Beadshaper

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Monday, December 23, 2019

BLUE


Blue was once considered a hot color but is now considered a cool color. It is found in the flags of many countries and is the color of
blue jeans. In the Turkish culture it is the color of amulets worn to ward off the Evil Eye. It now is often associated with sadness as in one is feeling blue. There is a type of jazz music which is known as the Blues.The Egyptians created blue pigment from cobalt thousands of years ago and used it in glass making. It was subsequently used by other ancient civilizations. Later it was perfected in glass making in 18th Century Europe. Azurite was discovered as a source of blue pigment in ancient China and spread to other lands. It became popular as a color in medieval European paintings.Indigo was developed as a blue dye in ancient India. It spread through the Far East and across Asia to Greece and Rome where it was given the name indigo because it came from the East.Ultramarine was a pigment first developed in Afghanistan during the Middle Ages and later was used in Italian Renaissance paintings. It was very expensive because it was made by grinding up lapis lazuli semiprecious stone.The first manufactured blue pigment was Prussian Blue which was created in Germany in the 18th Century.

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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

ORIGIN OF CRAFT SHOWS AND CIVILIZATION

In early prehistoric times, people were self sufficient. Each family obtained its own food by hunting, gathering, and later farming. Each person or family made their own tools, vessels, or whatever products they needed and and had the knowledge to produce. Eventually some people came up with the idea that if they produced more of some product than they needed for personal use, they could trade it with someone else for something that they were lacking. Then came the idea that you could sell more of your products by having more exposure to consumers. The best place for exposure was  where roads crossed. Then sellers would gather at those best places for exposure which was the beginning of craft shows. The shows were at first temporary on market days. Later sellers realized it would be easier to just live near the places of selling which was the beginning of towns and cities. So, craft shows are a tradition thousands of years old going back to the dawn of civilization.

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Saturday, July 13, 2019

RHODIUM




An English chemist named William Hyde Wollaston was the first person to isolate rhodium. He received some ore from South America and extracted platinum and palladium from it. That left a dark red residue. The residue consisted of sodium rhodium chloride. Wollaston treated the red residue with hydrogen creating a chemical reaction which separated out sodium chloride leaving a bright silver color residue of the element rhodium. Today rhodium is used in jewelry as well as an electical conductor and an alloy in other precious metals.
The intricate metal beads featured in the necklace in the picture are made of rhodium. The blue glass beads are lampwork. You can click on the picture to enlarge it and get a better view of the rhodium beads.
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