Rhodium plating is a finish, and a finish can be renewed. Nearly every white gold ring sold today carries it, and white gold owners send their rings in for a fresh coat as a matter of routine. Dorvelle finishes its white pieces in the same rhodium and refreshes them by mail whenever you like. The first time is free.
What rhodium is doing on a ring
Rhodium is a platinum-group metal, harder than silver, gold or platinum, that does not oxidize in air and reflects light like a mirror, which is why jewelers plate it onto white gold and sterling silver. What is rhodium goes into the metal itself.
The important point is that the color you see on a white gold ring is the rhodium. White gold alloys come out of the mold slightly warm or gray, so the trade plates them. That is why a white gold ring and a rhodium finished sterling silver ring are the same white: the surface metal is the same.
A finish, by design
A rhodium finish is a hard, bright layer electroplated over a polished piece, applied the same way on white gold as on sterling silver, and refreshed by the jeweler as a standing service. That is how the trade has done it for decades; most jewelers offer the refresh and many include it with the ring.
Dorvelle works the same way, and includes the service. Whenever you want a piece looking like the day it arrived, request a prepaid label, send it in, and the bench cleans it, polishes it and re-plates it, then returns it within 5 business days of arrival. The first time is on us. After that it is $45, label included.
Why silver takes the same finish
Sterling silver takes rhodium exactly as white gold does: the same metal from the same bath, at the same thickness, gives the same mirror-white surface on both. A Dorvelle ring and the 14k white gold version of the same design, made by the same house, are the same color on the hand because the surface is the same rhodium. Sterling silver vs white gold covers what differs underneath.
When people send a piece in
There is no schedule for a refresh: people send a piece in before an anniversary, a wedding or a trip, once a year on a date they remember, or never, and the service is there whenever they want it.
What you do not have to do
A rhodium finished piece needs no silver dip, polishing compound or abrasive cloth, because those are made for bare silver and the surface here is rhodium. It wants a soft cloth, lukewarm water with a drop of mild soap, and the four habits in the care guide: on last, off for the pool and the gym, its own pouch, a glance at the prongs. How to clean sterling silver jewelry has the full method.
Yellow pieces
Yellow Dorvelle pieces are finished in gold vermeil, a layer of gold at least 2.5 microns thick over the sterling, and the same refresh service covers them. What is gold vermeil explains that finish.
| Rhodium (white) | Gold vermeil (yellow) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Platinum-group metal | Gold of at least 10 karat |
| Thickness rule | Hard mirror layer | At least 2.5 microns, by FTC rule |
| Also used on | White gold | Sterling silver only, by definition |
| Refresh | By mail, first free, then $45 | Same |
