Jewelry Lovers

The Bauhaus continued to influence art and design establishments throughout Europe, particularly in Britain and Holland, during this period. Designers searched for forms that would be minimalist, universal and democratic. Artists and craftsmen saw themselves as ‘pioneers who were liberating the world from the bonds of tradition’. Studio Crafts were established in art schools in [...]

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It was during the sixties that jewelry first ceased to be perceived as being solely for women. Jody Shields describes the way that the avant-garde idea of jewelry for men percolated through to the fashion market.
‘Fashion-conscious men tossed aside neckties in favour of necklaces. With that action, the man on the street joined the ranks [...]

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Wendy Ramshaw is an artist-jeweler who has been making jewelry since the late 1960s in a variety of precious and non-precious materials from paper, Perspex and wood to I8ct gold. She has stated recently that:
‘I enjoy looking at jewelry and I enjoy wearing jewelry. These are, in simple terms, the real reasons why I am [...]

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The rough piece is first of all reduced to the approximate size and then cut down on a circular saw impregnated with diamond bort. A wheel charged with carborundum is used for the coarse preparatory grinding, and fine cutting requires sandstone. The final stage is the polishing with tripoli on tin, lead, or felt laps, [...]

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Clear crystals make their impact through the magic of color, vividness of luster, and play of light. The enchantment of opaque ornamental stones is kindled by their colors and ravishing color schemes, as well as by the endless array of patterns resulting from their inexhaustible combinations and permutations. Tortuous bands, apparently fortuitously arranged circles, and [...]

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Certainly, it would be interesting for laymen, who probably in their earliest childhood first made acquaintance in fairytales with the magic world of gemstones, to study the role of these self-same stones in the folklore of countries, peoples, and times. However, it was intentional to keep the rational and purely scientific side of gemstones

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This new fashion-conscious era expanded the market for costume jewelry. Decorative and amusing ornamentation became an essential. Even Chanel had crept out of retirement to reinvigorate the market with ‘multi-layers of gilt, glass stones and pearls.’ Chanel-inspired Renaissance jewelry remained in vogue well into the sixties. Christian Dior’s jewelry designs during the fifties were increasingly [...]

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In the past, the jewelry trade had usually lagged behind the fashion industry by as much as 10 or 15 years. However, this time lag had begun decreasing with the introduction of mass-produced jewelry in the twenties and thirties, and by the end of the Second World War the jewelry trade was able to respond [...]

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The interest of the couturiers in costume jewelry had been initiated by Paul Poiret before the war, when he produced theatrical jewelry for Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. The bold, vivid Eastern silhouettes associated with this influential ballet were in stark contrast to the Art Nouveau styles of the time. Poiret later developed his range of costume [...]

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Very quickly novelty and trinket manufacturers began to produce copies of couturier costume pieces, which developed the market for fashion jewelry. America, in particular, was well placed to apply the new manufacturing techniques to the jewelry field, and where Paris had led the trend for costume jewelry, it was America that chiefly propagated it. Less [...]

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