Other jewelry findings
Ear-rings findings These are made for pierced and unpierced ears. Check that ear wires are made of sterling silver or gold to avoid inflammation of delicate ear lobes. Drop ear-ring findings usually incorporate a loop onto which bell cap and stone can be threaded direct, but you can add jump rings if you [...]
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To fix a jump ring
When your stone is firmly secured to its bell cap and the glue has thoroughly dried, open wide a suitable jump ring by twisting both ends of the ring sideways with two pairs of jewelry pliers. Now hook one end of the ring through the eyelet of the bell cap and, [...]
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This illustrates a representative cross-section of the findings to be found in lapidary and craft shops, and gives advice on deciding which findings are best suited to various sorts of stones.
Most shops sell findings for ear-rings, brooches, bracelets, necklaces, pendants, rings, tie clips and pins — almost any jewelry you may want to make — [...]
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Plastic is a lightweight material that comes in an exciting variety of forms and colours and is very easily worked. It is often considered solely as a substitute for materials such as glass, wood or metal but, in fact, it has properties that make it totally unique as a crafts material.
It is made up from [...]
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From ancient times, gemstones have been synonymous with folklore and legend since every stone is believed to have its own magical property. Even today, stones are still worn as amulets in India to fend off disease. Stones were traditionally divided into two categories — precious and semi-precious — but today both groups come under the [...]
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The list of transparent stones which have been faceted and set in jewellery is endless, and many of them are unlikely to come the way of the majority of members of the public. There are, however, a number that warrant a mention, and they are grouped together in this section.
Peridot
Oscar Wilde described the green of [...]
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Birthstones have ancient origins and even today wearing your birthstone is thought to bring luck. Particular gems were in earlier times connected to the twelve zodiacal periods though they are now ordered into calendar months; this has resulted in some discrepancies between different jewellers’ lists of birthstones, but they have been standardized as follows. Alternatives [...]
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It was subsequently found that the mineral spinel could also be produced in the same way as synthetic corundum. There was, however, no great demand for spinel, so a range of coloured materials was produced from it imitating aquamarine, tourmaline, diamond and even alexandrite with its characteristic colour change. A distinction is made in the [...]
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Aquamarine
This is another stone which increases dramatically in value the better the colour. The colour of many aquamarines is very negative, a wishy-washy pale blue, but there are strong sky blue stones, such as those that came from the now worked out Santa Maria Mine in Brazil, which are truly beautiful. As with any coloured [...]
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The most important of the beryls is the emerald, but this family includes the sea blue or pale green aquamarine and the pink morganite as well as the yellow and pale brown beryls. Green beryls are distinguished by gemmologists from emeralds because they contain none of the chromium which gives emerald its grass green colour. [...]
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