Since time immemorial humans have wanted to adorn themselves with cosmetic accoutrements in an effort to express status and power or to compliment, improve or exaggerate beauty. Feathers and fur may have been early man’s way of expressing his wealth or tribal status.
As man developed he started to exploit the natural environment below the surface of terra firma, leading to the discovery of metals. As early as 9000BC man was using copper to make, not only tools, but also personal adornments. Copper beads dating back to this time have been discovered in what is now modern day Iraq. Ancient Indian tribes of the Americas have also been found to have been using copper to produce rudimentary jewelry.
Around 4000BC silver was being used in the making of simple jewelry pieces followed by gold, around 2500BC. Platinum, although known to have been used by pre-Columbian Indians, it became lost to civilization until being rediscovered by Antonio de Ulloa in 1735. It soon became apparent that Platinum had great value and soon became popular and desirable as a metal to be used in the making of high quality jewelry.
The exploitative use of gold as an expression of status, personal wealth and beauty is perhaps best portrayed by the ancient Egyptians. This is of course well known and well documented, and they have left us with magnificent specimens of beautiful, precious jewelry which exist as testament to their skills as fine jewelers.
The Egyptians also had access to precious stones, and the skills to fashion the stones for use in their jewelry. However, for reasons not fully understood, they seemed to have a preference for softer. semi-precious stones, such as turquois, quartz, carnelian and malachite.
However, even the Egyptians with their ingenuity and genius in producing masterpieces of jewelry have their precedent. Intricate gold necklaces and pendants discovered in Greece and left to us by the ancient Minoans and Mycenaeans, date back as far as the 17th millennia BC.
Over thousands of years, as mankind’s knowledge and skills developed, jewelry became more intricate and refined. Today the metallurgists, gemologists and innovative thinking artisans are able to create items of jewelry that are individual works of art to be admired and treasured.
Today, every high street in every town and city throughout the world will have jewelry shops or vendors. Mass produced items of inferior metals and low grade stones are thrown together and sold to the uninformed, and perhaps gullible, public. There is of course an alternative, one of exceptional quality in design, materials and workmanship, which is, “Fine Jewelry”.
Fine jewelry is the exact opposite of what you are likely to see in your high street jewelers. Fine jewelry is designed by innovative thinkers brining tomorrow’s ideas into today’s reality. The resulting creations use only the purest of metals, the finest of gemstones and are brought to the world by the most skilled of artisans.
Today’s masterpieces begin life as an idea, a vision in the creative mind of a designer who has the gift of being able to transfer imaginative mental images into visual, tangible designs. From this point skilled artisans of numerous disciplines take up the challenge to turn the image into reality. Metallurgists, goldsmiths, diamond cutters and lapidaries join forces with the sole desire to create the incredible.
Precious stones are an integral part in the creation of fine jewelry, diamond cutters and lapidaries are able to cut and polish stones with such precision that light travels through the stone without the slightest leakage. Their skills enable them to produce the very best of all the classic cuts, Trillion, Marquise, Cabochon, Briolette, Baguette and Asscher are to name just a just a few. The result, a stone with emanation of memorizing beauty.
Techniques ancient and modern are utilized in producing the world’s most beautiful pieces of fine jewelry. From lost wax casting, which goes back to the bronze age, centrifugal casting to 3D printing can all be utilized in the creation of a piece of jeweled art.
Although the creation of fine jewelry exploits the ancient and the modern, a fine jewelry purveyor never neglects the future. New ideas and designs are always sought and new materials are experimented with. Progressive techniques are developed to bring innovative design ideas into reality. There can be no other master trade that uses ancient arts to drive and shape the future more than the fine jeweler.
Fine jewelry purveyors maintain all the necessary skills in house. In this way they can control the quality of their masterpieces all the way through the entire process. From the germ of an idea to client satisfaction, the master of fine jewelry has a dedicated commitment to producing only the very best. Fine jewelry should be an expression of a person’s own mind and character, nowhere is this better understood than at Smart Arts Jewelry, the trusted producer of fine jewelry.
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