Titanium Rings – alternative to overpriced gold

With the gold price rocketing, titanium rings have become a fantastic alternative to gold wedding rings and platinum wedding rings. Even silver rings are now an expensive purchase. Jewellery like bushman rings in silver, that used to be inexpensive, are now more than many people can afford.

Titanium, gold and composite

Titanium rings on the other hand have held their value, while not increasing in price. Men especially are turning to this unique metal because of its hardness, beauty and low cost.

White South African men are not great jewellery wearers – preferring understated rings with simple lean lines. Black men, on the other hand, like stylish, bold designs. Titanium offers both – and at a great price.

Titanium rings for men are easy to wear, can be abused and knocked around – and they will last forever. They may pick up fine scratches – but they will not wear out like gold, and will retain their shape in any conditions.

The main jewellery center in Africa must be Johannesburg. With thousands of jewellery shops around South Africa the choices may seem enormous. But once you start looking you will see that the industry is fairly small – most of the jewellery being imported and the rest made by a dwindling pool of goldsmiths who ply their trade in South Africa.

Red and yellow gold celtic ring

Silver bangle - African design

Competition is stiff – imported jewellery is cheaper than locally made gold jewellery as labour in South Africa has it;s challenges. This is unfortunate as we produce a large portion of the worlds gold. Local South Africans have a distorted idea that imported means quality – while this may be true for a number of items it is unfair to paint the whole picture with one brush. South African goldsmiths are highly trained and are able to manufacture almost any handmade design. The challenge of course comes with mass produced jewellery – which most of the imported jewellery is. We cannot compete with the Chinese on labour price – and we cannot compete with Europe on mass production equipment. But we can be “South Arican jewellery designers“!

It would see that South African jewellers have a problem developing their own style – it is often easier to copy styles that come in from overseas – the reason this happens is that a “make what sells” mentality seems to be the norm. Local retailers seem to balk at stocking original local jewellery design – thinking for some reason that European is better. Pity – South African jewellers have a lot to offer -  maybe not on the mass produced side – but certainly with handmade original designs!