Pattern in jewellery is almost always texture, and texture has a volume. Knowing which is loud and which is quiet is the difference between a piece you wear weekly and a piece you wear to one wedding. Pavé is the quietest of the four despite being the most expensive, because a field of tiny stones reads at a distance as a soft glow rather than as detail. Woven and braided metal is the next quietest, since the pattern is the same colour as the piece and only shows in raking light. Twisted rope is louder, because the spiral creates a repeating highlight that the eye follows. Hammered metal is the loudest of all, and the least predictable, since every dent throws light in a different direction. None of this makes hammered wrong. It makes it a choice you make deliberately rather than by accident. The practical version of the rule is that you can wear as much pavé as you like, and one hammered piece is usually the ceiling.

The mistake is wearing two loud textures in the same place. A twisted rope hoop next to a hammered cuff on the same side of the body sets up a competition, and both pieces lose. Put distance between loud textures, or use only one. Pavé is the exception. It sits happily against anything, including other pavé, because it has no directional highlight to clash with. There is also a metal question worth naming. Texture behaves differently in yellow gold and in silver. Yellow gold has enough warmth that a hammered surface still reads as one object. Silver is cooler and more reflective, so the same hammering reads as many small flashes and can look busy. If you are nervous, buy texture in gold and buy plain in silver. On care, textured surfaces hold everything. Skin oil, soap, hand cream. A soft brush and warm water once a month keeps a woven or hammered piece looking like metal rather than looking dull.

Texture is the most underrated way to make plain jewellery interesting, and it is also where a lot of money gets wasted on pieces that photograph beautifully and wear badly. Hammered metal is the main offender. It looks extraordinary in a product shot and it collects grime in every dent, and unless you are prepared to clean it, it goes grey. Woven and braided pieces are the safest buy in this group. They read as texture, they are structurally solid, and they hide wear rather than showing it. Pavé is worth the money if you wear it constantly and worth nothing if you do not, because the pleasure is entirely in the daily glimpse. We would not buy twisted rope as a first textured piece. It is the one most likely to feel dated. If you take one thing away, own one loud texture and let everything else be plain.