13 January 2011- The precious metal gold has been treasured since early human history for making exclusive jewelry not only for its rarity but also for the unmatched beauty which it lends to the wearer. Just as the gold metal, gold beads too are popular for making jewelry or as an accessory which accentuates the beauty of main jewelry piece. However, because these precious metal beads are too costly, one must exercise caution while buying them. Here are some guidelines on how to buy gold beads for getting true value of your money!

Know the Difference Between Gold Types

As you will be spending a considerably good amount to buy gold beads, you should know the difference between gold types so that you pay only for what you get. Different types of gold differ regarding their purity measured in karat weight. 24 karat gold is the purest form of gold but because it is very soft, it can be used for making jewelry or beads. Therefore, most gold jewelery as well as gold beads are made of gold alloys (gold mixed with other metals.) The gold content of jewelery or beads is measured in carats expressed fractionally as 24ths. For example, 24 carat gold is pure gold, while 9 carat gold has a gold content of 9/24ths, or just over one third. So, when you buy 22 karat gold beads , you are getting gold having purity of 22/24 or 91.7%. Similarly 18 karat gold beads would have a purity of 18/24 or 75%, 14 karat gold beads will have purity of 14/24 or 50% and 10 karat gold beads will have a purity of 10/24 or 41.6%.

Choose Gold Bead Colors Carefully

Now you know that purity of gold depends upon the amount of other metals alloyed with gold. Addition of other metals also affects other characteristics of gold metal like toughness, strength, workability and color. You must have also noticed the difference in color of gold beads. This is because of the metal added with gold for making beads. For example, rich red copper is combined with pure yellow gold for making rose gold beads with warm rosy tone. Thus, the 18 karat rose gold is 18 parts or 75% of fine gold and 6 parts or 25% of copper. Similarly, 14 karat white gold is 14 parts gold and 10 parts white metal which can be nickel or palladium to give the white gold beads a warm gray tone.

When you make a jewelry piece, you might want to use gold beads of particular color for maximum beauty. For example, if you are making gold jewelry and want to add certain beads to it, you cannot just pick any color, you will obviously match it with the gold metal- either choosing complementary or contrasting color. You can have gold beads with tones including red, green, white. Sometimes, even silver beads are used with gold beads for making jewelry. If you do not want to compromise on metal, you can get silvery colored white gold beads too. The following list lets you know the alloying metal and their color effect on the gold beads:

• Rose Gold Beads- copper mixed with gold for red tone.
• Yellow Gold Beads- copper, silver, zinc mixed with gold for yellowish tone.
• White Gold Beads- copper, nickel, zinc mixed with gold for bleaching white tone.
• Green Gold Beads- silver mixed with gold for greenish tone.

Inexpensive Alternatives- Cheap Gold Beads

If you want gold beads jewelry but have budget limitations, you can even find cheap alternatives to gold beads like gold filled or gold plated beads. Gold plated beads are made using an electro-chemical processes like the gold vermeil beads which are actually sterling silver beads having a thin molecule of gold electroplated on them. Gold filled beads have a gold overlay- they are made by heat and pressure which bond a thin layer of gold to a brass core and therefore they are basically brass beads with a little gold looking just like solid gold beads.

The above mentioned types of gold beads have a the precious metal gold though in little amount. As such, they are cheap gold beads- the alternative to the expensive solid gold beads but with similar looks. However, their are other types of so called gold beads like gold foil beads which have no gold added to them. They are, in fact, glass beads having a gold foil core encased in transparent colors of glass.