Copper

Copper was the first metal mined at the dawn of civilization about 10,000 BC in Mesopotamia and Persia. It was first used for trinkets and tools, then for pots and pans. Bowls were made by hollowing out a block of wood, placing a sheet of copper on it, and hammering the copper to fit the shape of the mold. The ancient Egyptians found that copper was the best material for water pipes. Some copper pipes found in ancient Egyptian buildings remain intact today thousands of years later. The Egyptians also developed bronze (which is harder than copper) by alloying tin with copper. Much of the copper used in Egypt was mined in the Timna Valley in Israel and much of the Greek and Roman copper came from Cyprus. Copper later came into use in India and China. The Pre-Columbian civilizations of the Western Hemisphere developed copper mining independantly. European scientists discovered the ability of copper to conduct electricity much later in the 17th and 18th Centuries. That discovery was necessary for the scientific advances that made the world what it is today.
You can find a number of exciting hand crafted copper bracelets for sale at Metal Jewelry Shaper

Botanical Art

Prehistoric art often depicted animals, but drawings of plants were not common. Later, plant art appeared in the art of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This interest in plant art might have been associated with the beginning of agriculture. The ancient Greeks and Romans decorated coins and ceramics with pictures of flowers and other plants.
Rose hand crafted the lampwork glass blue flower pictured above on the left for the Beadshaper collection.
Rose handcrafted the silver pendant on the right for the Metal Jewelry collection. The agate stone mounted on the pendant naturally formed a flower-like arrangement of petals.
Rose will be teaching classes in various exciting aspects of jewelry making at the Bead and Boutique Arts Show, February 28 to March 2 at the Concord Hilton Hotel in Concord, California. See Classes List for details.
Would you like to join our e-mail list to hear about new additions to the jewelry presented on the Metal Jewelry Shaper web site? If so, please click here.

Agate

Agate is a stone containing layers of quartz. The layering of quartz often occurs in crevices of volcanic rock. Various agates are of various colors and forms, and are found all over the world. Theophrastus, an ancient Greek naturalist, is credited with first describing agate about 5 thousand years ago.
Agate was discovered near the Nahe River in the towns of Idar and Oberstein about 6 hundred years ago or earlier which resulted in the towns becoming important gem cutting centers. Later when all the agate in the area had been mined, the gem cutters imported agate from elsewhere, particularly Brazil, and continued being a gem cutting center.
The silver pendant pictured above features an agate stone and can be found at Metal Jewelry Shaper.
Rose (the Metal Jewelry Shaper) will be teaching classes in various metal jewelry making techniques at the Bead and boutique Arts show at the Concord Hilton hotel in Concord, California February 28 through March 2, 2014. See Metal Jewelry Classes for details.

Sterling Silver

 

Silver is a metal that is precious and beautiful but soft. Therefore silver is usually alloyed with copper to give it hardness. However too much copper means less silver and therefore less valuable. So in the Middle Ages in Europe the sterling silver standard was set for the maximum per cent of copper (or any metal other than silver) that could be alloyed into a silver piece and still allowing the silver to meet the standard. The standard was and has continued to be at least 92.5% silver. The word sterling is believed to come from an old word for star. Sterling silver has been used in coins, jewelry, and eating utensils (hence the term silver ware). Silver forks and spoons could only be afforded by the most wealthy people. Today sterling silver is often used in jewelry, but as for eating utensils it is mostly found in antiques. 

The upper plates in the hand crafted earrings pictured above are made of sterling silver. They can be found on the Metal Jewelry Shaper web site.

Incidentally Rose (the Metal Jewelry Shaper) will be teaching classes in various metal jewelry making techniques at the Bead and boutique Arts show at the Concord Hilton hotel in Concord, California February 28 through March 2, 2014. See Metal Jewelry Classes for details.