FREE 4 Points to Keep in Mind When Buying Jewelry Boxes Guide

You have to know stuff about what you are going to purchase. Jewelry boxes are no exception to this rule. You have to know all about the brands and the types of boxes available along with the price range. There are mass manufactured jewelry boxes which are fairly cheap.

FREE 7 Top Significance of Birthstone Jewelry - represent the twelve months

Precious stones and gems have had a major significance in the life of humans since time immemorial. They are connected to human facets like birthdays, anniversaries, astrological signs, behavior and events. There are various gem stones that are closely linked to the nine planets and also to days of the week.

FREE 5 Fire Precious Metal Clay, Art Metal Clay, or Silver Clay for Making Jewelry Components Tips

Precious metal clay makes it easy for you, the untrained amateur jewelry maker, to construct your own beautiful handcrafted beads, charms, and pendants from real precious metals like silver and gold.

Precious metal clay (also known as PMC and ACS or Art Clay Silver) is is as simple to use as potter's clay. It's soft and moldable, and works very much like clay in many ways

Here's how you use this material to make your creations. You shape your pendants or beads from the clay, let them dry, then fire to burn away the binder. This works because fine metal particles are suspended in an organic binder that can be burnt off leaving the metal fused into the form you shape it.

There are many different methods to texture, shape, and mold the precious metal clay into charming and ornate forms, but these are beyond the scope of this article! This article will share different ways to fire your creations once they are formed and dried.

Metal Clay Firing Methods

These are the 3 most commonly used methods for firing precious metal clay. These are using a small torch, a pmc kiln or bead kiln, or something called a "Hot Pot" (or similar gas/metal screen setup).

1. Using a Hand torch

Only torch smaller pieces.. Also, it's best to make sure your piece is pretty even in thickness and relatively simple. Complicated and intricate pieces are more likely to fare best in a kiln.

Here's how to torch fire. Don't forget touse a a heat proof and fire proof surface like a soldering pad or a fire brick with a piece of aluminum sheet underneath. You'll want a well ventilated area. Using your butane torch (I use a Blazer torch), start aiming your flame on the dried precious metal clay piece. At first you'll see a little bit of smoke as the organic binder burns off. Then you just need to get your piece to become a nice pinky orange colour (you can see it quite clearly as long as you aren't working in too bright a light) Move the torch away a little bit and then back again if the glow fades. Just don't go really close with the torch once you have got up to temperature or you will melt the detail on your work.

2. Use a Kiln

A small kiln is ideal for firing metal clay. Even heat and higher temperatures will usually produce stronger pieces, and some types of PMC like bronze clay, original PMC, most copper and gold clay will only fire properly in a kiln.

Any kiln should work, but Precious Metal Clay kilns are available. These are table top kilns. They are very small as kilns go. They run on regular household electricity, but they do need a three prong outlet.

To use, just follow the directions from the kiln manufacturer.

3. Hot Pot or Other Gas Ring/ Metal Screen Setup

A specialized PMC firing product, called the "Hot Pot" that can be found at precious metal clay retailers. The Hot Pot makes it easy to fire pmc without a kiln and is ideal for people who don't like using a torch. The Hot Pot uses a sterno-like fuel to fire your jewelry projects. When the fuel burns out, your jewelry is done. It's a very simple, low tech and affordable option to create your own jewelry.

To use the Hot Pot, you fill the provided terra cotta pot with fuel, then place your dried metal clay project onto the wire grid. Finally, you light the fuel with a long match. Once your fuel burns out, your creation is fired and ready for polishing.

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Tiger Eye - Beauty and Culture

What is tiger eye? Where does it come from? Why is it now a standard foundation in personal jewelry collections? When did it become so popular? How did nature create its dazzling beauty? http://tigereyejewels.com
Tiger eye or tiger’s eye is natural asbestos. Asbestos is a metamorphic mineral fiber that is considered part of the family called hydrous magnesium silicate. Ancient civilizations recognized asbestos’s resistance to fire. The name is derived from its historical use in lamp wicks. Ancient Egyptians used asbestos for burial cloths to protect the dead during their journey to the afterlife.
During volcanic events, the fibrous asbestos is replaced by iron-bearing quartz called limonite. This is what creates the dazzling golden luminous eye of the tiger that provides such elegant beauty in tiger eye stone. Ancient Egyptians believed the beautiful tiger eye would bring good fortune and protect its bearer. They related this well-being to the sun which they worshiped as a god.



To this day, many people who study the chakra consider tiger eye a tool for health and well-being. The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk of life and signifies one of seven basic energy centers in the body. The wheel came from the chariot that carried the sun across the sky. The chakras and Kundalini came to be an integral part of yoga philosophy in the 7th century.
The beautiful semi-precious tiger eye gems that we enjoy are most commonly golden brown. Occasionally, the stone is blue/grey and is then called falcon’s eye or hawk eye. Red tiger eye is created through heat treatment and is also called cherry tiger eye. Most modern day tiger eye comes from Australia, China and South Africa. It has a hardness of 7.0 on the Moh’s hardness scale. In 1822, Friedrich Moh, a German mineralogist devised a practical way of comparing hardness or scratch resistance in minerals. The scale is based on a rating of one to ten, with ten being the highest. One of the reasons for the popularity of tiger eye is its durability. Buyers should beware of imitation glass or plastic beads called cathaystone which is manufactured and not natural. Visit http://tigereyejewels.com to access a basic resource for quality tiger eye jewelry.

Regardless of what tiger eye jewelry you wear for everyday or a special occasion, you add a special expression of beauty, elegance and sophistication to your life. This expression has developed through a great history and desire for cultural and human well-being.

White Gold Irish Rings - Traditional Claddagh

When you are looking for White Gold rings, why not look into the great selection of genuine Irish Rings that are sure to please your beloved in ways that mere words alone or any other ring design cannot. All of these Irish Rings are made exclusively in Ireland and will always have “Made in Ireland” stamped on the inside of that band somewhere. This is how you will know the real thing!
IS White Gold the Best?
This is something that you have to really have to think about… or not! Some people just prefer 14K White Gold over either Yellow Gold or Sterling Silver on principal; if nothing else. In this way they are able to wear any on the custom crafted Irish Rings that they might want without anyone really knowing the difference. Sometimes it is more fun to keep them guessing whether your ring in Sterling Silver or actually 14K White Gold. You actually cannot tell the difference just by sight alone. Thus for some people; 14K White Gold Irish Rings really are the best.




Are Men’s and Ladies Available?
You can find several different designs of Ladies 14K White Gold Irish Rings, however not that many different designs available in the Men’s styles and sizes. This does not say that the selections of Men’s Irish Rings out there. There are several different places to look both online and in different jewelry catalogs and physical stores that will carry many different sizes and designs of Men’s 14K White Gold rings for you to choose from. There are bound to be many different designs that you will really like and others that might not suit your fancy.
Is the Claddagh the ONLY design available?
This is a resounding “No!”; it is simply the most well known symbol of Ireland that the world is aware… besides the shamrock, that is! If you really research what the Claddagh means you will find out that the 2 Hands means Friendship holding the Heart (Love) over which sits a Crown (Loyalty). Any of the Irish Rings that have this powerful symbol are sure to speak volumes… much more than your words ever could; or maybe just add to everything that you have already told him or her.
What about 14K White Gold Engagement Rings?
This is another category altogether that you can find many different designs available in 14K White Gold. The most common design is the traditional Claddagh; for obvious reasons, of course as this really symbolizes the everlasting love that lead you to ask her to marry you in the first place. You might think that the only ring that can actually be called and Engagement Ring has to have a Diamond in it; but this is not exactly the full story. Do you realize that any type of ring with a precious or semi-precious stone can be an Engagement Ring? Any of these beautiful Claddagh rings is a perfect Engagement Ring because of what they stand for as a whole.

Free Infomation on Claddagh Ring

Although there are many Celtic designs used in making jewelry, one of the most interesting and popular is the Claddagh. This design most often used for rings is named after a small fishing which was located to the west of Galway, Ireland just outside the city walls. What makes the this ring unique is the fact that this village has exclusively used this traditional design for over 400 years.

How exactly this design came into being is still greatly debated as there are several stories that are regularly told, which is one of the reasons there is such fascination the world over. The most widely accepted however is the story of Richard Joyce of Galway. While Richard was on his way to the West Indies he was captured by an Algerian corsair who went on to sell him into slavery. In the Algiers he became the property of a wealthy Moorish goldsmith, who he ended up working with and learning from. Fourteen years later when William III of England became king he demanded the release of all British subjects who were detained in slavery in the Algiers which led to the release of Richard Joyce. In an effort to stop Richard Joyce from leaving the goldsmith offered him his daughters hand and half his property. To his disappointed Richard Joyce headed home. When he returned to Galway he immediately proposed to his love who had been waiting for his return. He is said to have made his proposal with a ring he made while he was waiting to return. This of course is the original Claddagh ring.
Another interesting element of this traditional ring is that it is used to symbolize not only love and loyalty but also friendship. The design itself is unmistakable as it features two hands clasping (or forming) a heart, which is then surmounted by a crown. The hands represent friendship, the heart represent love and the crown represents loyalty. A more modern version is on the market which no longer has the crown but it not nearly as popular as it does not have the traditional symbolism.
There are two expressions or phrases that are often associated with the ring. The first is "With my hands I give you my heart, and crown it with my love." The second is "Let love and friendship reign." Regardless of which one you chose to use or accept there is no doubting the symbolism attached to the ring.
The fact that the Claddagh ring has a specific design lends itself to another long accepted tradition with the use of this ring. If you wear the ring on your right hand with the crown turned inwards then you are letting others know that you are very much single and still looking for love. If you turn the crown so that it is turned out than you are already considering a love. If the ring is worn on the left hand with the crown turned inwards then you are most likely engaged and once you are married the crown is then turned outwards. The simple rule is that the heart goes closet to the body when a commitment is made.

Christine MacDonald http://www.everythingjewelery.com

The History of Gold Jewelry, Part 2

In the first article of this series we have seen how gold jewelry was developed in the ancient Sumerian civilization as well as in Egypt and Crete. The technique of making fine gold jewelry spread to Greece, to Northern Europe and to the Celtic people as well. Now let’s look at the role that gold jewelry played in the pre-Roman era and during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
In the 7th century BC the Etruscans of central Italy were also making fine gold jewelry. The Etruscans perfected the difficult technique of granulation, a technique in which the surface of the metal is covered with tiny gold grains.
In Greece during the Hellenistic Age (the period just after the time of Alexander the Great, 323-30 BC) Greek jewelry was characterized by its great variety of forms and fine workmanship. Naturalistic wreaths were made for the head, and a variety of miniatures -- human, animal, and plant -- were made into necklaces and earrings.

The Heracles-knot, developed in Greece, remained a popular motif into Roman times.
Colorful jewelry was an important characteristic of the Migration period (4th to 8th centuries AD) which followed the collapse of the Roman Empire. Mediterranean goldsmiths continued to produce refined jewelry but the jewelry of the European tribes dominated the period. They produced abstract styles and worked in enamels and inlaid stones. This is also the period of the penannular, or nearly circular, brooches of Ireland and Scotland.
From the 9th to the 13th century, the technique of cloisonné -- enameling on gold—became widespread in Europe and the Near East, with the best jewelry of this type emanating from Constantinople (present day Istanbul) the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Gold Jewelry in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
In the year 962 AD, just after the creation of the Holy Roman Empire (located in Central Europe) there was a fusion of Mediterranean and European civilizations and this had an effect on the jewelry as well.
The Emperor and the Church became the patrons of the arts. Jewelers worked in courts and monasteries. During this era, jewelry design was based on the setting in gold of precious stones and pearls in colorful patterns. Precious stones, which were polished but used in natural forms, were credited with having magic powers. For example, Sapphire, symbolic of chastity and spiritual peace, was used for papal rings.
Antique cameo gems were prized and when set in early medieval jewelry and were given a Christian interpretation. Until this era, European jewelry was produced mainly in imperial and monastic workshops. However, by the 13th century a system of independent guilds of goldsmiths was established in European capitals.
Gothic jewelry reflects the chivalrous ethic of the aristocratic society of this time in its symbolism and frequent use of amatory inscriptions. Jewelry, which has always had close affinities with modes of dress, frequently took the form of brooches and other fastenings such as belt clasps.
The ring brooch, the most common form of jewelry in the 13th century, was probably given as a token of love or betrothal. A pendant would occasionally be used as a Reliquary. The use of earrings ceased entirely, because women wore elaborate jeweled headdresses that concealed the ears. About 1300, French jewelers began to use translucent enamels over engraved silver or gold.
In the next article of this series we will look at the history of gold jewelry during the past five hundred years.

The History of Gold Jewelry, Part 1

Humankind has long been fascinated by the beauty of gold and since the earliest days of civilization gold has been used to adorn us in the form of jewelry. Let’s take a look at how gold jewelry has been used in the various parts of the world during the last five thousand years.
The Sumerian Civilization, located in present-day Iraq, is well known as the place where one of the first systems of writing was developed. There gold was used to make necklaces earrings, rings, bracelets and other ornaments as early as 2500 BC.
Sumerian goldsmiths used sophisticated metalworking techniques such as cold hammering, casting, soldering, and were particularly skilled in decorating with filigree (fine-wire ornamentation). They also practiced “granulation" using minute drops of gold to enhance the beauty of the jewelry.

Jewelry played an important role in Egyptian civilization where its use dates back to 3000 BC. A tomb painting of late 15th century BC shows a metalworker using tongs and a blowpipe to anneal gold. The famous tomb of Tutankhamun or King Tut contains numerous pieces of fine gold jewelry embedded with precious stones. These pieces of jewelry are on display in the national museum in Cairo and thousands of visitors each day marvel at the skill of these early goldsmiths and jewelers.
On Mediterranean island of Crete, now part of Greece, gold jewelry also played an important role as early as 2400 BC. The jewelers of Crete may have gotten their knowledge from West Asia and they were experts in fashioning gold jewelry.
Diadems, hair ornaments, beads, bracelets, and complex chains have been found in Minoan tombs on Crete. It is also believed that Asian techniques of filigree and granulation were introduced to Crete around 2000 BC.
Around 1550 BC Minoan culture and its jewelry styles spread to Greece, then dominated by the city-state of Mycenea, located 90 miles southwest of present-day Athens.
Metalworking techniques spread outward from Greece and reached northern Europe as early as 1800 BC. There is also evidence that the Celtic and early British people traded with the eastern Mediterranean civilizations by this time and exchanged their products for gold beads.
By 1200 BC jewelry making was flourishing in Central and Western Europe.
Bronze and gold was used to make jewelry and the spiral was the most common type of decoration. Twisted gold torcs were made in the British Isles and northern France from the 5th to the 1st century BC. Torcs, also spelled Torq, were rigid circular neck rings or necklaces that were open-ended at the front. Massive circlets for the necks and arms were the characteristic ornament of the chiefs of the Celtic race. The Celts also used enamel and inlay to decorate jewelry.
In the next article of this series, I will trace the use of gold jewelry in the Etruscan, Roman and Hellenistic periods as well as giving a look at the role of gold jewelry in the Renaissance.