Innovative Copper Jewelry

It is interesting to watch the innovations in the world of fashion jewlery. As we know, the objective of creating fashion jewlery is to develop designs, colors, and patterns that are appealing to the customer – primarily the teenage customer – while at the same time, maintaining the affordability of the jewlery. This is particularly interesting in today’s market, where gold sells for about $800 an ounce! So designers and sellers almost have to stay away from precious metals and precious gemstones when designing their creations. The use of base metals like copper for fashion jewlery appears to be been spurred by the current economic crisis. Copper has been used in jewlery designs for a long time. Early designs were quite crude, by today’s standards. However, as craftsmanship and techniques improved, so has the quality of copper jewlery. Take for example, the beautifully crafted copper pendant shown in this picture. The focal bead is natural, jet-black onyx. It is no doubt, a pretty stone. But by itself, the stone is not particularly outstanding. But put in into a pretty rustic rose copper setting, and suddenly you’ve got yourself a stunning piece of fashion jewlery! At $20, this copper pendant satisfies both key requirements for fashion jewlery – a beautiful piece of jewelry at a very reasonable price!

Calsilica in Fashion Jewelry

Its been about 12 years now since calsilica first appeared on the fashion jewelry scene. With its bright, vivid, and varied colors, it is not hard to understand why calsilica captured the imagination of jewelry designer as well as jewelry wearers alike. Calsilica earrings, silver pendants, rings, and other items were often the stars at gem and jewelry shows.

So what is calsilica and where does it come from? The general consensus is that calsilica is a man-made amalgamation of various minerals and stone fragments that are held together with resin. Often, the powder and fragments are deposited under water and compressed to form cake. The cake is dried and infused with resin. Once the resin hardens, varies pieces are cut from the block, and then polished to achieve the desired sheen.

There is little evidence to suggest that calsilica is a naturally occurring material. Nonetheless, good calsilica specimens are pretty, and can be used to make attractive, inexpensive fashion jewelry.