Name Necklaces - What To Look For When Ordering One

Name necklaces or name pendants as they are also called have been around for at lest forty years that I can remember. The pendants that I saw before my apprenticeship began were mostly worn by very young girls not even teenagers. They were always plated gold and tended to look a little worn as the girls must have liked wearing them often.

They became popular for a good while in the eighties with teenagers and then disappeared for a long period. The huge success of Sex in the City sparked a monstrous comeback for name necklaces of all sorts. I get people asking me every week for a name pendant just like Carrie. Today we are seeing movie stars and television personalities reading the news wearing them.

I resisted many requests to make them until a young single mother of two hounded me for about a month to make them for her sisters.

I make them almost everyday now and they are handmade and very time consuming but the rewards are not just financial as girls and ladies send me emails telling me how much they love them.

If you are getting one made make sure that you ask if it is real gold or gold plated. Gold plating will often wear off as it reacts to acids in the skin and as these pendants are worn high up and touching the skin all the time they are susceptible to this reaction. I make some items which are gold plated but I give a 5 year guarantee with it and the plating is deep. It almost never gets an acid reaction. So be sure to ask about that and guarantees.

The next thing to look for is the thickness of the metal. I use gold plate 1.4mm thick to cut the pendants from. In silver I even use a thicker plate than that as silver is much softer than gold. Now, I see many advertisements for pendants where the thickness is not specified. If you see them ask how thick they are. I see many which are 0.4mm and 0.7mm thick.

This minor thickness has two problems associated with it: firstly, it is just too thin and will bend easily, and secondly, being as thin as a piece of paper means that it lacks dimension. It probably takes me about 40 minutes to hand polish the edges of these pendants and because of that and the thickness of these edges it has a lovely depth to it so that it shines when you look at it from any direction. Have a look at what I make at my website so that you can appreciate what to look for from your manufacturer.

The last thing to look at is how the chain is attached to the pendant. I use small rings and I solder the gaps in these rings so that it can never come apart. The quicker way to do this is just to close the gap but it may come apart with a bit of wear. I make them with diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

Gary Hocking makes custom jewelery of all kinds. He has his own website http://www.jewelleryexpress.com.au
Feel free to use this article as long as you keep the bio and the live link to his website.

The Diamond Necklace That Marks Time

Nothing is more striking than the diamond necklace. A journey version is even more striking given the meaning of its diamonds in relation to time and commitment.

Over the years, many different types of diamond jewelry have been in vogue. From the large pieces of the early 1900's to the smaller, delicate jewelry of the 1990's and 2000's, there's always been a different type of diamond jewelry that has been the most popular. Recently, one of the most purchased and requested types of jewelry has been the Journey diamond necklace. This necklace is available from many different jewelers ? most of whom make a variety of styles.

Of course, the Journey style of diamond jewelry isn't the only style that has been very popular in recent years. Many people have been seen sporting the three-stone ?Past, Present and Future? diamond jewelry that originally gained popularity in the late 1990's. This type of diamond jewelry typically has three stones ? one each to represent the past, present and future of a romantic relationship. In necklaces, this theme may be seen in the three stone drop necklace ? which uses either three stones of the same size or of gradually larger sizes. Rings usually have a larger center stone and two smaller flanking stones. The sentiment behind this Past, Present and Future jewelry makes it very popular for engagements and anniversaries.

The Journey diamond necklace (as well as other Journey diamond jewelry) has a similar meaning to the three stone jewelry that is popular. Journey jewelry uses a series of graduated stones to show love growing throughout the years. This loving idea makes the Journey diamond necklace an excellent idea for a gift to someone you plan to spend your life with ? such as a wife or fianc?e. There are many different styles of this graduated jewelry, and they come in all different metals (such as yellow and white gold, as well as platinum).

The most popular style of Journey diamond necklace is the ?S? shape. This curved necklace, seen usually in white gold or platinum, has a series of round diamonds curving their way down a pendant in progressively larger carat weights. This type of necklace can be found in all different price ranges, due to the fact that jewelers make this necklace in several total carat weights (ranging from around just .25 total carat weight to several carats). The price for a Journey necklace can be well into the tens of thousands of dollars.

When you want to show your wife, girlfriend or other special lady just how much you love them ? a Journey diamond necklace can be a great way to say that you love them today and your love will continue to grow.

Find jewelry stores near you at JewelryStoresforyou.com.

How To Mount A Stone So That It Can Be Used For A Charm Necklace

I am assuming this is a tumbled stone, not cut as a jewelry stone with a flat back and definite shape. If so, let me know and we will go one more time.

Here is the answer for a tumbled freeform stone.

The kind of jewelry part (called "findings" in the trade) you want is a bell cap. There are different styles of this. You should be able to find these at crafts stores and if you want gold or perhaps sterling, a jeweler should be able to order for you. A few crafts stores will have sterling findings but most will have only plated items.

To attach the stone to a bell cap, a good adhesive should be used. There are two primary types of adhesive for this purpose. The first is 2 part epoxy cement and the second is a thick single part craft glue. There is a difference in the two: Epoxy takes more set-up time, meaning the cap must be set-up in place on the stone while the epoxy cures. The cement has no strength until some time has passed after the two parts are mixed. The epoxy has the advantage of curing with an almost unseen line and is a neater application.

The thick craft cement will hold the cap in place even when uncured and all may be set aside for a day while the cement cures. The disadvantage of this glue is the thickness and it will show a bit. Still, many crafters like the thick glue because it holds quite well in many kinds of cementing jobs.

BASIC PROCEDURE

Take the bell cap and press onto the part of the stone where you want it fitted. Try to fold the "arms" of the cap to match the contour of the stone fairly closely. Then when cement is applied, all is already fitted to the shape of the stone.

With either cement, do what many folks skip and help insure a good lasting bond. Simply clean the metal cap and the stone with alcohol (household medicine cabinet variety is fine) to remove any traces of oils from the surfaces. Allow to dry and then apply the cement.

Brands recommended: Should be available at crafts stores.

If not, a good craft store should have suitable alternative brands. I do not recommend the 5min cure types since working time is very short. You are better off to support the stone with the cap fitted and set aside for a couple of hours and get a stronger bond. Keep the leftover epoxy mix on the same scrap baggie or whatever you mixed it on, along with the toothpick (or whatever mixing tool). When the leftover cement is cured and the tool is stuck to it firmly, you know the cement is cured. This tells you your jewelry item is ready without having to mess with it while the cement cures.

E6000 crafts cement. This is the one part thick glue. Apply sparingly since it will squeeze out a bit and will settle down to a smoother surface. Be careful of "stringers" of cement on the application tool (again, toothpick or what is handy) since these stringers are messy getting on the wrong places. When cured, the cement may be peeled off of places it should not be.

You will need a "jump ring" (wire loop) or "snap on bail" to hang the stone from a chain. These are also available at crafts stores or at a jewelry store(generally not in mall chain stores, try local folks).

Just do a dry run first and then cement away! Use as little cement as appears needed for a neat and less "crafty" looking finished job.

Victor Epand is the owner of http://www.JewerlyGift.biz, a huge online jewelry superstore featuring the greatest selection of jewelry including personalizable items. Clearance Sale items are here: http://www.jewelrygift.biz/collection/clearance-sales.html

Black Pearl Necklace 101

If you?re looking for the best accessory to sparkle up your wardrobe, look no further. Black pearls, or what is also known as Tahitian pearls, come all the way from the lagoon of French Polynesia or the deep recesses of Japanese ocean. They come in a wide range of colors ? black, blue, gray, green and brown.

Color really depends on the personal taste of the wearer but most of the time black pearl necklaces have blue, gold, silver pink, eggplant and peacock green overtones.

About the cost, the rate is that darker the Tahitian black pearl, then the more valuable it is in the pearl industry. Also just like any pearl, the rounder the shape, the more expensive it is. This is because pearl industry aficionados know how difficult it is to obtain a perfect spherical pearl from oysters and mussels.

Another rule of thumb is that overtones also affect the price of the pearl. A black pearl that is solid in color and has no overtone whatsoever does not even amount to half of a black pearl containing overtones.

Pearl makers know that a good way to capitalize on the variety and beauty of the Tahitain black pearls is to make a strand containing various overtone shades. In that way, not only will the buyer have the liberty to add dimension to the outfit she?ll we wearing the pearls with, she can also play up her looks ? from professional to casual.

Black pearl necklaces often come from the South Seas, most of which from Tahiti. Famous to be expensive because of their demand in the pearl-making industry, South Sea black pearl necklaces are also known for their size which is larger than the usual pearl. Tahitian black pearls ranges from 8 mm to 18 mm. The ironic thing is that of all the South Sea black pearls out there, the Tahitian black pearl is the cheapest ? but the most popular.

If buying a black pearl necklace, it is important that you know what you exactly you are looking for. You must know the value of the necklace you?re fancying as well as whether you could still stretch your buck and allow you to get the best possible Tahitian black pearl necklace for you.

Getting a black pearl necklace is often suggested to each and every woman out there because it will revamp any wardrobe, making it fashionable, elegant and classic.

Here are some tips that can help you decide whether the black pearl necklace you are fancying is worth paying the price for.

1.) Always check the color. Yes it really depends on the preference of the buyer on what kind of color to get but as much as possible, try to not get the solid black pearls if you regard it as an investment. The more overtones a pearl has, the more valuable it is. Therefore choose a pearl that has blue, green, red, purple or pink overtones.

2.) The luster provides the shine to the pearl. This is the most valued feature. In fact, it is more important than the size and the shape. The clearer the reflection, the more luster the pearl has.

3.) Because it is extremely hard to get pearls to begin with, getting pearls that are perfectly round is harder. Therefore, another rule is that the rounder the pearl, the more expensive it must be in the pearl market.

4.) Just like all things that are living, no two pearls are alike. There will always be a difference with each one. The blemishes to a pearl are like the veins to a leaf. This what sets it apart from the other pearls. If you?re skimming through black pearl necklaces, check the surface. Avoid the blemishes. A solid black pearl necklace that has no scratch or blemish whatsoever is a rarity.

You must also check the strands of the necklace you are buying. Make sure that they won?t tarnish. A tarnished pearl necklace is awful to look at.

In the pearl industry, cultured pearls are also more valuable than the natural pearls. Natural pearls were obtained straight from the nacre of mollusks and oysters underneath the sea whereas the production of cultured pearls have been assisted by expert pearl farmers.

A cultured black pearl necklace is slightly more expensive than the natural black pearl necklace all because of the added labor to producing it.

Regardless, black pearl necklaces are an investment and any woman would be so happy getting one ? especially this Holiday season.

For more information go to: http://www.unlimitedpearls.com, http://www.bestpearlnecklaces.com

Can Necklaces Mean a Pain in the Neck?

The wearing of jewellery has been with us across the ages with both men and women seeking to adorn their persons with these ornamental devices. The word jewellery is anglicised from an old French word "joule" (jewel), but the origin can be further traced back to the Latin word "jocale" which means plaything.

Although we typically think of jewellery as being made from precious metals and gemstones, over the centuries it has been made from a variety of materials such as cloth, wood, shells, rocks and stone. In fact man has been very ingenious and artistic in creating jewellery from just about anything and in many different styles from the plain and simple to the highly elaborate.

Items of jewellery have also been adopted as potent symbols and even worn to ward off evil spirits or to help overcome enemies in battle.

Examples of jewellery being worn other than for adornment, are necklaces such as the cross or crucifixes worn by Christians as potent religious symbols. Other religious types of necklaces are pendants known as amulets, which are figures or symbols of varying shapes and sizes, which are hung on a chain round the neck.

Necklaces called lockets, which are usually heart shaped are worn as a symbol of love and open up to reveal a picture or lock of hair from a cherished one.

Necklaces and pendants are both worn around the neck but a pendant usually means a hanging object although it can be hanging from a neck chain or an earring. A choker is also a form of necklace but is worn high around the neck and can also have a pendant hanging from it.

Perhaps the most bizarre form of necklaces are those worn by the Pa Dong Long Neck people who are part of the Karen tribal group that live along the border between Thailand and Burma. From the age of 6 years old, brass rings are snapped around the necks of young girls, a few every year, up to a limit of 20 rings although there is a woman on record as having 28 around her neck. As they progress from childhood to womanhood, their necks appear to elongate although apparently what really happens is that the weight of the rings crushes the women's collarbones giving the illusion of a very long neck.

It is said that these women only remove the brass rings on their wedding night with a long drawn out process involved, which involves much neck washing. As brass often tends to discolour the skin one can imagine that there may be a rather nasty green mess under those rings. After the wedding night, the rings are replaced and must remain in place for life, as the women's neck muscles are now no longer strong enough to support the length of the neck and the weight of the head on their own.

This wearing of neck rings was also a practice adopted by women in South Africa and in particular those from the Ndebele tribe and these women have often been referred to as giraffe women because of their long necks. The Ndebele women traditionally wore copper and brass rings around their necks arms and legs as a symbol of their status in society and after marriage as a symbol of her bond and faithfulness to her husband. Husbands would provide their wives with these rings and the richer her spouse the more rings she would wear and they would only be removed after his death as they were believed to have strong ritual powers.

Thankfully, in both the Pa Dong and the Ndebele tribes, this traditional practice is no longer popular and is now dying out in favour of the more usual types of necklaces.

Written by John Lewis of Love2Have. Love2have specialises in quality handcrafted designer necklaces made here in the UK by small independent designers.

How to Buy Pearls - Pearl Matching in Pearl Necklaces

You look at a white pearl necklace. The light makes it sparkle with subtle hints of pink. Every pearl matches perfectly from the smaller pearls near the clasp to the largest pearl in the middle. The pearl necklace is beautiful! How did it get that way? It starts at the Pearl Farm, continues at the Pearl Dealer. If you buy a Pearl Necklace, the work has been done for you. If you are a Jewelry Designer who makes pearl necklaces, you need to know how to do this. What we buy from Pearl Dealers is not well matched!

There are seven Pearl Value Factors to be considered when making a pearl jewelry purchase. Pearl Matching is one of these. Pearl Matching refers to how well all the pearls in the strand of pearls match, one to another. A well-matched pearl necklace takes into consideration all the other Pearl Value Factors. The Match refers to the remaining Value Factors: Size, Color, Luster, Surface, Shape and Nacre. As simple as a traditional white pearl necklace appears, the process of matching pearls is quite complex. And this process has not varied from the time it first began.

When visiting a Pearl Jewelry Factory, there is always a room with a wall of windows looking northward. Northern exposures provide the best light for viewing pearls. This provides bright, indirect light. Often the windows will be covered with shades or frosted glass. Diffuse bright light is best for examining pearls in order to get an accurate body color and overtone for each pearl. Pearls are examined by trained technicians. Computers cannot do this work. Every pearl necklace is been assembled by hand.

For the purposes of this article, assume that some of the pearl processing has already occurred. We are not starting at the oyster harvest. Pearls have already been sorted by their relative size. This means that they have been quickly sorted into like-sized groups. We can also assume that the Pearl Jewely Factory purchased pearls of similar quality from the pearl farm. But, just like buying a bushel of peaches from a Farmers' Market, the pearls must still be evaluated. They will not all be exactly the same size. Nor will they be exactly the same quality. They will not even be the same shape - some will be closer to perfectly round than others.

In our particular matching case, we are working with several strands of white pearls that are close to round. There are many decisions to be made about what pearls to include in our pearl necklace.

1. The pearls are laid out under a bright light against a neutral background. Use a daylight-accurate lightbulb if you don't have a natural light source. Spread pearls on a white or pale grey cloth or bead tray.

    

2. Throw out any pearls with cracked nacre that exposes the bead nucleus.

    

3. Look first for common body color and start grouping these together. Move the rejected pearls to another area.

    

4. From your common body color, identify a common overtone. This will be the haloed color in the center of the pearl. In white pearls, this is usually rosè, green or silver. Group the pearls by common overtone.

    

5. Start organizing the groups by size, especially if this will be a graduated pearl necklace.

    

6. As the pearl necklace begins to take shape, identify the pearls with the highest luster. Place these pearls near the center of the pearl necklace. These will catch the most light when worn -- don't hide them near the clasp!

    

7. Once you have a full pearl necklace length, look at the nacre, surface and shape of the pearls in your necklace. Identify any pearls that are too off-round or are too blemished. Do this by rotating each pearl and examining it in the light. Look for flaws but also for beauty. Swap pearls in and out of the final group and also swap positions within the pearl necklace. Sometimes the position of a single pearl within the necklace can improve the overall matching of a necklace. It often takes longer to lay out the pearls in a pearl necklace than it will to add knots to the necklace after matching.

I have watched skilled technicians match pearls; they make it look effortless. They are fast! Matching pearls takes practice, but it is a good skill to have.

Beth Schmitz, CEO Avant Pearl, GIA Pearls Graduate

A jewelry designer, businesswoman and self-proclaimed diva, Ms. Schmitz spent more than 20 years in business. Her creative side took control in 2001 when she chose to dedicate her life to the jewelry industry and the smart women like her who appreciate gorgeous baubles and have the means to pay for them.

Beth's online pearl jewelry boutique, AvantPearl.com, features high-end pearl jewelry from leading designers, limited-edition manufacturers and skilled craftsmen throughout the world. She holds a degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Black Pearl Necklaces

 

Tahitian pearls or black pearls are the only pearls that are truly black. These pearls come from the Tahiti-Polynesian islands. The black pearl is not only rare, exotic and breathtakingly beautiful, it is an integral part of the Polynesian economy and lifestyle. The islands are the leading exporters of fine black cultured pearls in the world.

Black pearls are pearl concretions that are concealed inside the black-lipped Pinctada Margaritifera pearl oysters. These pearls come in many shapes, diameters, qualities and several natural shades ranging from pale gray to jet-black. Black pearls for making necklaces and other jewelry are chosen with care many pearls that do not satisfy the criteria are rejected. The chosen pearls must not reveal the nucleus or the seed of the nucleus.

Tahitian pearls are grown in large black-lipped oysters in the salt waters of Tahiti. The natural black color pearl is particularly famous and most desired. Universal colors are black, gray, blue and peacock green. Perfectly round Tahitian pearls with a nearly flawless surface and remarkable luster are considered the highest quality and best for making necklaces. Black pearl necklaces are made in various shapes and sizes.

The black-lip mother-of-pearl specially found in the waters of French Polyne secretes a black pigment. This pigment ejaculated by the mollusk gives a rich color to the pearl ranging from deep black to gray to light silver. Shades of green, blue and pink can also be found. The saltwater oysters are big, sometimes almost the size of a dinner plate, and produce luxurious pearls ranging from 8 to 18 mm in size. Prices range from $100 for a small pearl of average quality up to $10,000 for a round pearl of perfect quality with a diameter of 18mm. However, black pearls are very rare compared to ordinary white pearls. If one is looking to buy these exquisite pearl necklaces, the online market offers a wonderful array of black pearl lengths. However one must shop carefully and purchase pearls only from trusted sellers.

Pearl Necklaces provides detailed information on Pearl Necklaces, Black Pearl Necklaces, Freshwater Pearl Necklaces, Cultured Pearl Necklaces and more. Pearl Necklaces is affiliated with Cultured Pearl Earrings.