Hi teebaby,

I have been shopping JTV since 2000, and have purchased a beautiful collection of real gold jewelry! Jewelry Television, in fact, has the best prices on real gold jewelry anywhere! Just look for products that are described as "10k gold jewelry" and "14k gold jewelry." You will be surprised with how many gold jewelry items you can find at JTV for the SAME PRICE silver jewelry is at other stores.

Jewelry Television has added more and more plated jewelry for customers who may not want to spend $100 and up for gold. JTV has recently created their own brands of plated gold jewelry. The product descriptions will ALWAYS describe if the item is plated gold.

There are different kinds of gold plating for jewelry. When any metal (silver, sterling silver, brass) jewelry is plated with gold it can be called "gold plated" jewelry. This is a temporary, however, because with friction, wear, and time, gold plating will come off. Depending on how hard you are on your jewelry, the plating may last a lifetime or may last a year!

Some gold-plated jewelry is called "vermeil" -- it is different from jewelry products that are simply listed as gold-plated. In order to qualify to be listed as gold vermeil -- and not merely gold-plated metal -- the jewelry must meet certain industry requirements. The base must be sterling silver, the jewelry may not be coated with any other metal prior to the gold plating, and most important, the gold layer has to be 2.5 microns of 10-karat (or higher karat) gold.

JTV offers both "real gold " jewelry -- listed as 10k gold, 14k gold, or 18k gold -- and gold plated jewelry. Some gold plated jewelry qualifies to be legally called "vermeil" and has a standard of gold plating.

Personally, I prefer to purchase 10k gold because the prices at JTV are very affordable for real gold jewelry. If I do purchase "plated" jewelry, I chose to purchase jewelry plated with platinum rather than gold.

For jewelry making, I almost always purchase gold plated jewelry supplies because they are not available in 10k gold.

I do not purchase plain sterling silver jewelry because I do not like the tarnish silver develops. I occasionally buy silver if it is "platinum plated" because platinum plating keeps sterling silver from being exposed to the air and so it is less likely to develop tarnish. Also, platinum is a beautiful metal valued like gold, and platinum plated jewelry looks more expensive to the eye.

I'm including pics of the most recent "real" gold ring I purchased from JTV. It is an Ethiopian Opal and tanzanite 10k gold ring. I'm also including a pic of my most recent gold plated jewelry purchase, a Lucien Piccard men's rose gold plated over stainless steel watch. Although the rose gold is rich and has a good thickness, the base is stainless steel so the rose gold plating can not legally be called "vermeil" -- although it is still excellent quality!

Be sure to read products descriptions to get the jewelry you want! You can write the words "platinum plated" or "gold plated" or '10k gold" in the online search to browse the many different products JTV offers.

Have a great time shopping the thousands of real gold & plated gold jewelry products JTV offers!

I am not sure what you mean by member. JTV is available to everyone. There is no membership required. Whether you buy one thing or hundreds. Once you buy something you will get a customer number to aid with future purchases. We at JTV are a family not a club. Welcome.

Hi Sugarmom!

I would go to the heading jewelry on the website and then scroll thru the various options that are offered. When I put in animal jewelry women's in the jtv search engine, I came up with animal print jewelry but I also found a lion's head ring in the Greg Anthony collection when I did the former. It looks like you are going to have to "hunt" for your animals.

Also, you can always chat with a representative from JTV that pop up when you log on. The employees are the best, very friendly and helpful. Good luck with your search for the animal you want. You may want to check under charms also.

You should call customer service and find out for sure what they do with the stones,they are very helpful and they always work with the consumer,so they will be able to tell you,better than anyone before you send the package back with you stuff.Hope this help.