JEWELRY
: GEMS : WATCHES
Although
during earlier times jewellery was created for practical uses such as wealth
storage and pinning clothes together, in recent times it has been used almost
exclusively for decoration. The first pieces of jewellery were made from natural
materials, such as bone, animal teeth, shell, wood, and carved stone. Jewellery
was often made for people of high importance to show their status and, in many
cases, they were buried with it.
Jewellery
is made out of almost every material known and has been made to adorn nearly
every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of jewellery.
While high-quality is made with gemstones and precious metals, there is also
a growing demand for Art jewelry where design and creativity is prized above
material value. In addition, there is the less-costly costume jewellery, made
from less-valuable materials and mass-produced. New variations include wire
sculpture (wrap) jewellery, using anything from base metal wire with rock tumbled
stone to precious metals and precious gemstones.
Most cultures have at some point had a practice of keeping large amounts of
wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries
in the form of jewellery, or create jewellery as a means to store or display
coins. Alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good; an
example being the use of slave beads.Many items of jewellery, such as brooches
and buckles originated as purely functional items, but evolved into decorative
items as their functional requirement diminished.Jewellery can also be symbolic
of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star
of David, or of status, as in the case of chains of office, or the Western practice
of married people wearing a wedding ring.(1)
source
(1) wikipedia