THE ALLURE OF GOLD A FA S C I N AT I O N T H AT N E V E R FA D E S BY PAUL HENDERSON
FLUID AND FUN, THE 'COSMOS' RING FEATURES BRILLIANT DIAMONDS AND A TACTILE MOVING BALL FEATURE HANDCRAFTED IN WHITE AND YELLOW GOLD
GOLD HAS HELD A FASCINATION FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. EVEN ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS THAT NEVER MET WERE FOUND TO HAVE A COMMON LOVE OF GOLD THAT TRANSCENDED TIME AND BRIDGED THE MOST DISTANT OF CULTURES. Early gold coins date back to 1500 bc, but today gold has many uses, from electronics to medicine, dentistry to mobile phones, but one of the most significant is still the creation of beautiful gold jewellery, accounting for three quarters of the gold used today. Gold is incredibly malleable – one ounce of gold can be hammered into a foil sheet that can cover nine square metres. Another quality is ductility, and again, an ounce of gold can be drawn down into a continuous wire 80 kilometres long at an absolutely tiny five microns in diameter! These remarkable qualities see gold used in a wide variety of ways, from reflective coatings on space helmets, to gold leaf on books, (even cakes!) to stunning jewellery.
One question Curtis Australia often get asked is to explain gold carats. In its purest form at 24 carat, gold is too soft for everyday wear. In Australia, jewellery is often stamped with numbers. Most often seen are 375 for 9ct, which means the gold is 37.5% pure, or 750 for 18ct – 75% pure gold. Curtis Australia jewellery always carries a hallmark indicating which gold is in your piece, along with their unique Koala maker's mark and the Kangaroo mark, indicating their membership of the Gold and Silversmiths Guild of Australia. Together these marks are your guarantee of Curtis Australia quality. The talented jewellers in the Curtis Australia studio work with gold every day. Whether they're working on your ring, their own exclusive and unique jewellery, or one of their hand crafted solid gold watches - the patience, skill and care they take is always the same.
Some of the world's earliest jewellery dates back to Egyptian times, and some techniques date back that far. Lost wax casting is a special way of creating jewellery where a wax model is replaced by gold in a special plaster flask – the molten gold is poured into the cavity created by the wax being melted away - hence 'lost' wax. It's a remarkable technique still being used by today's jewellers.
EVERY JEWELLER KNOWS WHY GOLD IS SO SPECIAL. IT 'S A TRULY REMARKABLE METAL, WITH A COMBINATION OF QUALITIES UNLIKE ANY OTHER. Bairnsdale based jewellers Curtis Australia love working in gold, in fact they rarely work in anything else. Gold doesn't tarnish or corrode, it has a wonderful lustre and is great to wear. A very special metal that can be shaped, hammered, cast, woven and formed into a myriad of designs that, if looked after, can last a lifetime - and beyond.
MAKE A WISH COME TRUE WITH THESE STUNNING YELLOW GOLD AND DIAMOND EARRINGS, HANDCRAFTED BY CURTIS AUSTRALIAÍS MASTER JEWELLERS
With over 50 years experience in jewellery design & creation 12
gippsland lifestyle autumn ����
