Jewelry Styles

Jewelry (as spelled in American and British English) is a form of personal adornment, manifesting itself as necklaces, rings, brooches, earrings and bracelets. Jewelry may be made from any material, usually gemstones, precious metals or shells. The word jewelry is derived from the word jewel, which was Anglicised from the Old French "jouel" circa the 13th century.

Jewelry has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more. While high-quality jewelry is made with gemstones and precious metals, such as silver or gold, 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 jewelry, made from lower value materials and mass-produced. Other variations include wire sculpture (wrap) jewelry, using anything from base metal wire with rock tumbled stone to precious metals and precious gemstones.

Jewelry in India

The Indian subcontinent has the longest continuous legacy of jewelry making anywhere since Ramayana and Mahabharata times. While Western traditions were heavily influenced by waxing and waning empires, India enjoyed a continuous development of art forms for some 5000 years. One of the first to start jewelry making were the peoples of the Indus Valley Civilization. By 1,500 BC people of the Indus Valley were creating gold earrings and necklaces, bead necklaces and metallic bangles. Before 2,100 BC, prior to the period when metals were widely used, the largest jewelry trade in the Indus Valley region was the bead trade.

Jewelry in India has been an unbroken tradition for over 5,000 years. Such is the skill of Indian jewelers that with time, the real flowers and leaves used by our ancestors inspired them to recreate the gifts of nature in gold and silver.

By the third century B.C., India was the leading exporter of gemstones, particularly diamonds. Gold was usually imported into the country, a practice prevalent even during the Mughal period.

In India jewelry is made practically for every part of the body. Such a variety of jewelry bears the testimony to the excellent skills of the jewelers in India. The range of jewelry in India varies from religious one to purely aesthetic one. The craft of jewelry was given a royal patronage right from the ancient times because in India jewelry is much more than just a tool of aesthetic appeal; rather it is the symbol of divine abundance and material blessings.

The rajas and maharajas vied with each other to possess the most exquisite and the most magnificent pieces of jewelry. Jewelry, because of its easy convertibility into cash, was thus regarded as security and investment.Jewelry as investment and identity marker is evident in the plethora of ornaments worn by people from nomadic and migrant tribal communities. It is not uncommon to find Banjara women wearing a wide variety of silver jewelry.

A profusion of earrings in various sizes, bangles of bone, shell and ivory extending from the wrist to the armpit along with silver bracelets, chokers, pendants and necklaces, nose rings, and heavy anklets are worn by most of the migrant groups, especially in Western India. The setting of precious gems and stones in rings, pendants, necklaces and bracelets gained prominence due to the belief that these stones are associated with certain powers.

In Bengal, it is common to find iron, silver and gold wires twisted together to form a bracelet, a combination that according to popular belief gives the wearer health and strength. Traditionally, Indian goldsmiths are usually men and are referred to by a variety of names depending on the region-sonar, swarnakara, panchallar, or thattan. In the Vedic period, goldsmiths had a much higher standing than most other artisans, perhaps because they worked with a precious metal. The goldsmiths had royal patrons. Historical records show that Indian jewellers mastered quite early the various skills required to make fine jewelry-mixing alloys, moulding, drawing fine wires, setting stones, inlay work, relief, drawing gold and silver into thin wires, plating and gilding.

In smaller places, the goldsmith may perform all the processes involved in producing a finished piece. In cities, the different operations are undertaken by separate people-the goldsmith prepares the skeletal framework, the chatera engraves, the kundansaaz or jaria sets the stones while the meenasaaz enamels it.

Different regions of India boast of jewelry making styles unique to them - in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh fine filigree work in silver, in Jaipur the art of enamelling or meenakari, temple jewelry from Nagercoil and kundan or the setting of semi-precious or precious stones in gold from Delhi.

Meenakari and kundan are the styles of jewelry making influenced by the Mughals and are usually used in combination to make jewelry that can be worn on both sides such as chokers and necklaces. The temple jewelry of Nagercoil consists of traditional gold ornaments studded with red and green semi-precious stones. These were used as offerings to the Gods and hence the name. The story of handcrafted Indian jewelry is long and absorbing. Inspired by nature, fuelled by beauty and belief, it is an eternal process of artistic imagination and fine craftsmanship. From prehistoric ages to the present day, the crafts of precious Indian jewelry is one of its kind in beauty and quality.