Jewelry is a type of personal adornment prized for the craftsmanship that went into its creation as well as the overall value of its components.

Shells, bones, pebbles, tusks, claws, and wood have all been considered rare and beautiful throughout the centuries, as have so-called precious metals, precious and semiprecious stones, pearls, corals, enamels, vitreous pastes, and ceramics. In some eras, artist-craftsmen have placed a greater emphasis on the aesthetic function of materials as components contributing to the overall effect than on their intrinsic value. As a result, instead of gold or platinum, they would make a brooch out of steel or plastic. In addition to its decorative function, jewellery has been worn as a sign of social rank—forbidden by sumptuary laws to all but the ruling classes—and as a talisman to ward off evil and bring good luck for much of its history. A ruby ring, for example, was thought to bestow lands and titles, bestow virtue, protect against seduction, and prevent effervescence in water during the Middle Ages—but only if worn on the left hand.

Materials and Procedures

The first materials used to create personal adornment came from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The actual adornment was made of animal-derived material, either in its natural or processed state, with vegetable fibres serving as its support. Necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and headdresses were made from a wide variety of shells and pieces during the prehistoric period, and are still used in certain island and coastal cultures today. The first materials used for personal adornment in the inland regions were mammoth tusks, reindeer and other animal horns, and later, amber and lignite.

All materials used in the manufacturing of jewellery have been subjected to some degree of mechanical, physical, or chemical treatment in order to convert their raw shapes into shapes that, in addition to being functional, fulfil certain aesthetic principles.

Metals: properties Precious metals

When gold was first found, its malleability was unprecedented: only beeswax, heated to a specific temperature, could compare. When gold is beaten, its molecules move and change position in response to the stresses it is subjected to, so it gains in surface area while losing in thickness. When gold is alloyed with other metals, it can take on a variety of colours, including water green, white, grey, red, and blue in contemporary jewellery.

Silver is the most commonly used and malleable metal in jewellery after gold. Silver made only sporadic appearances in jewellery before the Classical period, despite being known during the Copper Age. Silver was and is used in jewellery for a variety of reasons, including cost and chromatic effects. However, in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, it was frequently used as a support in settings for diamonds and other transparent precious stones to promote light reflection. Platinum is another rare metal that has only recently been used in jewellery. Because of its white brilliance and malleability, as well as its resistance to acids and high melting point, this metal has become increasingly popular in Indian bridal jewellery sets wholesale since the 19th century. Nonprecious metals like steel were introduced into modern jewellery by artists in the early twentieth century.

Work with metal

Sheet metal, metal cast in a mould, and wire have always been the fundamental components of jewellery (more or less heavy or fine). These components take on the desired shape using tool-assisted methods. Gold was beaten when hot or cold and reduced to extraordinarily thin sheets in its natural state (this operation could be performed with stone hammers). After that, the sheets were cut into the desired sizes. Examining the oldest pieces of jewellery reveals that embossing was one of the most common methods for decorating metal sheets for jewellery. Embossing techniques have remained largely unchanged over the centuries, despite the fact that modern mechanisation has enabled mass production of decorative parts of jewellery, resulting in significant time and labour savings but a corresponding lack of art. The gold leaf was pressed onto wooden or bronze models for half-modeled or entirely round reliefs. Objects that were completely round were made in two pieces and then welded together. Engraving is another type of embossing, or relief, that involves pressing designs into metal with a sharp tool.

By piercing the gold leaf, you can make decorative openwork designs. This technique was known as opus interassile during the Roman era. Polymerization is a decorative technique that involves forming silhouettes on smooth or embossed metal with small or minute gold balls. Casting precious metals has always been a rare occurrence. When only one side of the relief was to be visible, the metal was poured into the mould and then touched up with a graver after it had hardened. The cire perdue (lost-wax) process, which involves casting from a wax mould, was used to completely model the relief.

 

 

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