What the heck is Filigree jewelry?


I’m a guy who possesses a fair amount of curiosity; I like to know what things are and what they are made of.  I ran across the word “Filigree”, I never gave much thought to the term as it relates to jewelry.  Turns out filigree is a style used in the making of jewelry.  The jewelry manufacturer uses wire made of precious metal twists or weaves the wire into a beautiful, sometimes intricate, pattern producing a beautiful piece of filigree jewelry. 

In my search for the meaning of the word “filigree” discovering that it is a style, I came across another word I didn’t know the meaning of, “carat.”  I’ve heard the word before but didn’t know much about its meaning. 

A carat is a rating method for expressing the amount of gold in an alloy on a scale from 1 to 24. An alloy containing 50 per cent pure gold would be classified as 12-carat gold.  Gold plate is an electro-chemical bond to metals, producing an alloy. The process is called electroplating.  It’s rare to find jewelry made of pure gold; it’s too soft to withstand frequent use. Most jewelry is gold plated. Gold filled is another term used for gold plate.

Carat is also a weight measurement used for precious stones equal to 200 milligrams.  A milligram is approximately 0.035 oz.

Now we all know a little more about jewelry terms, don’t we?