AMBER - Valued from Antiquity to the Present as a Gemstone

Amber is fossilized tree resin (not sap), which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry.

                                                         
There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions.

Amber is heterogeneous in composition, but consists of several resinous bodies more or less soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, associated with an insoluble bituminous substance.
                                   
The abnormal development of resin has been called succinosis. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin dropped onto the ground, so that the material may be useless except for varnish-making, whence the impure amber is called firniss.

Amber has been used since the stoneage from 13,000 years ago. Amber ornaments have been found in Mycenaean tombs and elsewhere across Europe. To this day it is used in the manufacture of smoking and glassblowing mouthpieces. Amber's place in culture and tradition lends it a tourism value; Palanga Amber Museum is dedicated to the fossilized resin.

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Article By:
Komal.D.Chhabria.
Jewellery Designing Instructor(SDI)              

Antique and Vinatge Jewellery - The Major Difference between the Two

Antique Jewellery is customarily defined as Jewellery crafted more than 100 years ago. For an item to be considered antique, it has to be atleast 100 years old. Many pieces from the 1920’s are now considered antique.

Vintage Jewellery is usually identified with a particular era and includes the historic Georgian and Victorian, Art Noveau and Edwardian design periods as well as the Art Deco, Retro, Mid-Century, Modern and Contemporary Periods.

Most experts consider it to be anything that is atleast 20 years old. So anything from the 1980’s and earlier.

       

The major difference between Antique Jewellery and Vintage Jewellery is the age. Both use rare and beautiful objects and metals. Its certainly true that the age of an item is big factor in its worth. This is because the Goldsmithing techniques used in the past are often superior to the techniques used today.

ANTIQUE FINISH

           

Antique Finish Jewellery is very different from Antique Jewellery. Antique finish is nothing but the dull finish given to jewellery of the new styles. It is also known as Oxidation that is the polish or finish given to the jewelery.

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Article by;

Komal.D.Chhabria.

Jewellery Designing Instructor(SDI)

Hair Accessory Inspired by Skydiving

“Being made in the image of God, man was the crown of creation.” – Walter Lang

Birds inspired man to fly; the polymath genius and artist of Renaissance period, Leonardo –da-Vinci ,who created first blue print of parachute, has quoted “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes  turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always  long  to return”.

The design and structure of my collection – OORDHVA – is inspired by SKYDIVING, the adventure sport which gives a feel and sense of bird’s flight. 

This exquisite ornament representing the basic details of sky diving is a Hair Accessory and a double duty piece converted to a Tiara in white metal with the enamel technique, rubies, sapphires and a star sapphire. 

Skydiving is a method of exiting from an aircraft and returning to Earth with the aid of gravity, then slowing down during the last part of descent by using a parachute.

The Hair Accessory also called as Rakodi in the shape of a curvy rhombus is inspired by the body suit or called the “Wing suit” that is used by the divers. The motif used in the upper border portion of the accessory is chosen from the positioning of the divers arm, as it is supposed to be held in a formation diving. The motif in the lower border portion of the jewelry is inspired by the existing style of an expert diver. The swirl below the central stone represents the wind as it is one of the main factors for the sport. The enameled portion represents the parachute and the metal strings of the same. The central stone is chosen to be a star sapphire. The color representation in this ornament is chosen from the US national flag as the first formation diving was experimented and successfully executed in United States in the year 1964. Also, in the same year a star sapphire called the “star of India” was stolen from the US museum. Hence the colors Red, White and Blue are used with stars.

Designer

As  the diver opens his parachute after reaching a certain altitude to reach ground safely, this Rakodi too opens to a Tiara if unhooked from behind, making it a double duty accessory.

To take a leap into the professional world of jewellery designing, enroll into Solitaire Diamond Institute's online jewellery designing courses Bangalore.

Design and Article

 -Muthamma

  

What No One Tells You about Reverse Setting of a Gemstone

Setting of gemstone is an art of secure placement or attachment of stone into jewelry.
Reverse setting is the non-traditional way of setting a gemstone, i.e the culet facing upward in jewelry, unlike the traditional way of a table facet facing up and the culet facing down.

                                                           

Reverse Setting in a Ring

                                                                   

The renowned designer Paolo Costagli is widely popular for setting the gemstones with the culet facing upwards. He has used this signature element in his jewelry collection Very PC and Ombre.

The “Very PC” Collection

                 
                                                                                 
In this setting first the light catches the stone from many different angles as there is much more surface area exposed resulting in more sparkle enhancing the overall appeal to the jewel.

The reverse setting differs (from left): loose Peridot stones with the culets facing up next to Peridot stones with the table facing up.

Also this unexpected depth creates an interesting jewelry, enhancing a special character and different personality to the jewelry.

Below is ear hanging of the Indian designer brand Arunashi - pave set rose-cut diamonds and reverse-set green demantoid garnets.

                                                             

Reverse Cutting - "Wallace cut"

"My mind is one with the work, and my physical self is removed from the gemstone," says Wallace Chan.

Wallace Chan is a Chinese artisan jeweler who developed this innovative technique of carving the gemstone in reverse, to give it a life.

                                                         

Look into the gemstone and there appears to be a human face, as the gemstone is turned, it fragments to be looking in all different directions at once.

                                                       
It all seems a mystery to me, how this human head having a life of its own is embedded into a gem.
With a keen interest on jewelry he started making wearable "jewelry sculptures". But his dream was to find an entirely new way of working on gemstones in reverse. He started working with cheap crystals, but the tools he used were not very co-operative. After 6 months of research he came up with a modified dentist drill, on using this tool to practice on gemstones he realized this would generate heat and damage the expensive gemstone. Later he learns the technique of working under cold water and this means the carving made is not seen under water. Chan states “It became repetitive process. I make one cut, take it out of the water to check it, dry the stone, check it again, and if it's fine I put it back in the water and make another cut." The artist took 13 years to develop this technique.

“Every stroke and cut has to consider movements of light as it took lot of practice to learn how to carve in reverse.”

                                                         
This work of his called the Now and Always, inspired from mythology depicting Horae the Greek goddess of seasons. No doubt this is his most work by far.

"There is a Buddhist saying that every person has many selves, and that inspired me spiritually as I created this work." Says Chan.

To take a leap into the professional world of jewellery designing, enroll into Solitaire Diamond Institute's online jewellery designing courses Bangalore.

Meenakari Jewelry

Meenakari is regarded as one of the most famous art forms of India. However it is mistaken that this form originated in India. Meenakari originated in Persia and it was introduced to India by the Mughals. Raja Maan Singh invited Lahore – based skilled artisans to his kingdom and had a Meenakari centre established in Jaipur. 

Meenakari is a team work which requires specialization of skill. As it is generally done on the reverse side of kundan jewellery, meenakar has to work with goldsmith, engraver, designer or chitteria as well as the stone-setter.

  

Meenakari is an enamelling work done on metal. Craftsmen involved with Meenakari creations are known as Meenakars. Higher end Meena jewellery is made of gold while the lower end products are made from silver.

Designs of flowers, birds, leaves etc are engraved on the metal. This leads to the creation of walls or grooves, to hold colour. Once this engraving is done, the Meenakar applies different colours with brushes on the design. Then the ornament is fired at a high temperature. The furnace heat melts the colour which spreads evenly. Once the entire process is finished, the art is polished with corundum and again placed in fire to make it stronger.

To step forward into the Jewellery Designing Industry enroll into our online jewellery designing courses Bangalore and visit Solitaire Diamond Institute Bangalore.

Article by-Shehnaz, 

JD Student @ SDI

23 Amazing Facts About Gold

1.    If all of the existing gold in the world was pulled into a 5 micron thick wire, it could wrap around the world 11.2 million times.

2.   The boiling point of gold is 2808 degrees centigrade.

3.   There are just over 31.103 grams in a troy ounce of gold.

Largest Gold Coin

4.   The troy ounce (oz t) is a unit of imperial measure, now used for the mass of precious metals.

5.   It is difficult to find a 1 ounce nugget of gold than a five carat diamond.

6.   A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold.

7.   The temperature of the human body is 37 degrees centigrade. Gold’s conductivity of heat means that it rapidly reaches body temperature – one of the reasons it has become valued for jewellery.

8.   Gold melts at 1064 degrees centigrade.

9.   More than 175,000 tonnes of gold has been mined since the beginning of civilisation.

10. While digging up stones to build a house, Australian miner George Harrison found gold ore near Johannesburg in 1885, beginning the South African gold rush

11. All of the gold ever mined would fit into a crate of 21 metres cubed.

12. Around half of all gold mined today is made into jewellery, which remains the single largest use for gold

13. The 40,000 miners who joined the California Gold Rush in 1849 were called “49ers”. Only a very small number of them ever got rich.

14. Over 90 per cent of the world’s gold has been mined since the California Gold Rush.

15. Gold is often alloyed with other metals to change its colour and strength. Eighteen karat gold is composed of 750 parts of pure gold per 1,000.

16. The largest gold coin ever created was cast by the Perth Mint in 2012. Weighing one tonne and measuring 80 cm in diameter, it surpassed the previous record, a 2007, C$1 million coin which was just 53 cm across.

17. One ounce of gold can be stretched to a length of 50 miles; the resulting wire would be just 5 microns wide.(1 micron=0.001 mm)

18. The largest ever true gold nugget weighted 2316 troy ounces(72,034  gms i.e, almost 72.034 kg )when found at Moliagul in Australia in 1869. It was called the “Welcome Stranger”.

19. The atomic number of gold is 79, which means there are 79 protons in the nucleus of every atom metal.

20. A “London Good Delivery Bar”, the standard unit of traded gold, is made from 400 troy ounces(12.4 kg) of gold.

21. The US Federal Reserve holds 6,700 tonnes of gold, in 530,000 gold bars. At its peak in 1973, the Fed stored more than 12,000 tonnes of monetary gold.

22. There are 147.3 million ounces – around 4,600 tonnes – of gold stored in the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox.

23. 1 ounce of pure gold can be hammered into a single sheet 9 metres square.

Article Credit - World Gold Council

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Article By

Krupa J.S.

CAD Designer, SDI

Top 9 Jewellery Designing Insights from India International Jewellery Show 2015

IIJS  2015 exhibited experimenting with lots of stones specially Cabochons, as we tend to use more of faceted gems rather than non faceted ones. And also to the versatility of sliver as base metal.The whole exhibit was divided into different categories which were spread across 4 halls -

• Diamond Section
• Loose Gemstone Section
• Jewellery Section
• Machinery Section.

1. The common element in designs noticeable repeated several times across different Jewellers was - The Concept of Concave Shape.
2. It was used in different textures like Filigree, Sand Blast and even gems were placed inside the shape giving an excellent imitation of lotus flower.
3. There was another display which had placed their jewellery piece on two sheets, which were butter sheet and vellum sheet over lapping each other in such a way that when someone views it, he/she can actually see the design created by the designer and the final product.
4. Then in the Loose Gems section, we came across loose pearls. 
5. Then there was Swarovski stall. They were selling the stones at the rate of INR 50 per stone of 0.02 cts. One packet contains 500 stones.
6. There were some stalls which dealt exclusively in Sterling Silver.
7. Cabochons can stand on its own, against the glittering cut stones. 
8. Particularly fire opal used as centre piece in pendants. And also painted pearls.
9. Turquoise is another gem which is attractive when put together creatively.

Finally, take a look at some of the Unique Jewellery at IIJS 2015:

IIJS 2015 perfectly showcased different styles of jewellery, loose gems and interesting new trends.

To step forward into the Jewellery Designing Industry enroll into our online jewellery designing courses Bangalore and visit Solitaire Diamond Institute Bangalore.