Metal Dilemma

Well I haven't had time to blog for a bit - we're in the midst of preparing for the Holiday Season right now and it gets pretty crazy.

But prepping for holiday brings an issue to mind: the price of Gold. Gold is running about $1400 an ounce right now, which makes a real challenge for jewelers: At that price, it's near-impossible to make decent, affordable jewelry using a lot of gold. Essentially, jewelry makers face three choices:

1) Use Silver, sometimes accented with Gold, which allows a nice well-crafted piece of jewelry at an affordable price.

2) Use 10K gold and design creatively to minimize the use of metal - hollow out the back-side of rings, use thinner settings for earrings, thinner chains for pendants, etc.

3) Design heavier, more substantial 14K Gold jewelry and the price is...the price...

What's your take? I'd love to hear from folks about how they would solve this dilemma, what they think about it, whether they'd rather pay extra for solid gold jewelry, etc.