wood-like patterns that run through each piece.

The Mokume Gane Technique

First, layers of precious and semi-precious metals are forged into a solid Mokume Gane billet through extremely high heat and pressure. Though copper, silver, and gold alloys were typically used in feudal Japan, palladium and platinum are increasingly popular Mokume Gane metal combinations.

Mokume Gane Billet

Once the Mokume Gane billet is formed, it’s hammered by at least 50%. This is the most crucial part of the process because if these metals begin to fall apart, the process is ruined. The carving and subsequent forging of the Mokume Gane metals is repeated until the desired pattern is obtained.

Mokume Gane Rings, Necklaces, & Earrings Take Shape

Once the patterned metal is flattened, filed, and bent, it’s shaped much like other conventional fine jewelry pieces.

The last steps involve finishing Mokume Gane jewelry with a matte, satin, or sandblasted veneer (or acid-etching) to show off the color contrasts. Acid-etching provides more definition to the pattern. This is also the time to include an engraving. 

Why This Technique Is So Important

While each artist has their own unique vision and chiseling techniques, many modern jewelers actually design “Japanese folded metal rings” – not Mokume Gane like they claim.

Jaume Labro is different: Our artisans only use a traditional hammer, chisel, and heat to create true Mokume Gane jewelry. 

Jaume Labro Mokume Gane

The Impact of Mokume Gane Jewelry

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Haze mokume Gane Ring

Over the last few decades, Mokume Gane jewelry has experienced a dramatic increase in popularity. Modern consumers desire exceptional, one-of-a-kind pieces – especially when it comes to Mokume Gane engagement and wedding rings. 

Men’s Mokume Gane Rings

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Yugen Mokume Wedding Band

Surprisingly, men’s Mokume rings are the fastest growing trend in this field. With unique, masculine options for each band, this ancient technique creates enduring metalworks that stand up to regular wear and tear (unlike standard gold alloys).

Matching Mokume Wedding Bands

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Uranus & Ourea Matching Rings

Another major request from customers has been matching wedding rings. Forged from the
same billet, whichever Mokume Gane pattern you choose will be expressly yours and yours
alone. No two creations will ever be identical, just like the bond shared between your loved one.

Jaume Labro: Jewelry with a Conscience

Not only are Jaume Labro fine jewelry pieces crafted with exceptional workmanship, but
they’re also created with love and respect using the best sources possible.

Ethical Gold

Recycled Gold Jewelry Maker

Gold mining takes an enormous toll on mine workers (e.g. child labor, health issues) and the surrounding environment. In order to create something beautiful, it must come from a place of respect.

That’s why we pay close attention to our sources and use purified, recycled gold (which is as perfect as freshly-mined gold) and purchase from groups like Fairmined and the Alliance for Responsible Mining. That means your Jaume Labro jewelry builds up communities rather than
destroying them.

Ethical Diamonds

Making Mokume Gane

Our fair trade diamonds are traced using the Kimberley Process, but when we purchase our gemstones, we go one step further.

To ensure there’s no worker exploitation or environmental damage, Jaume Labro personally
visits each mining site. Our company can trace each ethical diamond’s journey directly to our workshop.

Discover Fine Jewelry Pieces by Jaume Labro

Your Mokume piece likely commemorates an extraordinary, significant event in your life. Whether you choose a simple or elaborate design, our expert techniques and knowledge will help you every step of the way.

Browse through our Mokume Gane engagement rings or create one of your own with the help of
our expert designers.

Buy Sustainable Jewelry, Plant a Tree

Plant a tree with us. We guarantee that we only support environmentally responsible suppliers – and you can choose to go even further as ‘your’ trees are planted in an ancient forest under threat. Perhaps one day, you will go and visit ‘your’ tree, but even if you don’t, your jewelry will remind you that somewhere in Africa, a tree is reaching towards the sky because you chose Labro.

Have your gold and diamonds ruined a forest?

For many, buying beautiful gold and diamond jewelry is not something they associate with large-scale environmental damage. The issue of blood diamonds has drawn even more attention. But animals, plants and entire ecosystems are under threat because of our thirst for beautiful gemstones and the gold that forms a perfect setting for them.

Jaume Labro, award-winning jewelry designer, doesn’t want his business or his clients to have this on their conscience. On the contrary, he believes that the knowledge of having improved conditions for humanity and the environment is an important aspect of his work and your jewelry.

Plant a tree, the perfect gift to the planet, concealed in your diamond engagement or wedding rings

Diamond engagement rings, gold wedding rings and fine jewelry already carry a depth of meaning that isn’t apparent when you simply look at them. Part of their beauty and significance is the love with which they are created and given.

Now you can have confidence that your jewelry has also achieved something special through forest protection or socio-economic advancement for the poor. 5% of the value of your exquisite handmade jewelry is donated to a cause. It isn’t added to the price, because Labro wants to contribute too.

Forest problems associated with mining

Every day, trees are felled to make way for the infrastructure that mining requires. Roads made through forests make them vulnerable to devastating fires by channelling air through the forest canopy, pollution of streams affects wildlife and people alike, and habitat destructions threatens vulnerable animal species.

For example, India is currently facing a choice between its forests, and the tigers they provide a habitat for, and becoming one of the world’s largest diamond producers. In South America, shallow hydraulic mining for alluvial gold is destroying swathes of forest and polluting the streams that act as their lifeblood, and in Angola, nature is unable to recover from the impact of diamond mining. As for New Guinea, it faces environmental disaster as watercourses and wetlands are rendered unsuitable for aquatic life.

Protect the forest by choosing Labro

The need for forest protection becomes more apparent with every passing day, but the lure of precious metals and stones provides a powerful incentive for governments seeking to exploit mineral resources. To save the forests, consumers have to get smart and start refusing products that are not created with forest preservation in mind.


The need for forest protection becomes more apparent with every passing day Click To Tweet

Recycled gold and diamonds, or those which are mined in an environmentally sensitive way should be our only choices. At Labro, we know the exact origins of any metals or gems we purchase. We make it our business to know that conservation and the protection of human rights are high on our suppliers’ agendas.

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Do no harm – but also become involved in activism

Not only will your jewelry from Labro consist of materials that did no harm, but choosing Labro becomes a form of activism. Apart from our donations on your behalf towards African education, we have also found a way in which we can make a small but significant contribution to save our forests.

What would you say if you knew that every $12 of the 5% profit percentage we donate when you buy jewelry from us meant that a tree was being planted in a vulnerable and unique forest? We can even supply you with the GPS co-ordinates!

Greenpop: our partners protect the forest

Finding the right environmental charity was difficult. Many large charities have become so cumbersome that much of the money donated goes towards supporting the organization rather than the cause it represents. Then we discovered Greenpop and its tree-planting donation that’s guaranteed to translate into a living, growing tree for just $12.

Platbos forest is Africa’s Southernmost forest ecosystem. It is home to leopards, caracal, buck, a huge variety of bird species and stately, ancient trees. But it is under threat. Invasive vegetation and a devastating fire in 2006 have raised concerns that this ancient forest and the wildlife it provides a habitat for will be wiped from the face of the earth. Wildlife protection means habitat preservation –but when a habitat has been damaged this badly, restoration is the only answer.

How to rebuild a threatened forest

Many ancient trees still remain at Platbos, but to preserve the forest and return it to its former glory, trees have to be planted. These trees don’t just have to be of the right species, they also need to be from the local genotype in order to preserve the integrity of this very unique environment.

Greenpop collects seeds and grows them in a special nursery until they are strong enough to survive in the wild. Then the trees are planted by volunteers according to the natural niches where they would usually be found. 8,000 trees were planted in May 2016 alone as local volunteers ranging from toddlers to adults set to work after having been invited to join the “treevolution”.


8,000 trees were planted in May 2016 alone as local volunteers ranging from toddlers to adults set to work after having been invited to join the “treevolution”. Click To Tweet

A tree grows in Africa – and you put it there

Greenpop is active across Southern Africa, but its southernmost project is one of its most inspiring. Perhaps one day, you will go and ‘visit’ your tree, but even if you don’t, your jewelry will remind you that somewhere in Africa, a tree is reaching towards the sky because you chose Labro. Will it become a leopard’s scratching post? Perhaps! But you won’t mind.

Save our forests and reduce your carbon footprint. Our action is going to preserve forest that might otherwise disappear, and when you get on the plane to go to your dream honeymoon destination, your carbon footprint is neutralized. Yes, you have joined the “treevolution”!

Donate directly or choose your gold and diamond jewelry from Labro

Feel free to donate directly and “plant a tree yourself”. It’s a worthy cause, and we’re glad we found it. However, you can also browse our superb handcrafted wedding rings, engagement rings and fine jewelry – or request a custom-made piece. The jewelry you choose will not only symbolize your special occasion, but will represent your commitment to a better world for all.

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