The Beading Gem

Jewelry is not necessarily all about expensive material like gemstones or precious metals. Prehistoric people used whatever they had available or could trade for, like shells (the world's oldest beads) piercing and stringing them into jewelry.

This playful bracelet was created for a second year exam by Amy Furniss of South Africa, a student studying jewelry design (lucky girl!). Her funky bracelet was made from various resin shapes, plastic buttons and even ballet tutu material, linked together with sterling silver jump rings. The layered tutu material was an unusual choice and being different is what makes a piece of jewelry unique. Amy is right - the type of jewelry we wear speaks volumes about our personalities. She has just started a blog which you can see here.

Photo with kind permission from Amy.

If I had to pick a gemstone that caught the fancy of many beaders, then it would be bronzite, a form of the mineral enstatite. Bronzite is well named as it has a sub-metallic lustre due to the presence of ferrous (iron)oxide. The correct name for bronzite is actually altered enstatite but this gemstone deserves a more attractive moniker.

The bronzite tiles in my collection were large and only suitable for larger jewelry pieces such as this necklace. But Carol was pleased to see the new smaller tiles from Widget's Beads as they were just perfect for earrings. Carol added pewter beads and topaz coloured seed beads on either side of the tiles. The resulting earrings are unique and definitely a conversation piece with Carol's co-workers.

Beader Design #117
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This clever bracelet embodies the twin design goals of form and function. It is a both a sleek piece of jewelry as well as a cell phone. Why carry a phone when you can wear it? It's also a great product for anyone who habitually mislays cell phones.

Graham is not only an experienced jewelry maker, but a new father. He came to our most recent workshop with a special project in mind - a gift for his wife for when their baby arrived.

Inspired by a nursing bracelet design he saw in Parenting Canada, he decided to make it in a different colour and added his own personal touches.

Nursing bracelets help new mums remember which breast the baby fed from last (which hand the bracelet is on) and when that feed was (position of the marker). Any mother who has experienced brain fog from sleep deprivation will understand how useful this device can be.

His memory wire bracelet consisted of mostly red bicones with smaller black bicones at each end. Tiny seed bead accents were also included. The four red bicones between the numbers represent 15 minute blocks within the 12 hour period covered by the bracelet. A single bicone dangle was added to one end. The marker consisted of a lobster clasp decorated with a blue millefiore heart. The lobster clasp was not big enough to clip onto the bracelet so an extension made up of a short piece of sterling silver chain and a closed ring was used.

What a thoughtful gift! Congratulations to Graham and his wife on the birth of their daughter last week.

Beader Design : #116

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

The Roman were extremely fond of pearls, regarding them as the most precious of gems. The most obsessed of them all had to be Julius Caesar. He once paid six thousand gold pieces(nearly $300,000) for a single pearl, which he gave to Servilia, a woman he loved. He even decreed that only Roman aristocracy were allowed to wear pearls. His attempts to conquer Britain were not just for empire building but for access to the natural river pearls that were once abundant in British streams.

Natural pearls were expensive because they were very rare and there were only a few sources. A lot of pearl diving and many, many pearl oysters later before a single pearl, let alone a round one, can be found. Only 1 in 200 million natural pearls will be perfectly round. Trying for a matching pair was a very expensive proposition. A whole string of them would have cost an astronomical price. Just one of the Roman general Vitellius' mother's pearl earrings financed an entire military campaign! (What mothers would do for their children!)

Pearls were to the Romans, a symbol of wealth and prestige. Rich Roman women were described to be dripping with pearls, wearing them even to bed. The picture is a funerary portrait of a woman from Roman Egypt (circa 110-120 CE) - funerary portraits were the only ones to survive from that era. She must have been wealthy as she had a number of pearls in her earrings and necklace.

The Roman Emperor Caligula wore pearl decorated slippers and even gave his favorite horse, Incitatus, a pearl necklace amongst other things. In his case, he was not only obsessed but quite, quite mad.

References

Lois Sherr Dubin (1987). History of Beads : From 30,000 BC to the present. Harry N Abrams Inc.

Victoria Finlay (2006) Jewels: A Secret History. Ballantine Books.

Wikipedia : Julius Caesar

Wikipedia : Caligula

Wikipedia : Fayum mummy portraits

The Private Life of Romans : Dress and Personal Ornaments by Harold Whetstone Johnston

http://www.forumromanum.org/life/johnston_7.html#267

PBS : History of Pearls

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Michelle, who is just ten, designed a happily colourful pair earrings at our last workshop using Widget's Beads' collection. She used just about every colour available using two alternating sizes of beads. To solidify the riot of colour theme of her design, Michelle used two dangles per earring, not just one. They were asymmetrical in length which made the design more eye-catching.

Michelle will be able to wear her new pair of custom earrings with any outfit and be the envy of all her school friends!
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Avatars, sometimes called buddy icons, are a fun way of representing oneself in cyberspace without using photographs. Many of the early avatar generators were rather simplistic but now they can be customized and even animated with a wide variety of backgrounds.


One avatar site with a fast-growing membership is Meez with one million fans already signed on, half of those in the first three months of this year alone. With Meez, you can create your own look for free although certain options cost. Choosing hairstyles and facial features allows ample opportunities to up one's beauty quotient. You can choose from many styles of clothing right down to accessories like jewelry and store them in a virtual closet.

The avatar I chose to use for my blog wears a white chunky beaded necklace. For my semi-formal cheongsam outfit, I chose a gold medallion necklace with matching. hoop earrings and bracelet. For formal occasions, a multi-tiered necklace and matching earrings to brighten up the long evening gown. So go ahead and ramp up the vamp factor all the way to divahood! Singing talent not necessary.

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Copper is popular in jewelry not just with wearers but with artisans. Its warm colour and malleability are its most attractive qualities.

Jewelstreet is an American designer who has produced many hand-made jewelry pieces out of copper. I found it very difficult to choose from her many beautiful designs but I eventually settled on this design which she made for a Creative Challenge and named Evolution. Round hammered copper discs bear several copper chain dangles. The garnets and moonstone briolettes at the end of the dangles were perfect foil for copper. The use of the black vase was an inspired choice as her earrings are reminiscent of jewelry from antiquity. You can see more of Jewelstreet's designs on her website.

Photo with kind permission from JewelStreet.

Not surprisingly, I am naming this Susan's rainbow bracelet. Her design approach is different this time compared to her millefiore bracelet posted last week. Both bracelets are highly colourful and show two alternative ways to include as many colours as possible in jewelry designs.

She chose to use only millefiore beads in her previous bracelet where each bead is boldly colourful. However, for this bracelet, she corralled each colour into groups of largely plain beads. Notice how she alternated warm with cool colours. Susan is a skilled quilter so she is good at colour blocking!
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Michelle was quick to see the advantages of making one's own jewelry. Often the beads from a broken or outmoded piece can be redesigned to make it totally fresh again and more importantly to the designer's liking.

She brought in some large lovely turquoise beads to our recent workshop that looked like they came from a broken necklace. There was enough for her to make two bracelets! This is design no.1. One fashionable colour combination is turquoise with chocolate brown which Michelle touched on when she used the oval brown picasso beads. She decided to soften the transition between the brown and turquoise colours with the use of topaz crystal rondelle beads. The Tibetan silver toggle clasp was final touch to Michelle's design.
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Lapis lazuli has been prized as a gemstone for thousands of years and its popularity has not waned. Lapis lazuli consists mainly of the mineral lazurite which gives it its characteristic colour.

The finest quality lapis comes from Afghanistan. Deep blue with purplish overtones and minimal inclusions are the most desirable traits. And yet, what gives this gemstone its charm and differentiates it from sodalite is the often present gold flecks (iron pyrite or fool's gold). That is why I purchased the earrings in the picture, for this gemstone as well as for its ethnic styling, from a Turkish stall in New Orlean's French Market several years ago.

The ancient Egyptians were particularly fond of it - Tutankhamun's death mask was a perfect study in gold and lapis. Cleopatra used ground up lapis as an early form of eye shadow. What made it twice as precious was its other use as the source of ultramarine paint.

The word ultramarine comes from the Italian technical term oltramarino meaning "from beyond the seas". Lapis was so costly not only because of its distant source but also the difficulty in extracting the blue pigment from the stone.

Until a synthetic version came along, ultramarine was the most expensive colour in an artist's palette, worth more than gold. The Renaissance artists could not afford it and depended on their patrons to supply it. Not surprisingly, these artists reserved this heavenly blue for the mantle of the most precious symbol of their faith, the Virgin Mary.


References :
Wikipedia
Photo of lapis lazuli by mharrsch on flickr
Judith Crowe's The Jeweler's Directory of Gemstones (see sidebar for details
Victoria Finlay (2002). Color: A Natural History of the Palette

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

The growing popularity of hand-made jewelry is easy to understand. The designs are unique with that "not made in a factory" look about them. And some designs are rather fun and whimsical which will appeal to those who really want something different.

One such artisan of funky jewelry is Tigergirl, an Aussie designer who lives in Brisbane. Her Oriental floral bamboo tube pendant on a black cord necklace caught my eye because it is so unusual. The painted floral patterns on the tubes have been carefully aligned on the diagonal. The tubes are held together with black wire which echoes the double cord element in her design. See more of her designs on her blog.
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Carol is not overfond of big, bold jewelry so she opted for a delicate design using mostly seed beads - Widgets Beads collection at our recent workshop. What she did to make this necklace her own is the careful selection of both seed and cube beads of different colours and finishes. Some were metallic, others were clear, opaque and frosted. She grouped the colours in threes - odd numbers in design often work out best. Carol also kept the cubes in the middle. These are small differences but put together, Carol now has a necklace she likes and above all, will wear especially with denim and black combo outfits!

The beads were small to work with so Carol did not use a bead board. She found it easier to work on the felted tray instead.
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Women and men have been beautifying themselves for thousands of years. The history of cosmetics is fascinating for it shows the lengths people go through to make themselves more attractive and look younger, sometimes with deadly results. The best known killer was lead oxide, used as a whitening agent right until the 19th century - the pale look was highly desirable because people wanted to show that they were rich enough not to labour in the sun.

In recent times, the parade of the next sure thing in bottled beauty have included bovine collagen, alpha-hydroxy acids and marine algal extracts. But none have the rich and glamorous appeal as the latest fad for gemstones in skincare. Fabsugar did a three part article "Bring on the Bling" where she featured several cosmetic companies who use crushed or powdered diamonds, pearls, tourmaline, topaz and a mixture of unstated gemstones in their products.

The obvious question is, do they work? Some products do indeed provide exfoliating action such as Jewel Therapy's Treatment Polish and Artemis Woman's Topaz Body Polish. Very finely crushed stone will slough off dead skin and thus speed up a natural renewal process which slows down with age. However, as author and self-styled cosmetics cop, Paula Begoun ("Don't Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me") said in newspaper articles, a washcloth would do the same job.

The pearl powder in Jenju's Pearl Cream is made from genuine crushed pearls. Pearls and mother of pearl have been used in Asian cosmetics for centuries - the Imperial Chinese Court had a thing for crushed gemstones. Its claim to fame is its anti-aging properties. But pearls are really mostly calcium carbonate in origin, otherwise known as chalk.

Calcium carbonate has many uses - it as an antacid for eg TUMS. But its primary use by the cosmetics companies is as a pigment. Like zinc oxide and titanium oxide, calcium carbonate is an effective sunblock when applied to skin because it reflects light.

Therefore it seems such a shame to pulverize something as beautiful as a pearl which has taken the oyster or mussel years to make just to put into cosmetics when regular calcium carbonate or any other good sunblock would suffice to protect against the ravaging effects of excess sunlight.

No scientific study has ever shown gemstones to have any real benefit to skin. Paula Begoun herself did an exhaustive search on tourmaline, and came up with nothing. Users who do profess a positive effect may well be experiencing a placebo phenomenon - a positive response based only on suggestions made by, in this case, cosmetics companies.

So you might as well spend the money on jewels to wear. Sonja Henie (1912-1969) the Norwegian figure skater, Olympic gold medallist and actress said it best : "Jewelry takes people's minds off your wrinkles."


References :

Beauty Secrets from Ages Past: A Brief History of Makeup
Brief History of Beauty and Hygiene Products
Paula Begoun's Book
New Hope at the Beauty Counter: Bling in a Jar

Crushed pearls in cosmetics
Patent for antisun product
 
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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Jewelry Business Tips 

Susan's millefiore bracelet shows one solution to a design dilemma - what goes with such colourful beads as millefiore? Do you pick those with one main colour theme and either match or contrast them with other glass beads?
As you can see from this design, Susan chose NOT to use other beads other than the metal and tiny seed beads used as separators. In doing so, she plays off each millefiore with the others resulting in an eye catching design. For interest, she alternated the shapes of the beads. A Tibetan silver toggle clasp completed her design.

For more information on millefiore beads, please check my previous post.
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When people think of beading material from the sea shore, the first thing that comes to mind are seashells. However, there are other materials that can be found on the beach.

Beach or sea glass can also be collected to make jewelry, often as wire-wrapped pendants. The glass has been polished smooth by the natural tumbling action of the ocean. Green, clear and brown are very common colours. For unusual finds - look out for grey, purple or red sea glass. The red variety is much harder to find. Apparently only 1 in 5ooo sea glass pieces are red.So next time you go walking along the beach, see if you can find some sea glass.

Photo Credit : "TwoblueDay"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/twoblueday/369290499/

Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_glass
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Diedry came to our workshop with a plan to use the pretty pink pearls she had. The mission? Make something for her sister. She contrasted the paleness of the pearls with quartz dyed fuchsia and black beads. The black beads themselves were flanked by clear beads which makes them stand out more.

I really like Diedry's use of not only one dangle but two. The first picks up on her design theme. The second is a shoe charm that she had. Charms are a great way to personalise a piece of jewelry.
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Ten year old Michelle is another beadaholic in training and is working on an earring collection. At our recent workshop, she chose beautiful hand painted gypsy beads from Widgets Beads' collection for her earrings. These are so richly coloured that Michelle wisely chose plain rondelle beads and tiny red seed beads so that the gypsy beads seem to "float" on their own. From a distance, they would appear to do so!
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My daughter wanted something truly special for her 16th birthday, so she designed this gorgeous green necklace using not just one gemstone but three. She used round nephrite (a kind of jade), moss agate and tourmalinated quartz beads, all in varying sizes.

The triple gemstone strands were kept apart by sterling silver separator bars. She also used sterling silver daisy spacers in the front of the necklace. The pendant was sterling silver inlaid with mother-of-pearl and cubic zirconia. Alexandra certainly knows what she wanted.

You could definitely say Mum started it all. Not only did she give birth to me, nurtured me but she also passed on those jewelry and beading genes. Mum makes beautiful beaded shoes, bags and pictures for family and friends and is still actively beading today well into her seventies.

Way to go Mum! A very Happy Mother's Day to you and all the other mothers out there.


Cultural notes :

Nonyas are the women of a unique fusion cultural group in South East Asia. In recent years, their artistic flair and craftsmanship have led to a revival of interest in their artforms notably their beaded shoes and nonya kebayas (embroidered tops). For more information, check out my earlier post on nonya beaded shoes.

My blog really needed a refreshing change. After much hunting on the internet, I stumbled upon Finalsense which offered loads of well designed blogger templates with an attractive price point - free! When someone is as html code challenged as I am, I could use with all the help I can get.

The Arco-Valley pearl is very roughly heart-shaped, about the size of a hen's egg that takes its name from the Austrian family dynasty who once owned it. This unusual natural baroque or irregular shaped 575 carat pearl weighs 115 grams and displays blue-pink tones. It was almost up for auction recently to raise money for charity and to draw attention to the moribund natural pearl industry in the Persian Gulf area. The sale that could possibly raise $8 million was postponed.

Photo : Lifestyle Auctions via

From The Travels of Marco Polo

What makes this pearl so special is its age (~800 years) and provenance. It once belonged to the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, who ruled over much of China in the 13th century.

He gave it to Marco Polo as a parting gift. The Venetian trader and traveler extraordinaire, Marco Polo traveled to China with his father and uncle. He was so well received by Kublai Khan that he was made governor of the city of Hangzhou and served faithfully as a trusted emissary. Too faithfully as it turned out as Kublai Khan did not allow Marco Polo and his family to go home for almost three decades.

The Polos traveled with the gemstones hidden in their clothes. No one believed they were the long-lost Polos until they showed the treasures they brought back! And naturally, how rich they now were!

Via and via

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Anne likes to have matching pieces so it was a foregone conclusion that she would design a bracelet to go with earrings that she bought from me.

The central theme was the use of oval glass pearls with tiny pink and silver beads. When a simple design is repeated as with this multi-stranded bracelet, the end result is far prettier than had Anne stayed with just a single strand.

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