Posts Tagged ‘Art Jewelry’
The Fascinating History of Jewelry
Man has always loved to be adorned with jewels. This led to jewelry developing as an industry. Jewelry is an ornament, for personal adornment. The word jewelry is an anglicized form of the Latin word, jocale which means plaything history says that about 40,000 years back, the first jewelry was worn by the Cro-Magnons, ancestors of Homo sapiens. Their jewelry included crude necklaces and bracelets made of bone, teeth and stone stitched to animal sinew. Recently excavated 100,000 year-old beads, made from Nassarius shells, are considered to be the oldest known jewelry.
Jewelry, earlier, was made for practical uses such as pinning of clothes together. Nowadays it is used not only for decoration but is also considered as a status symbol. There are different types of jewelry made today. New variations like art jewelry is known for its artistic ingenuity. Art here is valued more than the material. Inexpensive costume jewelry, made from inferior materials and the wire sculpture, made from either base metal wire and stones or precious metals and gemstones, are the other contemporary jewelry of present times.
Many pieces of jewelry, such as brooches were originally made for functional purposes are also symbolic. The Christian Cross or the Jewish Star is indicative of the religious faith that one follows. Married couples sport wedding rings.
In Ancient Egypt jewelry was first made around 3,000 to 5,000 years back. The Egyptians adored the shine, rarity, and workability of gold. The Egyptians had accumulated abundant gold from the deserts of Africa and later acquired more as tributes from captured kingdoms. In Egypt, jewelry soon symbolized power. The affluent class wore it not only in their lifetime but also after death, those were buried with them.
In Mesopotamia, jewelry was manufactured from metal inlaid with bright-coloured stones like agate, lapis, carnelian, and jasper. Their favourite shapes were leaves, spirals, cones, and bunches of grapes. It was created both to adorn humans and statues.
In Greece most of the jewelry was made of gold, silver, ivory, gems, bronze and clay. Later they adopted Asian designs following Alexander`s conquests. Initially influenced by European designs, the advent of the Roman rule in Greece, by 27 BC, brought significant changes.
Though influenced by Roman culture indigenous designs survived. The most common ornament of ancient Rome was the brooch, used to secure their flowing clothes together. They used gold, bronze, bone, glass beads and pearl. About 2,000 years back, they imported sapphires from Sri Lankan and diamonds from India. Emeralds and amber were used too.
The Italians earlier created clasps, necklaces, earrings and bracelets from crude gold. Even large pendants to store perfume were made. Known as the eastern successor of the Romans, the Byzantine Empire continued the Roman tradition though religious symbols became predominant. The people of Byzantine preferred light gold ornaments richly inlaid with gems. jewelry was mainly worn by wealthy ladies while men restricted themselves to a signet ring.
India has the longest continuous tradition of jewelry making. Around 1,500 BC the Indus Valley people made their earrings and necklaces of gold, beads other metals. Womenfolk wore clay and shell bracelets, usually painted black and loved tiaras, chokers, brooches and ear rings .Gradually, clay was replaced by glass and metals.
Jewelry had various functions to serve. Its main purpose, in ancient times, was to ward off evil. People have paid dowries with jewelry. It was also created to be used as currency for trading goods, evident from the use of slave beads. It also was a distinguishing mark between the ruler and the ruled. Asset value is still a consideration today.
Broken Dreams Recreated
Freda Zeh’s newest art jewelry creations. Please visit her Facebook page or contact fredazeh@gmail.com to post feedback and/or questions.
Jewelry & Art By Cynthia Van Horne Ehrlich
Jewelry & Art I have for sale.
Search Online for the Art Jewelry That You Would Like to Make Yours Forever
Since time immemorial people are fond of jewelry and the craze for jewelry is unlikely to diminish in the near future. There are several reasons why the whole world seems to be mad about jewelry. No doubt they look beautiful, enhance and accentuate the personality of the wearer but also represent the wealth and power of an individual. The desire for innovation, passion and fantasy has motivated designers to bring constant variations in the jewelry. And one such modern innovation is art jewelry.
Art jewelry is unique, handcrafted piece of jewelry, visualized and designed by the artist with all the technical elements and aesthetics that carry it across the line into the sphere of fine art. This form of jewelry is created with an array of materials that includes glass, wood, plastics, gems, precious stones, beads, crystals, metal, polypropylene, nylon, acrylic and clay. In the recent years it has created a large following and the demand for art jewelry is increasing with each passing day.
Art jewelry speaks volumes about the wearer’s personality. The most significant difference between mass produced jewelry and art jewelry is evident in the terms of design. The more the artist remains involved to the creative process, the better the art jewelry will be. Art jewelry is in much demand because they are extremely elegant and trendy. Art galleries and even online stores are great place to search unique handmade art jewelry. So just go ahead and sit at your computer to choose the exquisite and stunning art jewelry that you would like to make yours forever.
Stainless Steel Art World (4) – Stainless Steel Jewelry
Stainless steel jewelry has the added advantage of being a more rugged alloy than gold or silver as it is nearly indestructible. Stainless steel jewelry is naturally hypo-allergic.
Stainless steel jewelry’s rise to fame and popularity is not really surprising; primarily because of the price difference between stainless steel jewelry and a lot of the other jewelry types that are sold in dominant market share positions today.
There is no doubting in nowadays for owning a piece of stainless steel jewelry is just in fashion, and it does not seem to make any difference which part of the world it is, stainless steel jewelry has become a big hit in many countries, the pursuing for this trend is universal. Stainless steel jewelry is cheaper than gold jewelry and it is most definitely cheaper than silver jewelry, so what you are going to find ultimately is that the stainless steel jewelry has become so popular first and foremost because it presents a cheaper alternative to materials that are already set in the market such as gold and silver.
More so than that however, what makes stainless steel jewelry the new silver is that it appears to have impacted society in the same way that silver jewelry did when it was originally introduced. It used to be that a piece of silver jewelry was gawked over the whole evening by friends and relatives, but now what people are finding is that their stainless steel jewelry pieces are starting to receive the same attention! For example, a relative might be so surprised that the jewelry piece is actually made of stainless steel that they need to examine it further. People have encountered this at parties when they wear stainless steel jewelry and the end result appears to be that having stainless steel jewelry is now a status symbol; just like silver has been all along.
Stainless steel jewelry is the choice of everyone and from teenagers that wish to make a style statement to adults who need something special to look more appealing, there is much to be said in favor of jewelry and stainless steel jewelry is not an exception even though it does not use silver or diamonds or even gold in it. The advantage to using stainless steel jewelry is that it is not as expensive as the ones made from precious metals and thus its popularity has grown of late.
Stainless steel jewelry allows you to make use of a very fundamental property of stainless steel and that is its versatility, which means that it suits different needs of different people who may want their jewelry to do for them different things. Thus, where diamond, gold and silver jewelry is only useful for looking showy and plated jewelry lacks in being an adornment that will look good and expensive, stainless steel jewelry is something that is useful under all conditions and thus has more utility and so will make for a very appropriate gift as well.
Whether stainless steel jewelry replaces silver is definitely to be debated, but the indications is definitely that the replacement scenario is a strong possibility; something that would make stainless steel jewelry the new silver.
Once you have decided on owning stainless steel jewelry or want to gift it to someone you will immediately realize that this type of jewelry does not require much maintenance as is the case with the precious metal jewelry pieces which require frequent polishing, and there is also no question of smudging this particular form of jewelry. Now, once you realize the lack of maintenance needs and non-smudging qualities of stainless steel jewelry you can gift it to others sure that you are not burdening the recipient with something that will cause them inconvenience.
Another reason why stainless steel jewelry makes for an ideal gift that can suit different occasions is that it is very good when it comes to wear and tear of the jewelry. When considering jewelry made from precious metals, there is always the lurking fear of over using the jewelry, which because stainless steel is an alloy and thus very durable is not the case with stainless steel jewelry. Thus, when you gift stainless steel jewelry you can be sure that the recipient can wear it whenever the desire arises and there is no worry with regard to ruining it either.
Mr. Peter Skubic is man who could hardly be ignored in the jewelry art history in Europe, he was acted as a special jewelry professor in the Cologne Institute of Technology. When traditional gold jewelry are still absolutely dominant in European in the 1960s and 1970s, he boldly got rid of the traditional restrictions, and use stainless steel, a kind of material that never been used in traditional jewelries, he used this material and displayed it as a main theme, as to reveal the special quality and colors of stainless steel, he want to reflect the material’s aesthetic value instead of the material’s itself value, thus to found a new visual angle of art jewelry.
Skubic’s works have simple styles, distinct masculine qualities emitted from their bodies naturally, it reflected a simplification process of the abstract aesthetics.
Finally, the cost of stainless steel jewelry is such that you can afford it and since it does not cost as much as gold or silver, it means you can wear it at any time without needing to worry about the consequences and thus you get more pleasure from owning it. All that you need to do is change your mindset and get used to this novel kind of jewelry that is virtually indestructible and which is carefully made through carving of steel into any type of design, and which does not tarnish either thus making it.
As a sort of future material, stainless steel’s special cool qualities could not only give jewelries more style feelings, also could stand the test of time and ever young.
Art Nouveau Jewelry
http://QualityVintageEngagementRings.com – Art Nouveau jewelry is the perfect way to show some style and personality in your jewelry. Art Nouveau engagement rings are more than pieces of jewelry, they are works of art. Watch this video to learn more about Art Nouveau rings.
Art Jewelry – Drilling Into Metal
Art Jewelry magazine associate editor Addie Kidd shows you how to drill into metal. Visit www.artjewelrymag.com/howto for more information and videos.
Hooky hammer forged copper, silver neckpiece art jewelry by Tara Wangchuk
“Hooky” hammer forged copper or silver neckpiece by Tara Wangchuk
This is my original design and work. My jewelry has been in galleries and fine stores for years. Enjoy looking at these- Wearing of three metals is said to have healing properties. The spiral in many of my pieces is symbolic of expansive universal energies- sacred to many traditions as well as in nature. Please remember they are intellectual property of the artist as I respect the originality of others- I celebrate the originality of others! rinpoche1000@hotmail.com for more information and availability. Also different kinds of my jewelry http://picasaweb.google.com/rinpoche1000



