The Slithering Serpent In Jewelry, From Then 'Till Now.

Snake Bracelet, 1940's

The fact that the snake has wriggled its way into so many new fine jewelry collections for 2015 and now continuing in 2016, is proof to our enduring fascination with the often dangerous but mesmerizing serpent. It is perfect for jewelry and in fact, the picture above (Snake Bracelet, made by Venetian jeweler Giulio Nardi in the 1940's, he used gold, enamel, ruby's and diamonds) is proof of the beauty of this serpent's jewelry. A beautiful start for this post!

Animals have been part of jewelry since it's beginning, but no animal has the staying power like the snake does. Now it is true that the snake's movement and it's supple body makes it ideal for jewelry, as it slithers around your wrist, fingers or neck, quite often shown eating it's own tail. You will find the snake in fashion jewelry as well as in fine jewelry.

Sutra snake ring in black gold with 
5ct of sapphires and diamonds.

Snake jewelry depicting a serpent eating its own tail - the so-called  Ouroboros - has been worn for many centuries, and versions of the motif are still incorporated into fashion and fine jewelry designs today.

The slithering serpent has been a popular motif in jewelry since ancient Greek and Roman times. For the Celts, the snake represented secret knowledge while, for the Romans, it was seen as a guardian spirit and symbol of eternal life.

The Victorians adored snake jewelry and its popularity reached fever pitch after Prince Albert proposed to Queen Victoria with an engagement ring in the shape of a snake, set with her birthstone: emeralds. Victoria saw it as a symbol of never-ending love, the story is, that she was buried wearing the snake ring.

The emerald serpent ring not only started a craze for snake jewelry, but also ignited the trend for giving engagement rings. Before long, snakes were being worn by fashionable ladies all over America and Europe, as rings, bracelets, brooches and hatpins. Following the death of Prince Albert in 1861, snake jewelry took a more sombre turn with the introduction of black materials such as jet, vulcanite onyx or ebony, occasionally set with diamonds or colored gemstones, including garnet, amethyst or ruby.

The desire to wear snake jewelry continued into the Art Nouveau era with it's naturalistic movement. During this era, French jewelers would use enamel while making snake jewelry, making the jewelry more attractive again, using the enamel's variety of colors.

Art Nouveau Style Ring, ca. 1900

The gilded snake has been synonymous with Boucheron jewelry for more than 700 years through the brand's signature Serpent fine jewelry collection. 

Bulgari Jewelry has also elevated the serpent to iconic status by incorporating it into jewels beloved by celebrities such as the late Elizabeth Taylor and actress Naomi Watts, who wore a Bulgari Serpenti necklace at this year's Golden Globes.

Whether coiled around a wrist or finger, or dangling seductively from the ear, the snake is a motif that continues to intrigue both designers and jewelry lovers. The snake has more then proved it's attraction and it's staying power in jewelry.

Reference: The Jewelry Editor

Up-Cycled Vintage Jewelry.... What does this mean exactly?

The term Up-Cycled (Vintage) Jewelry is found in many jewelry stores online. If you go to Etsy.com and type this term in their search engine, you will find many jewelry shops, with handmade jewelry for sale. But what exactly does this mean?

I was fortunate enough to participate in a local fashion photo-shoot, last April. It was low-key local shoot, with the lovely photographer Laura Morales, from Blushing Mulberry Photography in Austin TX. It was there that I met one of the models, Aleta, from Austin Tx. Aleta (aka Stephanie Oliver) came to my house to drop off vintage jewelry in need of repair, and also gave me a pair of vitrail colored, vintage ear-clips, asking me if I could make another jewelry piece with them.

We decided on a bracelet. I truly had no idea how I would do this, but I didn't show this insecurity, I told her I was excited and would make something beautiful. And I did, eventually... I waited until I had the repairs done, as I did not have an idea yet, but it did come to me, as you can see here in the picture below:

©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry, Elvira Bracelet
Up-Cycled Vintage Earrings

This is a great example of 'up-cycled vintage jewelry'. You can see the earrings on this  picture clearly, the 3 prong vitrail navettes, with 3 vitrail chatons, a very common style of earrings in the 1950's. I am sure most of you are familiar with this style of earrings. For this bracelet, I added Swarovski, clear crystal vintage chatons in the middle, as to resemble a flower.

I started with a basic silver, rhodium plated (non-tarnish), clamp bracelet, with a flat base on both sides.  I took the clips off the earrings, and mounted them on these flat bases. The sides of this bracelet, were 2 single wires, about 10mm apart from each other, leading to the flat base. I carefully mounted about a foot of vintage silver Swarovski chain, with tiny clear crystals, on top of these wires, and in between the wires, I added Swarovski tanzanite octagon jewels (10 x 8 mm) in silver setting, as well as Swarovski vitrail vintage, octagon jewels in silver setting (10 x 8 m), and I had beautiful, smaller, vintage Swarovski aqua jewels (8 x 6 mm), and these matched the color scheme of vitrail beautifully, as you can see on this picture:

©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry, Elvira Bracelet
Up-Cycled Vintage Earrings

Alternating these three colors makes the result more interesting, then if I would have chosen just one color. The final step was to bend both sides, so that they would overlap, rather then meet each other exactly.

This bracelet shimmers and shines like no other, it is absolutely gorgeous! Even though the pictures represent this bracelet well, the beauty of it has to be seen in person. I use only Swarovski or the best Czech (vintage) jewels, as the quality can not be matched by any other. The price is definitely higher then other jewels, but they will last a few life-times, without losing any clarity or shine, and there is very little chance you will find scratches or chips off the jewels, even after 75 years!

I am very pleased with the result of this bracelet. The assembly took about 4 to 5 hours of work, labored with LOVE. I can not wait to hear what Aleta thinks of this bracelet, I truly hope she likes it as much as I do. And by sharing this with you, I was able to explain to you exactly what the term 'Up-Cycled Vintage Jewelry' actually means.

I love making custom jewelry. With this post I also want to let you know that I will be happy to take your custom order! Just leave me a comment under this post, and I will contact you asap!

How did we become so Absinthe Minded...?

I had to give out this link, for anyone who is interested in reading some historical info on the Green Fairy. It is filmed, documented by Chris Buddy, this is an interview with him:



http://www.greenwichcitizen.com/news/article/Absinthe-minded-GHS-grad-explores-mystique-of-1172485.php

Cocktails.... Yes, that's the spirit! Cocktails...... Prohibition Time

Finally, I mean, FINALLY here is my blog. I am not going to write about the boring details that were keeping me from starting a blog, but I will let you know what made me go to blogger.com and sign up immediately, without blinking...

Cocktails..... Yes, indeed, that is the spirit! 

Let me be more precise, it is the cocktail ring that got me started. You see, not long ago, I started my own business, House Of Joris Jewelry. I came upon making jewelry by accident and fell head over heals in love with this art. To my surprise, people seemed to really like what I was making, and encouraged me to keep doing it. Well, I needed a job, and so a few months later, I opened my own store on Etsy.com.

I never really pay much attention to what is in fashion, when it comes to dressing myself. I have my own personal style and I know what I like! The history of fashion, and the influence on people and society however, I find very interesting. And, because jewelry is very personal, and often has a sentimental meaning to the wearer, it's history is particularly interesting story.

Delilah Cocktail Ring
©2012 House Of Joris Jewelry

I started making a collection of cocktail rings recently, and thought it was fun to name each ring after an actual cocktail, and so, the Happy Hour Collection™ of cocktail rings was born. Listing the latest ring last night, Blue Lagoon, I started wondering why cocktail rings were called just that. What do these rings, have to do with alcoholic beverages? So I googled the term, and I was again pleasantly surprised. These rings have their own wonderful little history!

The name 'cocktail ring' comes from the 1920's, the time of flapper dresses, new liberating short hair cuts for women, and of course: Prohibition. During the driest of times, the secret speakeasy cocktail parties, where illegal alcohol was flowing a-plenty, were The Place To Be (Seen)! Women, wearing their new style of fashion, were standing in line to attend these parties! The jewelry style was very glamorous, and these ladies were wearing long strands of pearls around their necks, and large eye catching rings on their fingers.  They knew that everyone could see this ring, as they were holding up the wonderful and illegal cocktails. It was a way for the ladies to showcase their wealth. And so you see, the cocktail ring has everything to do with prestige and status.

At first, these large rings were set with precious and semi-precious stones, for the wealthy woman. Soon, the middle class girl would follow, wearing rings with an imitation stone, although some of them were so well made, that only a jeweler was able to tell the difference.

Later, during the glamorous times of the late forties and the fifties, it was fashionable again to wear large cocktail rings, especially while attending dinner parties. And with that, the ring was given another name: Dinner Rings. 

Traditionally, cocktail rings are worn on the fourth finger of the right hand. Currently, these cocktail- or dinner rings, are back in fashion again, they are beautiful and really can make an outfit. Have fun, buy yourself a cocktail ring, or perhaps start collecting vintage cocktail rings. They are a real part of American history.