Since the 1950s, the charm bracelet’s made a lasting impact on the American scene. While this decade didn’t see the first charm bracelets in history, it became the must-have item for many women, teenagers, and little girls. Pair that trend with the glamour of Hollywood and the celebrity of the Rat Pack, and you pay [...]
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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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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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Papier-mâché literally means chewed paper. It’s a crafting technique that requires you to take a basic form (like a foil ball, a balloon, chicken wire form or just about anything else) and cover it with a mixture of paste and sculpting medium, usually newspaper. Papier-mâché is great for making lightweight sculptures and other items like [...]
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Like any papier-mâché project, you must create a form for your beads and pendants. Aluminum foil is an excellent choice for bead forms. It’s lightweight and easy for kids to work with.
Here’s how you create a basic foil form:
1. Take pieces of foil and wad them up. Start with roughly a 4-inch by 6-inch square [...]
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This project is great for the budding archaeologist in your family. I recommend using light brown and dark brown polymer clay mixed fairly well to simulate a piece of sedimentary rock.
Tools and Materials
Oven
Clay working tools (optional) Oven-safe glass container ounce light brown or tan polymer clay ounce dark brown polymer clay
One jump ring
20-inches of leather [...]
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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 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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Twenty-four goldsmiths worked continuously for six years to make the finely chiselled and richly ornamented Crown of the Andes from one massive gold nugget. This splendid jewel is adorned with 453 emeralds of a total weight of 1,521 carats. Today, each carat attains a valuation price of $3,000. After a long odyssey this treasure, estimated [...]
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We find enjoyment, it is true, in the agreeable green of grass and leaves, but incomparably greater is the pleasure of beholding an emerald; for its green is the most satisfying of all,” so Pliny extolled the aristocratic chieftain of the beryl family. Nevertheless, the reader has the feeling that even Pliny, despite his telling [...]
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