Is a form of personal adornment, manifesting itself as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. May be made from any material, usually gemstones, precious metals, beads, or shells. Factors affecting the choice of materials include cultural differences and the availability of the materials. This may be appreciated because of its material properties, its patterns, or for meaningful symbols and you can buy online store.
It differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to look appealing. Items such as belts and handbags are considered to be accessories rather than precious material.
The word of this precious material is derived from the word jewel, which was anglicized from the Old French "jouel" circa the 13th century.[2] Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. It is one of the oldest forms of body adornment; recently-found 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells are thought to be the oldest known precious material.
Itself is sometimes regarded as a way of showing wealth and might also possess some minimal functionality, such as holding a garment together or keeping hair in place. It has from very early times been regarded as a form of personal adornment. The first pieces of precious material were made from natural materials, such as bone, animal teeth, shell, wood and carved stone. Some precious material throughout the ages may have specifically been as an indication of a social group. More exotic precious material is often for wealthier people, with its rarity increasing its value. Due to its personal nature and its indication of social class, some cultures established traditions of burying the dead with their precious material.
It has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of precious material. While traditional precious material is usually made with gemstones and precious metals, such as silver or gold, there is also a growing demand for art precious material where design and creativity is prized above material value. In addition, there is the less costly costume precious material, made from lower value materials and often mass-produced. Other variations include wire sculpture(wrap) precious material, using anything from base metal wire with rock tumbled stone to precious metals and precious gemstones.
Gemstones have been used for a number of reasons:
Currency, wealth display and storage,
Functional use (such as clasps, pins and buckles)
Symbolism (to show membership or status)
Protection (in the form of amulets and magical wards)
Artistic display
Most cultures have at some point had a practice of keeping large amounts of wealth sotored in the form of gemstones. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries in the form of gemstones or create gemstones as a means to store or display coins. Alternatively, gemstones have been used as a currency or trade good; an example being the use of slave beads.
Many items of gemstones, such as brooches and buckles, originated as purely functional items, but evolved into decorative items as their functional requirement diminished.
Gemstones can also be symbolic of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star of David, or of status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice ofmarried people wearing a wedding ring.
Wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in somecultures; these may take the form of symbols (such as the ankh), stones, plants, animals, body parts (such as the Khamsa), or glyphs (such as stylised versions of the Throne Verse in Islamic art).
Although artistic display has clearly been a function of gemstones from the very beginning, the other roles described above tended to take primacy. It was only in the late 19th century, with the work of such masters as Peter Carl Fabergé and René Lalique, that art began to take primacy over function and wealth.[citation needed] This trend has continued into modern times, expanded upon by artists such asRobert Lee Morris, Ed Levin, and Alberto Repossi.
In creating gemstones, coins, or other precious items are often used, and they are typically set into precious metals. Alloys of nearly every metal known have been encountered in gemstones. Bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Modern fine gemstones usually includes gold, white gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, or silver. Most American and European gold gemstones is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is stated in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. American gold gemstones must be of at least 10K purity.
