PENDANT

Pendants were among the earliest forms of jewelry. A copper pendant believed to have been made in Sumeria, the first civilization, around 8700 B.C. has been found by archaeologists. In Babylonia around the 8th Century B.C. seals that were used to sign documents by imprinting in wet clay tablets were worn as pendants. The earliest pendants were made of stone, but later glass and gemstones were substituted. The Pharaohs in agent Egypt wore a type of pendant called a cartouche. The cartouche had a rectangular shape and had the name of the Pharaoh inscribed on it. It was supposed to protect him from evil. The ancient Greeks made gold pendants. The Greek necklace often featured multiple small vase-shaped pendants portraying figures of deities in Greek mythology. The ancient Romans also made gold pendants, but they more often consisted of one focal pendant. Sometimes a cabochon gem would be set in the gold pendant. Pendants were also worn in ancient India and ancient China.

The pendant pictured above can be found at ANCIENT AGATE PENDANT - Pendants and Focal Glass Beads (beadshaper.com)

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FANNY

The name Fanny or Fannie is of French and Latin origin. In Latin it means from France. In French it means free. It can be derived from the Spanish name Estefany (Stephanie) which means crown. Among American Jews in the early twentieth Century, it was an Anglicized version of Feygele (little bird).

There are a number of famous women who were named Fanny or Fannie. Examples were Fanny Brice (American comedian and actress), Fannie Davies (British pianist), Fanny Kekelaokalani (member of Hawaiian royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii in the 19^th century), and many others.

The picture above is of a handcrafted lampwork glass bead named Fanny Fish. It can be found at FANNY FISH LAMPWORK PENDANT (beadshaper.com)

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ABSTRACT ART

Pure abstract art is art where there are no figures that look the way people and objects look to the human eye. Until the invention of the camera in the 19th Century, art was the only way that people could copy reality as we see it. Advances in art over time improved on this depiction of reality from the 2 dimensional drawings that existed from the time of cave drawings through most of the Middle Ages. With the coming of the Renaissance, artists developed the technique of drawing lines and varying sizes to give paintings depth. Sculpture was always 3 dimensional but achieved a maximum of realism with Roman sculpture which was later revived during the Renaissance. With the invention of the camera, it was no longer necessary for art to be realistic, because photography did that. This resulted in Impressionism in which paintings still depicted people and objects, but the artist was free to add his own feelings to the picture, not just what his eye saw. Colors were often more vivid than the actual colors in real life. Pictures improved on reality. Then in the early 20th Century, this freedom from realism developed various degrees of abstraction, culminating in art that was completely abstract where there were no recognizable figures and colors represented the artists feelings or perceptions like sound and touch that in the past were not represented in visual art. Some of the earliest abstract artists were Wassily Kandinsky, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse. Abstraction has influenced new art including functional art for the past century.

There are abstract influences in modern jewelry design as you can see in the design of the silver foil strip on the cuff bracelet pictured above pictured above. It can be found in the Beadshaper Gallery at BRASS AND SILVER CUFF BRACELET (beadshaper.com)

THE EARTH WOMAN SILENT FILM

The Earth Woman is an American silent film made in 1926. The film was produced by Dorothy Davenport and directed by Walter Lang. It can not now be seen because it has apparently been lost. The star of the film was Mary Aulden who played the Earth Woman. Other actors in the film included Priscilla Bonner, Russell Simpson, and Carroll Nye.

The copper cuff bracelet pictured above was inspired by the lost film. Although the film is lost, the bracelet can be found at EARTH WOMAN COPPER CUFF BRACELET (beadshaper.com)

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CUFFS

Although cuff bracelets date back to ancient times, fabric cuffs began in Europe during the Renaissance for the purpose of preventing the edge of shirt sleeves from fraying.

The metal cuff bracelet pictured above can be found at GLAZE-LIKE COPPER CUFF WITH STONES (beadshaper.com)

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ORIGINS OF GLASS BEAD MAKING

Glassmaking is believed to have begun about 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, perhaps in Mesopotamia. Some think glass was discovered as a by-product of making metal which had originated in an earlier millennium. The earliest glass objects were apparently beads. Since then the art of making beads has been perfected. The contemporary lampwork glass bead pictured above was created by Rose. You can see more of her glass beads in her web site gallery at www.beadshaper.com/gallery 

JEWELRY METALWORKING

Metal working means shaping metals into useful objects (artistic as well as functional). The earliest metalworking was probably from around 5000 BCE and the first metals were probably copper and gold. Copper is more abundant than gold, but copper usually needs to be refined from ore that is not pure copper, and gold occasionally can be found as pure nuggets. Later copper was alloyed with tin and other metals to make bronze which is stronger and more malleable. Even later copper was alloyed with zinc to make brass which is smoother than copper or bronze.

The copper cuff bracelet pictured above can be found at CAPTIVATING COPPER CUFF BRACELET (beadshaper.com)

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