22kt vs. 18kt Gold
The History of High-Karat
Gold doesn’t rust, tarnish, or fade. It’s one of the few materials that survives almost unchanged across millennia—soft enough to shape by hand, strong enough to outlast empires. We love the warm glow of 22kt gold. We also love how it carries a deeper kind of value rooted in endurance, skill, and cultural memory.
Across time and geography, 22kt gold has been the standard in many of the world’s great jewelry traditions. From India and Persia to the Sahel, Mesopotamia, and Central Asia, high-karat gold was shaped into ritual objects, heirlooms, dowries, and everyday adornment. In these places purity was essential. Techniques like granulation, stone setting without prongs, and hand embossing rely on gold that’s soft and malleable. Modern industrial alloys, like 18kt, are too rigid for these older, hand-driven methods.
As goldsmiths began creating more intricate ornaments and objects intended for daily use, they sought greater strength without losing gold’s natural radiance. Alloys offered the answer. By combining pure gold with small amounts of other metals, artisans discovered that 18-karat gold preserved the metal’s warmth and color while gaining the durability needed for finer, more complex work. Not until the Classical and Medieval periods did this composition became standard across workshops from Europe to the Middle East to Asia, refined through centuries of shared experimentation.
The difference between 22kt and 18kt isn’t just about numbers (91.6% vs. 75% gold). It’s about intent. 22-karat gold trusts the maker as the softness of the gold invites skill. It demands that the final form come from the artisan’s hand, not a machine.
We love how even within 22kt, there’s nuance. A little more silver, a touch more copper—and the color shifts. Some 22kt gold glows saffron-yellow, some leans warmer, or slightly green. These aren’t flaws, but signatures. A reflection of each workshop’s lineage, formula, and touch.
To us, this variation is part of the story. At a time when much of the industry chases speed, uniformity, and “sleekness,” we embrace the imperfection of faint solder lines, slight tonal shifts, and hand-cut edges. These are signs that a real person made your jewelry. That the piece was coaxed into form and not stamped from a mold.
Choosing 22kt is a choice to preserve tradition. It allows us to collaborate with master artisans whose skills have been passed down since antiquity. These techniques belong to goldsmithing cultures across the world that have shaped history, but are often overlooked by mainstream luxury that favors 18-karat and 14-karat.
Gold has always traveled. It has crossed borders, exchanged hands, marked rituals, and outlived dynasties. It holds both value and memory. When you wear 22kt gold from Iaia Caravan, you’re not just wearing a beautiful object. You’re carrying a material that remembers—and honors—a longer story.