Jewellery shop
For ages jewellery has been one of the most sought-after commodity after food, shelter and other basic necessities of life. Its allure cannot be resisted by the young and the old and possession becomes a passion for many reasons. Jewellery-making is an art that evolved over several centuries to the modern-day artistry and finesse as well as the advanced technology used for processing uncut jewels and shaping various precious metals into awesome geometric impossibilities!
Jewellery making
Jewellery is made out of a wide variety of metals, stones, gems, clay, glass, wood etc and has been made to adorn nearly every body part in forms of hairpins, ear, finger and toe rings, necklaces, bracelets, waist lets, amulets and a variety of other types of jewellery. While quality and valuable products are made with gemstones and precious metals, less-costly costume jewellery is made from less-valuable materials and is mass-produced. Hence you can easily start your jewellery-making stint at home with relatively cheap materials such as beads, glass and coloured stones and slowly move on to more expensive gemstones as your confidence as well as level of expertise increase.
For the adventurous, the market is flooded with jewellery making kits and a pack can come for as low as $3 for starters. Jewellery making is an ancient art and it is heartening to find so many enthusiasts coming forward to try it out as a hobby. All you need is an artistic hand and jewellery-making starter kits (that come with manuals too!) and you are all set to pursue this as a hobby. What's more, once you find that you have a knack for it you could always take up a professional course in the art of commercial jewellery making and start your own enterprise!
Commercial jewellery making is accomplished by the use of gemstones, coins, or other precious items set (or embedded) into precious metals. The commonly used precious metals for modern jewellery are gold, platinum and silver although alloys of nearly every metal known are available in jewellery since ancient times. The bulk of American and European gold jewellery is made of a gold alloy. Purity of the gold jewellery is stated in karats denoted by the letter K. Ordinarily American gold jewellery ranges from 10K to 22K. Though 24K (pure) gold is not used for jewellery making in America and Europe (since it is considered much too soft for the purpose), its use is quite common throughout Asia. In similar lines, Platinum alloys range from the numerals 900 (90% pure) to 950 (95% pure). Silver jewellery consists of either sterling silver or 92.5% fine silver.
Costume jewellery (or artificial jewellery) uses materials like glass (fused glass or enamel), wood, shells, bone and ivory, natural or polymer clay, and even plastics or synthetic fiber. Beads are frequently used in jewellery. These can be designed from a variety of materials such as glass, gemstones, metal, shells, clay, synthetic polymers, etc. for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and belts. Advanced glass and glass-bead making techniques by Murano and Venetian glassmakers were popular as early as the 13th century!
Jewellery making history
According to the history of jewellery making, the earliest evidence of any form of jewellery making can be referred to amongst the Cro-Magnons, ancestors of Homo sapiens around 40,000 years ago. The jewellery pieces made by them mostly used to be crude necklaces and bracelets of bone, teeth and stone that used to hang on pieces of string or animal sinew, or even pieces of carved bone used for securing clothing together. Interestingly in some cases, jewellery was found to consist of shells or mother-of-pearl pieces (mostly amongst coastal settlements). In Russia, carved pieces of enormous animal tusks have been discovered. The Nassarius (marine molluscs) beads are believed to be the oldest form of jewellery. The various parts of the globe reported initial signs of jewellery-making in some or the other form about 3000-5000 years ago. Few countries like China, India and Greece boasted advancements in jewellery-making at a steady pace along with other countries like Rome and Egypt. However, Pacific region showed late signs of development in the jewellery making field because of relatively recent human settlement. The Aztecs and Mayans of Southern and Central parts of America had huge resources of gold to use in their jewellery while Rome had resources from the entire European continent to put to use for jewellery making.
In the present day, jewellery making has taken an exceptionally diverse form. With the advent of man-made materials, such as plastics, synthetic fibers, Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and the development in different colouring techniques, increased variety in styles are evident in modern times.
Jewellery making tools
Commercially jewellery making is carried out with a variety of tools from jewellery pliers, crimping pliers and wire-cutters, jewellery hammer set, rolling mill, magnetic polisher, welding unit to diamond core drill, diamond fly-wheel, sharpener, etc for diamond settings in jewellery.
As jewellery can be designed for everyday use in addition to the precious ones only meant for special occasions, the fun lies in creating jewellery for daily wear in the comfort of your homes with cheap glass beads, semi-precious metals and stones. A list of commonly used tools for this purpose include jewellery hammers, jewellery pliers, wire-cutters, various clamps, file sets, frames, tweezers, pins, soldering pike, blades, etc.
There are jewellery packs with kits meant to be used to create more than one design. However, each pack is meant to design only a particular type of jewellery such as packs exclusively for earrings, bracelets, pendants and so on. Every kit is self sufficient and comes with all tools as well as materials required for designing a particular line of jewellery. For example, the site http:// www.wigjig.com/ offers projects or kits to make earrings from CZ or any gemstone, gemstone pendants, Castlite earrings, Low Wall Bezel Earrings, etc.
For starters just choose a kit from any of the following sites which would be easy on your pocket as well as in the skill level. Once you are set and have started to enjoy the experience of jewellery making, you can move on to more complicated tool-kits.
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