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Rose Quartz beads, faceted oval, 8x10mm |
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Sterling silver clasp for chain w/ball
(dog tags) big, 3x9mm |
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Sterling Silver bulk chain, Medium
textured bar chain, medium weight,
1x12mm |
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Sterling
silver round smooth spacer bead
findings, 4mm. |
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Natural Amethyst beads, faceted oval
shape, approximately 6x9mm |
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Tourmaline beads, low grade, smooth
round shape, 8-9mm |
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| Part 1 -
Chain, Chain, Chain ... |
When Aretha Franklin sang "Chain of Fools," she was
singing about a woman who realizes she's one of many
who've fallen for a heartbreaker. But if you find
yourself falling for
chains, it's one of the
savviest fashion decisions you could make.
Chains are the accessory that no one is talking about and
yet--as if they’d all made a secret pact --many of
the major fashion and
jewelry designers are using to
highlight this year's fashions. It's almost as if
the beauty of wearing chains is so obvious that no
has to mention it. It's the secret code for the
perfect look.
A Brief, Incomplete History of Chains
Chains have been used in
jewelry since ancient times
and have been made from
gold,
silver,
copper, and
just about any metal that could be formed into a
series of connected links. According to Tino Volpe,
humans began working with
gold in Neolithic times
and found that "certain
metals, most notably pure
gold, were extremely ductile and could be hammered
and stretched to a great degree. It's theorized that
gold
chains developed along with the invention of
gold wire, which required hammering
gold into flat
strips and then " pulling them through die forms
until they were thin. Each link then had to be
individually curved and soldered. A
chain machine
was invented in the seventeenth century, but until
then all chains were handmade.
An art unto themselves,
chains have been fashioned
with almost endless variety and worn either on their
own or as a means to suspend pendants or
jewels.
Chains are defined by a number of characteristics
including the way the links interlock; the shape of
the links (oval, circular, rectangular); whether
they're
twisted or flat; and whether the links are
single or multiple.
Among the most common types of
chains are: the
bar
chain and bead chain, which alternates between
bar-shaped and bead-shaped links; the
rope chain, a
simple style, where the links tend to be uniform in
thickness and breadth, and the chain looks like a
rope; the cable chain, made with
oval links; the
box
chain, which has box-shaped links; the
snake chain,
which has very tight links that give a bit of a
zigzag look; bead chains, which look like old key
chains—tiny metal balls joined by short lengths of
wire; the
curb chain which has flat, interlocking
links that are similar to each other; and the
herringbone chain, a distinctive
chain, made of
v-shaped links that lie flat and have a shimmering
liquid effect. |
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