Cheap hip hop jewelry may seem like a contradiction in terms but it should come as no surprise that in their zeal to follow the hip hop style, regular people with down home budgets spend big money on cheap hip hop jewelry. By cheap I mean inexpensive materials and workmanship used to make the larger than life hip hop jewelry pieces that won't break the bank. You could call them reproductions in a manner of speaking but this market is so large that there are many unique hip hop jewelry items with novel style that are created in non-precious materials using glue as a setting material instead of metal prongs. Although technically not real hip hop jewelry the pieces are still hip hop jewelry that is wearable and made to look and feel quite similar to the real thing. The choice of metal is the first step in creating hip hop jewelry on the cheap.
The most popular inexpensive metal used for cheap hip hop jewelry is sterling silver with a rhodium plate of a couple of microns to give it the pure white look. White gold goes through a similar process to turn it from a dingy yellow to gleaming white so rhodium plated silver looks just like white gold all things considered. The only thing that silver lacks is the heft of it's precious brethren karat white gold and platinum. Sterling silver may also be plated with yellow gold to make it look like gold. This metal is called vermeil and even though the gold layer is not more than 5 microns thick it still has that lustrous buttery yellow look like real yellow gold. Other metals used to make cheap hip hop jewelry include stainless steel, pewter, and other base metals. These alloys take well to polishing and buffing with a finished look very close to white and yellow gold. The other element that gives cheap iced out jewelry its visceral look is in the choice of stones used to mimic the "blinginess" of diamonds.
The most common material used to give the look of diamond is cubic zirconia. Cubic zirconia has been in commercial production since 1976. Because of its low cost, durability, and likeness to diamond it remains the crystal of choice when jewelry calls for a diamond look without the diamond price. It is also much harder than most minerals. Current commercial production yields crystals that are pure white in color and virtually flawless making cubic zirconia a very good substitute for diamonds in cheap iced out jewelry. At commercial wholesale costs ranging from a dollar to several dollars a carat it is simply a matter of choosing the quality needed as there are varying qualities available depending on the manufacturer. The way these stones are set also matters to the overall look of the piece.
Of course it would not make sense to pay lots of money to master diamond pave setters to set a dollar a carat cubic zirconias into silver or some other base metal. It makes far more sense to have this manufacturing done in Thailand, China or India where this work can be done at a fraction of the price in the US. Also, this type of setting work does not involve meticulous reworking of the stone seats and the manual bending of each prong over a stone. More often glue is used to hold the stones in and prongs are given a cursory once over just to get them in position. Painstaking labor cannot be used to fashion a piece that will sell for from twenty dollars to a couple hundred dollars.
So this is how hip hop jewelry can be made for your everyman at a selling price that is easy on the budget but with a look that can be quite close to the real thing. Materials and workmanship are the two main contributors to hip hop jewelry costs. By using materials such as sterling silver and cubic zirconia in lieu of precious metals and stones, low priced blinged out jewelry becomes not only possible but can be quite fabulous looking in its own right. The use of inexpensive Asian labor and inexpensive fabrication, setting, and finishing processes allow jewelers to sell amazing looking hip hop jewelry at a bargain price. Cheap hip hop jewelry allows for everyone to have the rap star look of triumph without the deep sacrifice of thousands of dollars.
Hip hop jewelry made from silver and imitation stones probably keeps more jewelry factories in China in business that you'd care to imagine. Everyone can have the iced out look on the cheap and still create attitude. Find out how to do this if you're on a budget and need great quality real looking but cheap hip hop bling . Hi I'm Theodore G and I've been a hip hop jewelry lover since the 80s. Also check out my post on black diamond iced out jewelry for tips on how to shop for black diamond hip hop jewelry.
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