14 Unknown Facts About Jewelry

Wearing Your Jewelry

Long drop earrings give the illusion of length to your face.  So they're a great thing for those who have chubby cheeks or maybe a double chin.

Perfume oils will discolor gold, pearls and other gems.  Don't spray perfume over your jewelry.  This goes for hair spray too.  This can easily be avoided by putting your jewelry on after you are completely dressed with hair and makeup in place.

Cleaning Your Costume Jewelry

Jewelry made with some stones and with imitation gold & silver can be washed in mild dish washing liquid and warm water.  Wash in bowl not sink ( you don't want to take the risk of losing something down the drain).  Individual pieces of jewelry should not touch each other in solution so as not to scratch.  After soaking for a minute, brush individual piece with soft toothbrush and dry with chamois cloth or facial tissue.  Before you dump left over solution make sure to check the bowl for lost pieces.  DO NOT use bleach because it will damage metal mounts beyond repair.

Absolute Clean Online

Special Treatment Required

     Ivory - Dust ivory pieces regularly with soft cloth; using a clean, soft toothbrush to reach into carved areas.  Sunshine keeps ivory from yellowing but too much sun can cause ivory to crack.  Perfume and hair spray can cause discoloring.
     Jade - Combine 1 tablespoon ammonia and 1 cup hot water.  Swish jewelry briefly and dry immediately with soft cloth.  Jade scratches easily.
     Jet - Never soak in water or any type of chemical solution.  Just wipe with damp soft cloth.
     Diamonds - Swish these stones briefly in 1 tablespoon ammonia and 1 cup hot water.  Then dip in rubbing alcohol and pat dry with tissue paper.

Interesting Jewelry Facts Not Well Known

• Only one natural pearl will form out of every 10,000 oysters. That's it. 
• 100,000 year old beads made from Nassarius shells is officially known as the oldest ever found
• Americans spell it jewelry, everyone else spells it jewellery.
• "Jewel", from the old French jouel, which comes from the latin jocale, translation - plaything.
• For the past 100 years Africa has been the top producer of gold.
• The #1 producer of silver is Mexico. A close second is Peru.
• Real Amber, fossilized tree resin at least a million years old, will float in water.
• In Asia, the Middle East and Africa, 24K gold is used in the making of jewelry.
• In the USA and across Europe, most jewelers believe 24K is too soft for jewelry making.
• A large, perfect, gem quality ruby is worth more than a diamond the same size and quality.
• Peridot, Lapis Lazuli and Pearls were ground up and used as eye shadow in ancient times.
• Naturally colored diamonds are extremely rare. The most expensive and rarest are red, purple and then pink. Their white cousins are abundant and cost considerably less.
• Burma Rubies are not allowed out of Burma. These rubies are quite valuable and can only be purchased on the secondary market.
• Live insect jewelry was popular at certain times in history. You heard me right. Egyptians wore scarab beetles into battle. A Mexican Maquech Beetle and the Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach  were also used in jewelry. Victorians in Britain could often be seen sporting live beetles attached to their clothing by tiny, fine gold chains.

    Lots of jewelry history to be found at this link by by clicking here.

   Instructions for jewelry you can make. I especially like the dainty knot ring. #13

Second Most BeLoved Gift Money Can Buy

Of course first on the list of beloved gifts is jewelry. Men and women cherish jewelry from a loved one forever. I don't mean just from your significant. A loved one could be family members or close friends. Maybe the gift of jewelry is a medal of honor or an award for a job well done. Jewelry is personal. The recipient feels loved, proud and special. It's going to be worn with honor and kept forever. That's where the second most beloved gift comes in... 

A jewelry box to store those precious gifts that they will cherish forever is quite often over-looked as a gift option. To tell the truth I think a jewelry box is remembered long after the jewelry is gone.

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How many of you remember the jewelry box you had when you were growing up? Did it play music and have a twirling ballerina inside? Me too. I will never forget that jewelry box. I can't say I even remember the jewelry that was kept inside. But the jewelry box, I remember. 

There was one other jewelry box from my early years, I will never forget.. It was a Christmas present from my Dad. He made five of them by hand. One for each of his five daughters. I was #4 daughter. It did not matter how small, what color or even that they were almost identical. It was perfect because it was from my Dad. I loved that jewelry box.

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I have fond memories of looking into my mother's jewelry box and seeing the treasures she kept in-

side. It didn't matter that I had to stand on my tiptoes or that my mom would get aggravated because I asked too many questions. It is one of the most beautiful jewelry boxes I have ever seen. It looked just like the one pictured above. It played music and even had a lock. There were three different sections to open. Two on each side and the one in the middle had a mirror. The shiny black lacquer on the outside paired perfectly with the soft red lining. It was beautiful, elegant and sophisticated. I had never seen anything like it before. 

What was your mothers jewelry box like? Love to hear!

thingsremembered.com

The jewelry box that is most dear to my heart is the one my two boys gifted me one year for Christmas. It doesn't matter where they purchased it or how much they paid. It is silver plated with a few gems for extra sparkle.  It is perfect. The inscription on top says, "We Love You Mom." "Unforgettable" is the melody heard  after it has been wound. It is the most perfect gift I have ever received. I LOVE IT! This is so precious to me. It will forever be in my possession until the day I die. I love them so much.

Send a picture or a story or both. Maybe you can make jewelry boxes, or bring them back to life with a little paint. I want to see pics and hear stories about those too. If you are selling them make sure to tell the price.

Who Doesn't Love Cameos

The cameo is perhaps one of the most recognizable designs in the world of jewelry with roots dating back all the way to the time of the ancient Greeks.  However, while the design is thousands of years old, there are no known examples of cameo jewelry past the time of the Romans.

But today, the market is literally flooded with thousands of vintage cameos from the 19th century.  Napoleon helped renew the popularity of the cameo design when he wore a coronation crown studded with the ornately crafted design.  Popularity reached its peak in the Victorian Era with the queen herself actually known to have designed a piece or two in her day.  Today, the ubiquitous design can be found on virtually every type of jewelry, including:

• 

  Lang Antiques

  Watches (not familiar with this style)
• Earrings (very popular)
• Rings (everybody loves the rings)
• Bracelets (work well with a set that includes earrings, maybe a brooch)
• Brooches (cameo brooches seem abundant)
• Necklaces (can't resist admiring them in a showcase)
  
• Chokers (this is my personal favorite style) 

By and large, a cameo can be identified by the portrait which adorns each and every piece and this should be the starting point for any value determination.  Set upon a flat plaque, the portrait really is critical to value determination. Cheaper cameos will have a molded portrait while your more valuable pieces will be carved. Common characteristics of the really cheap molded versions are:  light weight, shiny, and blended colors. There are some examples, however, of natural materials being used in molded versions.
Although there are a few exceptions, molded pieces should actually be avoided at all costs. Separating the good-looking knock-offs from the real deal is the key to collecting for profit. Mold marks or ridges of some kind will be found on the back of your cheaper glass cameos. Although the imitation pieces can be of exceptionally high quality, it is possible to identify them by carefully studying the portraits.
Carved pieces tend to command greater value because the materials are more valuable and they are far more expensive to manufacture. Many valuable cameos are carved out of shells but their plastic imitators are so good these days that it almost takes a jewelry expert to identify the valuable carved versions.  You are looking for the shell cameos featuring a pair of colors, precise carve lines, and a thin back.
Other materials commonly used to create the more valuable cameos are abalone, mother-of-pearl, and agate.  Abalone and mother-of-pearl carved cameos also have great detailing but will tend to be thicker and have a flat back when compared to the shell versions. Relatively flat and multi-colored due to its layering, agate is a very popular material used to make some of the more valuable carved cameos.
But at the end of the day, the really valuable carved pieces will be made from stone, which can sometimes be imitated quite well using glass. The only way to really separate the glass imitators from the real stone pieces is to look carefully at the space between the portrait and flat plaque. Unlike the glass imitators, the stone pieces will be under-carved at the point where the plaque and portrait meet. The stone pieces are gems in the cameo collecting world but they are rare so be careful not to be fooled by an imitator.


Author:
Jon Kreps specializes in vintage costume jewelry collecting whose site can be found at: www.vintagetemptations.com

Note from Anywear Jewelry:
Vintage Temptations is the perfect name for the authors website. The items for sale are extensive and they are just not for jewelry. Collectibles galore!!! The prices seem fair too. Check it out when you get the chance.