Jewelry Lovers

Many people are fascinated with history. Whether it’s their own genealogical history, that of their town, or of ancient cultures across the world, many people want to feel a connection with the past. You can blend your jewelry-making hobby with an interest in history. Current trends in jewelry design use ancient components (like stones, beads, [...]

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Any arrangement of beads can work for these great home accents. Use crystals and pearls for understated elegance; bumpy lampwork beads for a touch of fun; or wood, bone, and shell for an earthy, natural feel.

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Wire wrapping is one of my favorite jewelry techniques for home decorating.
Photo Wine Charms
Wine charms are those little beaded strands that hook around your stemmed glasses. They serve to identify your glass when several people have the same glass at the same party. Often, a set of charms will share a theme, like wine [...]

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Brooches of the Twentieth Century
Platinum became a popular jewellery material in the early 1900s. The Edwardian used its pale colour to offset delicate shapes and the light hues of diamonds, pearls, peridots and aquamarines. In the early 1920s Cartier set jewellery with carved coloured gems to create a multicoloured effect often described as ‘fruit salad’. [...]

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Jewellery has been used for personal adornment, at least among the upper classes, for centuries. Styles and types have always gone in and out of vogue, leaving modern collectors with an enormous variety from which to choose.
The value of jewellry depends on several factors, ranging from the current fashions to the precious metals and gemstones [...]

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Jewellery made to symbolise or commemorate a person or event rather than simply to adorn is of historical interest and is often comparatively cheap.
Most early jewellery - and many pieces produced right up to the 20th century — served more than merely decorative purposes, embodying some theme, device or message in its design. Such jewellery [...]

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The color predominating at the time is reflected from the alexandrite. Thus it constitutes an extreme example of the so-called day-and-night stones, whose color appears different according to the lighting. It is consequently appreciated by connoisseurs who know its secret. It was discovered in the thirties of the last century on the slopes of the [...]

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Nature has conferred on zircon several quite outstanding optical properties which furnish brilliant-cut specimens with a particularly striking appearance. High adamantine luster and very vivid fire elevate zircon into the immediate proximity of diamond. Its specific gravity is unequalled by any other transparent gemstone. Its high refractive index of 1.95 and powerful color-dispersive ability of [...]

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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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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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