The View from Here by the Torch Fairy

Winter is now half over...Yeah!!!! Here's a quote I recently saw:

LIFE is a Coin...You can spend it anyway you WISH..but you can only spend it ONCE!!!

Here's a little "HISTORY of JEWELLERY" that I hope you will find interesting:

The first jewellery ever made was produced by hand in the Stone Age. Our ancestors made jewellery from materials they considered to be precious such as shells, stones or bones. The jewellery was not only supposed to decorate the person wearing it but also an expression & proof of success & social standard. The hunter, for instance, proudly wore a chain with teeth & claws from a bear as proof of his courage.

The first glass was formed over 40 million years ago by tremendous heat from volcanoes-it is called obsidian. The first man-made glass (consisting of sand, potash & lime) is believed to have been made about 3500 B.C. in Anatolia & Mesopotamia. Of course the Venetians (from Venice) took glass making to another level. Colours can be made by adding metallic oxides..glass can be poured, molded, stretched, cut, polished & etched..making it ideal to add sparkle & excitement to jewellery.

The first attempt of designing 'jewellery' is to be seen in the arranging of chain links or beads according to size. Already the Sumerians had the manufacturing know-how for making most of the jewellery we know today. The ornament as a unified form of decoration was then found in necklaces, earrings & bracelets. "Ornamento" is still today the Italian word for jewellery. Only in the 15 century the meaning of jewellery gradually changed from a status symbol to a fashionable accessory.

Both men & women adorned themselves with decorative gold necklaces, bangles & bracelets. The individual links could be taken out from the piece of jewellery & used as a means of payment.

During the Renaissance the wearing of jewellery became more & more the exclusive right of women & the styling of jewellery was increasingly influenced by fashion. The fast process of industrialization in the 19th Century brought with it the mass production of jewellery. Today thousands of identical pieces of jewellery can be produced.

For quite some time now fashion jewellery has become the fashionable alternative to real jewellery manufactured by jewellers or industry. However, fashion jewellery cannot & does not intend to replace real jewellery.

Buying hand-made jewellery from an artisan insures that you have a Unique, One of a Kind piece to add to your collection.