subject: BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT JEWELRY [print this page] BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT JEWELRY BASIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT JEWELRY
People buy jewelry not just for the fine stones and precious metals, but for the workmanship and design, and how well it suits their tastes and needs.
This article will let you know some basic types and styles of jewelry made and the basic elements that make up different piece.
For example, if you are looking for an engagement ring, with some knowledge of the strong points in making jewelry, you could fine a ring that fit your lifestyle. And when you take in jewelry for repair, you could understand the structure of each piece to communicate better with bench jewelers.
Jewelry reveals a lot about the attitudes artistic sensibilities, and technical skill of the culture that produced it. The jewelry of any era stems from your unending pleasure in adorning your body and emphasis your clothes.
Jewelry should be a joy to wear. Let's take it from the top with the most popular jewelry designed for the head:
Starting with Earrings
There are three types of earrings, classified by the way they fasten: clip backs, screw-backs (also called French backs), and pierced styles that fasten through a hole pierced in the ear.
Pierced earrings are currently the most popular. They are also the most secure and come in the widest selection of styles. Even multiple piercings on each lobe are common, and man sporting a pierced earring no longer raises as many eyebrows, either.
Many pierced earrings are held in the ear by short, straight piece of metal wire (called a post) through the lobe. Most of these post earrings are secured by nuts that screw on or friction backs that fit over the post. Some are held by a hinged spring tab with a hole for the post. Wire pierced earring fasten in several ways. The simplest, a shepherd hook, is an open curved wire. Kidney wires are more secure. They work like a safety pin: One end of the wire goes through the ear and fits into a small notch at the other end. In a variation, a hinged tab springs up to cover the end of the hooked wire.
The parts of earrings that show when worn come in a huge variety of styles and motifs. Most fall into one of four general categories:
- studs: small simple shapes (such as balls) or single stones, mounted on posts and worn against the earlobes.
- Buttons: often larger and flatter shapes than studs.
- Hoops: a rigid loop coming to both sides of the lobe (floppy chain loops are fashionable,too)
- Pendant styles: or known as drop or dangle earrings; the hanging part ranges from a tiny ball to an elaborate "shoulder duster"
The next article will continue talking about other part of the body.
