What Is The Difference Between Antique And Modern Handmade Jewellery

Let us take a long look back through history and time to see what the facts are about women wearing jewellery. From the beginning of our time you will see evidence than ancient man has worn handmade jewellery in some form or another and evidence of this can be seen from cave drawings. Then these pieces were adorned by both men and women where today it is primarily worn by woman as an accessory to add style and to add beautification. 

 

 So why did women feel that they needed to add these pieces to beautify themselves? At that point it was the aim of a woman to attract her man who would take care of her. Back in the early day of man when they used to live in caves beautification is what women would use to allure a man to be attracted to them and in the end looking after them. Keeping them safe, warm, clothed and fed was at that time the domain of the man. At that point and even to some degree today the man was the dominant sex and woman have played many tricks and games to allure them and to get there won way. Beautifying with handmade jewellery was one of the ways and even in the height of the womens lib movement women did not abandon their jewellery in their fight for freedom, liberation and suppression of man. So you can see when the wearing and owning of handmade jewellery became popular all over the world. 

 In the beginning the metals we would see being used to create these jewellery designs were iron, brass copper and zinc and ancient civilisations learnt the skills that it required to turn these into beautiful pieces of handmade jewellery. Then man stumbled on the precious metals of gold and silver, and due to the nature of these metals with their shine and shimmer he then used these to produce some of the most beautiful pieces of jewellery and some of those pieces have survived to this very day. As their skills with these metals grew and they started to crafted more intricate designs semi-precious and gemstones were added to the unique and original jewellery designs. 

 In Britain you will see that all the great kings and Nobel men can be seen to be wearing pieces of precious handmade jewellery crafted from gold and silver, these were not just worn as a form of adornment and beatification but to show off their wealth, the more jewellery that they were seen to be wearing the higher there status and if you see portraits painted from these times you will see the multiple pieces that were worn. Necklaces in multiple layers, rings, earrings, bracelets, cuffs and brooches and you will also see many hair adornments fashioned from precious metals and set with gemstones. 

 The talent of the jewellery makers that worked with these metals and beautiful gems has grown and beautiful pieces of unique handmade jewellery are still produced from these metals and stones but because of the changing economy and the different needs in the market jewellers have to turn to other materials to create there stunning jewellery designs. 

 

 Fashion is also changing and we now want something different from our jewellery, long gone are the days when we would adorn our jewellery to show the world our status now we want to own and wear these pieces as fashion accessories and because of their style and elegance. With the onset of the internet the world has become a very small place and styles have changed and we are able to source our pieces of handmade jewellery from all over the world. Jewellery UK has some of the most beautiful pieces. If you want earrings set with Amethysts from Brazil they are there, if you want jewellery sets handmade from Jade from Burma then that is not a problem, A  bracelets that is crafted from Turquoise in the USA then all these can be found and purchased by the simple click of a mouse. The world of contemporary jewellery making is very different for many reasons than it was centuries ago.

 The main difference in the pieces of  handmade jewellery today and of the antique pieces is the cost. Antique pieces not only have the value of their age but also the value of the materials that they were made from, Precious metals like gold have increased in value along with the precious gems they were set with. Today you can see designs at  jewellery UK that have still been fashioned from these metals and gems jewellery sets, earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

 Today we live in a much more throwaway society and pieces of handmade jewellery come to us in there plenty and cheaply so we will wear them for one fashion season and they are then discarded.