Silver Necklace plated in 3 layers 18K Rose Gold

925 Sterling Silver Necklace plated in 3 layers of 18K Rose Gold.

Gilding is a term for covering an object with a layer of real gold, it can also be called plating.
This method was already used in ancient Egypt to gild objects, another early example of a plated ornamental object is a gold-plated Buddha statue from 1st century China.

The gold coating we are talking about is thin and measured in microns (thousandths of a millimeter). A plating can be as thin as 0.5 microns (and as thick as up to 2.5 microns) – which is equivalent to 0.0005 millimeters. The extremely small amount of real gold used to plate a piece of jewelry does not affect the material composition (a gold-plated silver piece costs about the same as a regular silver piece).

When gold plating jewelry, different karats can be used, most often 14, 18 or 24. Caroline Bränfeldt has chosen 18K for her jewelry.
The gold is mechanically applied over 925 sterling silver, as in Caroline Bränfeldt's jewelry, but can also be applied to other types of metal such as brass or steel.
The thickness of the gilding, measured in microns, can also vary, Caroline Bränfeldt has a special method that can reach up to 5 microns. This method is secret and difficult to access as it is only available at one factory, with many years of waiting to be prioritized to become a supplier there.