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.

 

Iberia

The name Iberia refers to the peninsula in the southwest corner of Europe which is separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees mountains.  Neandarthal people began living there 200,000 years ago and became extinct about 30,000 years ago. Humans who physically looked like the humans of today migrated into the peninsula about 40,000 years ago. The earliest civilizations with various cultures and trade with other areas of Europe and the Mediterranean began to develop around 5,000 years ago. Around 3,000 years ago, various seafaring cultures developed colonies for trade on the Mediterranean coast of Iberia, first the Phoenicians, then the Greeks and the Carthaginians. The name Iberia came from the Greeks. The Romans invaded Iberia in 218 and took it away from Carthage, making it part of the Roman Empire. With the decline of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Middle Ages, Iberia was conquered by Germanic tribes beginning in the 5^th Century AD. The Moslems conquered Iberia in the 8^th Century and stayed about 700 years. The Christians remained in the northernmost part of the peninsula and gradually reconquered it by 1492 when all Moslems and Jews were expelled unless they converted to Christianity. Ultimately most of Iberia became consolidated as the Kingdom of Spain, but Portugal on the western coast remained independent. Spain and Portugal sent fleets of ships to establish colonies in much of the western hemisphere as well as colonies in Africa and the Far East, most of which have since then become independent.

The pendant pictured above was hand made by Rose Klapman and can be found on her web site at Metal Jewelry Shaper

 

Pre-Historic Jewelry

The oldest evidences of the use of jewelry were necklaces, bracelets, and painted seashells found in caves in North Africa from about 80,000 years ago. Neanderthal people were believed to have worn seashell necklaces about 50,000 years ago. Animal teeth were worn as necklaces in addition to shells. People started importing exotic materials for making accessories that were not found in their own locations around 30,000 years ago. Beads were at times used for trading in primitive commerce. This was the precursor of money. Jewelry were manifestations of people’s awareness of their identities and were part of the progress toward civilization. Ultimately with the onset of civilization in Mesopotamia and Egypt, jewelry became more elaborate.
You can see present day handcrafted jewelry at Beadshaper

Earrings

Earrings in the dawn of civilization had religious significance and only later were worn for fashion. The oldest known earrings were found in graves of nobility in Mesopotamia and date back to about 2500-3000 BC. Ancient earrings were mostly hoop and pendant styles although a plug style was worn in ancient Egypt. Earrings were a sign of wealth because poor people could not afford the expensive materials of which they were made. There was a superstion that they made eyesight better. The wearing of earrings declined in Medieval Europe at which time they were considered too flashy but returned again in the early 17th Century. They temporarily went out of fashion in the early 18th Century when bonnets which obscured the ears were in fashion. Screw back earrings were invented and became popular in the early 20th Century. Light and simple styles were popular in the 1950s. More variety in color and texture became popular in the 1960s. Pierced earrings came back into style in the 1970s and have remained so since then.
See Earrings for examples of contemporary earrings handcrafted by the Beadshaper that you can purchase.

Origin of Etching

Engraving is the art of cutting a design into a hard material like metal or stone and has been practiced since prehistoric times. Etching is the art of engraving a design in metal with an acid by protected the metal that is not etched. The technique was developed during the Middle Ages in Europe and possibly earlier in ancient times. The German craftsman, Daniel Hopfer, who lived in the late 15th and early 16th Centuries, used the technique of etching in designing armour. He came up with the idea of using etching to make templates for printing pictures.
Etching remains an art form both for printing pictures and designing jewelry and other art.
The pendant necklace and earrings pictured above were created by the Beadshaper

Penguins

Penguins live in the southern hemisphere. Larger penguins live in and near Antartica. Smaller penguins live in warmer climates as far north as near the equator. Penguins were first discovered by European explorers when they sailed south below the equator. The word penguin comes from the French word pingouin which is the word for auk. The great auk was a large bird that looked somewhat like the penguin and lived in the northern hemisphere. The great auk became extinct by the middle of the 19th Century because it was over hunted.
The glass penguin beads pictured above are part of large collection created by the Beadshaper and presented at shows in Pasadena and concord, California this summer.