September 28th, 2008 at 6:04pm |
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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July 25th, 2008 at 5:41am |
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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June 15th, 2008 at 7:13pm |
Whereas some costume jewellers of the late 20th century are happy to exploit artificial materials to create a contrived and sophisticated look, the dawn of a growing awareness of the value of natural products — like wood, paper and leather – means that strong references to all that is natural are now influential too.
Inseparable from [...]
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June 1st, 2008 at 12:42am |
Is an art in and of itself. The right pieces are a terrific fashion investment and will live in your wardrobe forever. Cheap and glitzy or real and elegant, the right piece can pull together your entire look.
Golden oldies, fabulous fakes can be inexpensive and just plain great! Big, bold pins, wild, dangling earrings, colorful [...]
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May 28th, 2008 at 12:46pm |
Spacers
Shell jewelry often looks better when the shells are separated by spacers, which can be turned ivory, wooden beads, nuts or seeds, or mother-of-pearl.
Pieces of mother-of-pearl (see below) can be turned on a lathe or made by cutting oblongs of pearl shell 2.5cm (lin) long by 6mm (tin) wide.
Make up two square wooden boards, about [...]
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May 20th, 2008 at 5:52am |
Twisted tissue jewels are bright and gay — and far more durable than such a fragile paper suggests. They are simple to make and it is fun creating designs. If you wish, of course, you can use purpose- bought tissue to make these boldly beautiful jewel effects. But, providing you have a colourful selection to [...]
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March 24th, 2008 at 12:51am |
Gold is a beautiful metal to work with. It has a special quality and really comes alive as it is bent, stretched and moulded into shape. Golds above 14 carat are both malleable and resiliant, and the quality of colour makes them unsurpassable.
Pure gold, like pure silver, is generally too soft to use for any [...]
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March 2nd, 2008 at 3:41pm |
Silver has almost as distinguished a history as gold. It was highly regarded in Ancient Egypt. In Ancient Greece it wasthe silver mines at Laurium that made Athens rich and paid for the Athenians’ long and eventually successful campaign against the Persians. To the Spanish conquistadores in South and Central America in the sixteenth century [...]
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