Featuring a beautiful bamboo-shaped design and eye-catching color, this Viale18K Italian Gold band ring is destined to be an everyday favorite. It's finely crafted in rich 18K yellow gold or - in the two-tone choice - 18K yellow gold and 18K white gold. A polished finish provides across-the-room shine. You can wear this ring by itself to show off a flash of gold or you can stack it with others in your collection to create a look that's unique to you. You'll never want to take it off!
Step out onto the most famous Italian avenues with this collection of 18K gold jewelry designed and forged in the heart of Italy. From the elegance and luxury of the famous artisans of Vicenza, each fine piece showcases the best that Italy has to offer.
Check out the Ring Sizing Guide to find your ring size.
Gold Karat
Gold's softness and malleability make it a wonderful metal to work with when creating virtually any design in jewelry. But this softness can be a drawback as well. To make it stronger and more durable, gold is usually alloyed, or mixed, with other metals such as copper or silver. The higher a metal's percentage of gold content, the softer and more yellow the jewelry piece. The karat weight system used to measure gold in a piece is the same for all hues, including white and yellow gold.
The word “carat” is Arabic, meaning “bean seed.” This is because historically seeds were used to measure weights of gold and precious stones. In the United States, “karat” with a “k” is used to measure gold's purity, while “carat” with a “c” is used in measuring a gemstone's size. The karat mark of gold represents the percentage of pure gold to alloy.
In order to determine the karat weight of a specific item, simply look for the quality mark. Jewelry items will bear the stamp of their karatage based upon the United States or European system of marking. The United States system designates pieces by their karats—24K, 18K, 14K, 10K, etc. The European system designates pieces by their percentage of gold content. For instance, 10K gold is marked “417,” denoting 41.7% gold; 14K is marked “585,” denoting 58.5% gold; and 18K is marked “750,” denoting 75% gold; etc.
Yellow Gold
By far the most common color of gold used in jewelry, yellow gold is gold in its natural shade. Yellow gold is usually alloyed with copper and silver to increase the strength of the metal. How yellow the metal is depends upon the content of gold. A 14-karat piece of jewelry will have a brighter yellow hue than a 10-karat piece. Likewise, an 18-karat piece of jewelry will have a deeper yellow than 14-karat gold, and so on.
White Gold
Although gold is most often thought of as having a soft, yellow glow, the metal is available in an entire spectrum of different hues. The different colors of gold depend upon with which metals the gold is alloyed, or mixed.
Increasing in popularity in recent years, white gold has become fashionable as the preferred cool and contemporary look. White gold boasts the same properties as classic yellow gold, but achieves its white color by mixing with different alloys. In general, white gold is created when a nickel or palladium alloy (zinc and copper) is used. White gold may also be plated with an even whiter metal, such as rhodium, to enhance its cool appearance. As well, a white gold setting can enhance the rapture of white diamonds.