Yofair name necklaces

Nameplates cut from a single sheet in cursive or in bubble letters, a bar pendant engraved along its length with a date or a set of coordinates, a plate with a heart cut into the tail of the name, a birth flower standing beside it, and an Arabic nameplate. Eighteen carat gold plate over stainless steel, or 925 sterling silver.

Start with the name, not the metal. The plate is ten millimetres tall whatever is written on it and takes up to fifteen characters, so length runs sideways: a nine-letter name is a noticeably wider pendant than a four-letter one, and it hangs better on the eighteen or twenty inch chain than on the fourteen. Two capitals in the middle of a name are the ones that go wrong most often, so type it the way it is spelled and read it back before the order goes in. Then the metal. Gold plate over steel is the warm one and the one most of this shelf is sold in; sterling silver is the cool one and dulls rather than wearing thin, so a cloth brings it back. What those words are allowed to mean is not our opinion: the federal guides for the jewelry trade let a piece be called "gold plated" only where the plating is durable and the karat is stated with it, and reserve "sterling silver" for 925 parts of silver in a thousand. If someone in your house reacts to costume metal, the dermatologists have a list of the metals that are least likely to cause trouble, and it is worth reading before a present is chosen rather than after.

• Yofair Name Necklace
• Yofair Bar Necklace
• Yofair Birth Flower Gifts