Keo Jewelry Designs primarily uses natural materials, such as gemstones, pearls, and precious metals. Occasionally, we also use Swarovski lead crystal, cubic zirconia, and more rarely, glass. We always list the materials in each piece of jewelry.

Gemstones
We use natural gemstones of all types. Some stones are commonly color-treated to enhance their beauty; we cannot always determine when this is the case.

Cultured Freshwater Pearls
Most pearls sold today are cultured, that is, a foreign body is inserted into a mollusk, causing it to produce a pearl. Cultured freshwater pearls are obtained from fresh water mussels and are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. Most freshwater pearls come from Japan, where they originated, and China. Many of the colored pearls we use are dyed.

Precious Metals

• Sterling Silver. Sterling is 92.5% pure silver (.925) combined with copper to form an alloy that is more practical for jewelry than pure silver alone. We do not use lesser quality silver or silver plate.
• Argentium Sterling Silver. Argentium is a new alloy that contains 92.5% pure silver, but the addition of germanium to the alloy provides superior tarnish resistance. A wide variety of argentium findings not yet available. We primarily use argentium in our chain maille items.
• 14K Gold Fill. A layer of 14K gold is bonded to base metal. Unlike gold plated items, gold-filled items will remain gold for a lifetime with proper care.
• Vermeil. The inside core is sterling silver, the outside is a thin coating of karat gold. Vermeil jewelry is long-lasting and has the look, feel, and endurance of pure gold.
• 14K Gold. 14 parts gold and 10 parts non-gold metal. (Pure gold is 24 karats, but is too soft to make durable jewelry products.)