Archive for the ‘jewelry’ Category:
Turquoise Jewelry
If you were born in December your birthstone is turquoise, a gem created from copper and aluminum whose color is appropriately a turquoise hue. The color turquoise can usually be described as a sort of bluish green mixture, but when we describe it such we’re talking about the most common and generic type of turquoise that most people are familiar with. Low value kinds of turquoise tend to have pale blue or have their surfaces contaminated with green or yellow color. They are also softer, more easily broken and unpolished in appearance. The rarest and most valuable turquoise actually comes in more of a polished deep robin’s egg blue color and has an extremely hard surface. The value of turquoise can be determined quite easily by how it looks and feels, and it’s hard, deep blue turquoise that’s used in fine turquoise jewelry.
Turquoise jewelry has been worn and valued for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptian royalty wore turquoise jewelry even to their burial tombs and the Native Americans used turquoise for many purposes such as religious ceremonies and trading. Turquoise jewelry was valuable in a spiritual way as well as in a monetary sense. The fact that we call this gemstone “turquoise” may have specifically arisen from the Turks who brought it to Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean, but turquoise was and is relevant to various cultures across continents. Many people considered turquoise to be a stone of vitality that could help alleviate disease and promote harmony. As a result, it was used extensively in jewelry and art carvings, it was used in trade, and it was even ground into a powder and ingested as medicine for stomach aches and internal bleeding.
Today, turquoise is still considered valuable and turquoise jewelry is a popular choice of accessory, ranging from simple trinkets to elaborate and authentic pieces. They can come in different styles like more traditional Native American and Asian-influenced items, or modern and contemporary turquoise jewelry. Turquoise jewelry is widely available—you can find it at your local jeweler or you can browse through countless turquoise jewelry catalogs online. If you’re looking for more contemporary jewelry like a trendy necklace or ring, you’ll probably be more likely to find it at the local jeweler, while the internet is full of many novelty selections like Native American charms that you would be hard pressed to find at a public store, but there are still many contemporary selections online as well.
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Make Your Own Jewelry Making Kits
Jewelry making is a hobby that not everyone can do, as it takes a lot to time, concentration and imagination, but it can be fun if you have the time and love to create new things that you can use or give away as gifts. There are many types of jewelry making kits out there that you can buy for yourself, or you can buy them for someone else as a gift. What can be even more fun is to buy the items that you have found the most useful to put in kits to give away as gifts. Even if someone has never made jewelry before, they may love to get a kit and start out on their own.
If you want to put together your own jewelry making kits for adults or kids, you have to know a bit about making jewelry, but you certainly do not have to be a professional jewelry maker, or even do it that often for that matter. You just have to know the basics and what a person has to do to get started. You can make jewelry making kits out of the very same items that you found that you needed when you first started. If you used a kit, you probably remember what you thought should have been included and perhaps what was left out that you would have found useful. This information will be very helpful while you are putting together kits.
You are always going to need some types of tools for making jewelry. The basics are what most people use for any level of jewelry making. There are different sizes of wire cutters out there and it pays to include a few different ones. A small flashlight might be a nice touch, and pliers of a few different sizes work well for jewelry making kits as well. A metal nail file is a good idea too. There are more advanced tools out there for making intricate or hard to make jewelry that you can buy if you are getting something for someone who is not new to jewelry making.
What you want to include in your jewelry making kits in the way of stones and other items greatly depends. Everyone likes something different. There are hundreds if not thousands of different options out there for the main parts of the jewelry so you can go with what you think someone will like. Do not forget to get the wire and chains needed, as well as the other pieces you may need like earring bases and the like. Again, just get what you think someone would use and enjoy, and what would be easier to use when first starting out if the recipient is a novice.
If you want to make jewelry making kits for kids, you do not have to buy all of the same tools. Young girls will especially enjoy these types of kits so they can make necklaces and bracelets on their own using their own imaginations. You can get the string and plastic cord along with safe scissors and all types of beads for their kits. These are cheaper and easier to make, and will be greatly appreciated for Christmas, birthdays, or for any other occasion in which you would give a gift.
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Tags: jewelry making kits
Fill your jewelry box with chic period, modern and ethnic silver costume jewelry!
With the price of gold soaring, few of us can afford to stock our jewelry ‘wardrobes’ with such pricey pieces. You may recall the recent TV ads inviting you to “turn your unwanted gold jewelry into cash”. Many people did just that – probably not because the jewelry was no longer wanted, but because of the significant amount of cash it fetched. However, women love jewelry. How can you replenish or refurbish your jewelry your jewelry box at an affordable price? Well, it’s time to think outside the box. Silver costs just a fraction of the price of gold. Silver costume jewelry can make a fabulous change in your signature look.
The term, silver costume jewelry, is somewhat of a misnomer. When we think of costume jewelry, it’s generally in the context of pieces designed for casual wear, more cute than glitzy. The main difference between silver and gold jewelry is that gold is usually set with precious or semi-precious stones: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires – you get the picture – costly indeed, whereas silver jewelry is typically set with less precious, but nonetheless attractive, stones, such as carnelian, onyx, turquoise and jade, which rely on muted tones with a natural look and innovative design for their elegant and stunning effect. So perhaps the ‘costume’ in silver costume jewelry is more of a status thing that’s now run its course.
You should take full advantage of this current misnomer attributed to silver jewelry, now! Shop the crafts fairs for original handcrafted silver jewelry in both modern and period designs. A hammered silver necklace and matching earrings, inlaid with turquoise and carnelian may be worn with a fine wool dress for maximum chic. Period designs, such as a Renaissance styled bracelet or ring studded with garnets makes another elegant addition to your jewelry box.
Native American jewelry craftsmen are masters of the silver costume jewelry genre. Shop online at Native American websites, or in local shops to find gorgeous examples of this ethnic jewelry, absolutely stunning – and reasonably priced. Watchbands are an especially ornate and attractive example of an out-of-the-ordinary piece of silver jewelry.
Shop eBay, thrift stores and estate sales as well. Keep your eyes open and you’ll find some exquisite and unique pieces you’ll be proud to wear.
Be a trendsetter – shop the silver costume jewelry markets and be ahead of the fashion curve – as more people discover this chic solution to the “I can’t afford gold” problem, the prices will go up and the ‘costume’ designation will be dropped! Of course, by then, you’ll have a very nice collection of silver jewelry.
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