Premium Thick Gotland Armring, Gold

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This ultra-premium Viking armring is made of fine silver, plated with a thick, 5 micron layer of 24 carat gold. Based on a find from Lye, Gotland it is for true connoisseurs of Viking Age art, who appreciate historical authenticity and the tremendous work that goes into crafting a massive piece like this.

The extremely thick, prominent piece has been wholly handmade according to ancient Viking silversmithing techniques with scrupulous attention to details. With so many different components, it is a very complicated process that takes a week's worth of work and absolute top level craftsmanship to finalize. Several thick wires are forged tightly together with thinner filigree wires to create a tightly woven piece that ends in dragon heads from Gotland. As the number of wires used increase, so does the difficulty level and there isn’t room for a single mistake during the silversmithing process. Few have the skill to craft them, which makes complicated armrings like this quite rare.

The finished armring is gilded with a 5 micron thick 24 carat gold plating.

Link to original find: Swedish History Museum

About Gold Plating

Gold plating existed already during the Viking Age, when it was a sign of true power and success.

There are two ways of modern-day gold plating: flash plating and micron plating. Flash plating basically just quickly recolors a piece of jewelry, which is a poor choice for a long-lasting option.  Micron plating is something completely different. 1 micron gold plating can generally be considered good quality in comparison with flash plating. 

This piece of jewelry is made with 5 (!) micron gold plating. As a comparison - that's what many church items are plated with.

How long will the plating last

This is a difficult question to answer. How fast the plating wears off will ultimately depend on you and your lifestyle, so do what you can to get the most out of your gold plating. Here are some basic rules:

- Take your jewelry off during manual labor, or when you need to do something that requires a lot of work with your hands.

- Take it off when sleeping.

- Take it off when swimming or showering.

- Take it off when cleaning (chemicals from cleaning products will eat away at gold)

- Take if off when cooking.

- Do not subject it to constant abrasion.

-  Wipe your jewelry down with a soft cloth after a day of wear, and make sure to store it in a proper location. Some people sweat a lot and have varying levels of acid in their sweat. These need to be wiped off.