The History of Bracelets

Bracelet popularity dates back to the Roman times and continues today.

Roman bracelets shared many of the design patterns of necklaces and earrings from that era. The ever-popular ball earrings from that era were nicely matched with a ball style bracelet. Engraved bangles and snake bracelets were very popular during Roman times. Bracelets made of twisted coil with lion head ends were common place, as were the two part bracelets ending with a pair of lion heads. The Heracles knot bracelet is recognized as a Roman era piece. The Roman's were very creative in the designing of their jewelry. However they still borrowed from Greek motifs. Palmettos, fleeing dogs and acanthus leaves, all of Greek origin, were often seen in the designing of Roman jewelry.

Stones and glass were often used in Roman bracelets. Gemstones were commonly found set in eyes. Open bands were cut to represent a row of ivy and entwined with pearls. Many of the leaf and berry bracelets were heavily adorned with decorative glass. The wealthier women could be seen wearing bracelets layered in bezel set emeralds.

During the Georgian times bracelets remained popular. Paris jewelers were known for their gold bracelets set with pearl edging. After the 1820s coral became the “in” fashion statement, so bracelets and other jewelry were heavily set with coral. It was also very fashionable to wear many bracelets at once, including wide ribbon gold mesh bracelets, and silk ribbon bracelets. Gem and Diamond bracelets were designed in geometric patterns. Gold was heavily used during this era.

The Victorian era brought changes to the fashions of women, including jewelry styles. Earrings grew long and dangled, bracelets became rigid and were normally worn in pairs. The buckle bracelet became very fashionable.

The jewelry of the Victorian era expressed sentiment, and bracelets were no exception. Bracelets would contain lockets or charms with pictures or hair of a loved one, and engravings were common.

Early Victorian jewelry enjoyed some mystic with hidden meanings being popular. The acrostic bracelets where the first letter of each gemstone spelled a word of friendship were very popular. For example a bracelet set with Lapis, Opal, Vermeil [hessonite garnet] and Emerald would spell Love.

The Art Nouveau period once again saw changes to fashion and jewelry. Chameleons and serpents entwined themselves around bracelets. The mystical Egyptian scarab was found on bracelets and rings. Other popular creatures included dragonflies, butterflies, bees, peacocks, swans, and even bats. This was a very figural period attached to nature.

If jewelry did not depict creatures it depicted flower blossoms or flower buds.

From 1910 to 1939 women's fashions saw sleeveless or short sleeve dresses appear. The result was flexible bracelets and bangles worn on the upper arm. These arm bracelets were often adorned with gemstones or diamonds.

From 1940 to 1949 US designers were greatly influenced by the designs from the French house of Van Cleef & Arpels. Bracelets with ribbon of hexagon lines centered on fine gemstones fastened with heavy clasps became very vogue.

From 1950 to 1960 daytime saw simpler lines for not only gold bracelets but necklaces as well. Gold mesh or twisted wire bracelets were very popular.

From 1960 to 1970 bracelets became more flexible and were often set with gems. Bangles on the other hand became more rigid and were often seen set with random diamond placements.

From 1970 to 1979 bracelets were flexible and often set with tiny baguettes. Delicate and dainty bracelets were vogue.

From the 1980s to the present, bracelet fashions have been mixed and varied. Bracelet styles have become more of an individual fashion statement than a trend. Gold has always remained popular, as have gems, however sterling silver has become very popular and recognized for its versatility and wearability at affordable prices. In the last few years we've also seen an increase in demand for titanium bracelets.

Today a woman's fashion statement is about her! What she likes, what she feels good in. So your bracelet wardrobe can be what ever you want. Wear a dainty gem set gold bracelet or an armful of clunky bracelets, which is very vogue this season.

Your fashion statement is about who you are, so feel free to be you!

Contributed by Sher Matsen

Onyx: black magic

Onyx was very popular with the ancient Greeks and Romans. The name comes from the Greek word 'onyx', which means nail or claw. The story is that one day the frisky Cupid cut the divine fingernails of Venus with an arrowhead while she was sleeping. He left the clippings scattered on the sand and the fates turned them into stone so that no part of the heavenly body would ever perish. True, black isn't normally the colour one associates with fingernails. (Did Venus wear Vamp, perhaps?)

But in Greek times, almost all the colours of chalcedony from fingernail white to dark brown and black were called onyx. Later, the Romans narrowed the term to refer to black and dark brown colours only.

Throughout history, onyx has been thought to bring powers of protection, defensive magic, and the reduction of sexual desires. It has also been thought to reinforce the knowledge that there is no death, aiding in the understanding of the wheel of birth, death and rebirth. It brings about the knowledge that separation is an illusion and reunion will come. It aids psychic contact with those who have died, facilitates séances and mediumship, brings messages from the dead, and aids past-life and between-lives regression work. It helps future life progressions, and prevents and removes spirit possessions.

Contemporary authors say the onyx brings increased vigor, strength, stamina, and self control. It alleviates worry, tension, and nervousness and eliminates confusion and nightmares. It is used to provide glimpses of that which is ‘beyond’ and activates one’s memory of one’s roots and reality. Medicinal applications include the treatment of bone marrow diseases, teeth, foot, blood and bone problems, and soft tissue disorders. It is also believed to aid in ailments such as epilepsy or glaucoma and is known to have powers to rectify damage done to cells.

http://www.gemstone.org/

http://www.jewelsforme.com/

Pearls

The discovery that pearls could be cultivated in freshwater mussels is said to have been made in 13th-century China, and the Chinese have been adept for hundreds of years at cultivating pearls by opening the mussel's shell and inserting into it small pellets of mud or tiny bosses of wood, bone, or metal and returning the mussel to its bed for about three years to await the maturation of a pearl formation. Cultured pearls of China have been almost exclusively blister pearls.
The production of whole cultured pearls was perfected by the Japanese. The research that led to the establishment of the industry was started in the 1890s by Mikimoto Kokichi, who, after long experimentation, concluded that a very small mother-of-pearl bead introduced into the mollusk's tissue was the most successful stimulant to pearl production. Cultured pearls closely approximate natural pearls.

Fishing for Pearls in the Persian Gulf by Huyot

Although the pearl like all other jewels, has had its periods of extreme and general public favor, unlike other gems if it is once appreciated by an individual or a nation it is never utterly discarded by either. If not the fashion, pearls are always in fashion. Far as we can look back among the dim, uncertain figures of the mystic past whose shades stand where the unknown multitudes have fallen, we find pearls.The princes of India through all their genera tions, the dynasties of Egypt, the royalties of Persia, the wild chiefs of Arab tribes, the potentates of Greece, Rome and Venice, the houris of Turkey, the Queens of every European court, from the time they found a place in history until now, all wear pearls, at first thought this seems strange, for of all gems the origin of the pearl is most humble. No titanic forces, groaning in the travail of subterranean convulsions, crushed and ground and fired its particles to shape and beauty. It grew, a few fathoms deep, where the waters are at peace, in the embrace of a mollusk and out of its exudations. From this lowly parentage it rises at once to a place among the noblest, for it is the aristo crat of gems and finds its warmest admirers among the aristocrats of all nations. The favorites of fortune the world over in all ages have succumbed to the modest beauty of the pearl. Its ascendancy marks not alone the refinement of the individuals with whom it finds favor, but the high status of the nation where it is widely appreciated.

The pearl is the favorite of those who are surfeited with jewels. One may become tired of the diamond's splendor, but those who learn to appreciate the unobtrusive loveliness of the pearl, seldom lose that fondness for them which it develops. It is the one gem which does not satiate. The love of pearls usually marks a connoisseur of gems and one accustomed to the possession of jewels. Diamonds emblazon the gates of luxury but pearls are the familiars of the luxurious.

Glittering gems are admired by all classes but usually the pearl is fully appreciatedonly by old countries and persons " to the manor born." It is in the treasure-houses of the princes of the Orient and among the jewels of great and noble families that one must look for the pearls gathered during the centuries. Except in Italy and Arabia, where all classes prize them, the pearl is not a jewel of the people, but of the gentry and the very rich who come in con tact with them. It is essentially a jewel for the wealthy. Unostentatious, exquisite, it is insufficient for those who have no other jewels and unfit for common wear. Of a nature too delicate for rough usage, it must be well cared for and properly housed. Even then the hand of time bears heavily upon it for it is susceptible to many influences which do not affect other gems. Comparatively soft, the lustrous skin is injured by rough and careless contact with other jewels. The gold of the setting, in time, cuts into "the surface where it binds, or if it is pierced and strung, the rings of nacre about the orifices gradually peel away. Hot water injures it; gases discolor it. As the cheek of beauty grows dim with age, so gradually the brilliancy of youth fades from the pearl and the complexion of it is changed. And yet it retains a certain loveliness which may well be compared to the exquisite serenity with which the maturer years of some women are adorned.

The pearl, therefore, being essentially a jewel of the rich, is not affected as others by the whims of fashion. In Oriental countries, where the lives of the masses and what little property they hold are practically at the mercy of their rulers, the centuries make little change in con ditions and less in fashions. The nobles have always possessed the jewels of the various eastern countries and the fashion continues through generations and dynasties, to accumu late and hold them until some stronger power takes them away by force. As the people hammered heavy bracelets and anklets out of the precious metals, not alone for display, but also to hoard them, so their princes hoarded jewels. In the old times these hoards of the precious metals were periodically gathered by the requisitions of the princes on the people, and of jewels by the demands of a successful invader

Grace Kelly

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Het Meisje met de Parel) is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterworks and as the name implies, uses apearl earring for a focal point. The painting is in The Mauritshuis in The Hague. It is sometimes referred to as "the Mona Lisa of the North" or "the Dutch Mona Lisa".

Mystical power: Pearl is said to help one see themselves and help improve self-worth. As an emblem of modesty, chastity and purity, the pearl symbolizes love, success, and happiness.

(http://www.farlang.com)