Indian Accessories

As the tendency to wear more and more jewelry increases jewelry designers and producers take this opportunity to make numerous eye catching designs and models of wearable ornaments. Wearing jewelry does not end up with the word fashion, but today it has become an approach to enjoy life with style.

The recent steep rise in the jewelry materials like gold, diamond, platinum etc has forced the jewelry shoppers to find some alternatives to these expensive metals. In this situation silver could be the best option. The comparatively low cost of silver helps people to buy more numbers of silver trinkets with the same amount they will spend on gold, diamond or platinum jewelry. Moreover, the metal silver is so soft that the designers are able to craft various intricate designs that they cannot make with gold or platinum.
Silver ornaments, when polished brightly, get a pleasing shiny, cool look. People prefer to wear silver jewelry at parties since these jewelry articles look exceptionally bright and shining in the moonlight. Silver accessories, at times, are worn to express personal styles where as other times these pieces are loved as fashionable materials of art. The statement “silver is worn to express personal styles” means the look generated when silver trinkets are worn is just as the same looks generated by clothing, hair styles and other jewelry articles.
The ornaments made out of silver are suitable to wear for daylight as well as evening occasions. Jewelers take advantage of this special feature of silver and design and produce silver trinkets for all seasons. Today the production of silver metal ornaments has touched the level of creating silver jewelry to fit every occasion like casual wear, sport wear and stylish wear. If worn with dark clothing the silver will highlight your personal wearing style to the viewers. Silver gives a stunning and very comfortable look against exposed skin areas when light weight or summer clothes are worn.
Just imagine, an ordinary metal like silver possesses many extra ordinary hidden features. No wonder, this low-priced metal capable of producing a number of intricate jewelry has become a trend setter today.

Silver is found in nature as a crude ore. Can you imagine such crude silver could be refined and used to produce some of the most attractive and intricate ornaments that men and women wear on all occasions?

In India, unique and exceptionally beautiful silver ornaments are made in almost all parts of the country. The states Gujarat and Rajasthan craft a special oxidized silver jewelry with a chunky appearance. This popular jewelry is usually studded with various colorful and attractive gemstones. Decorative materials like beads, shells, mirrors, colorful threads, feathers, jute ornamentation, crystals etc are often added to Indian silver jewelry to make it more attractive. Delicate and elegant silver jewelry has also a very significant place among Indian masses.
You can count several reasons for the worldwide popularity of silver jewelry. It has the power to capture the attention of everybody with its lustrous, pristine appearance. Its availability at an affordable price even to an ordinary person is an added attraction. Silver jewelry is much cheaper than gold and platinum jewelry. To sum up, you can see a healthy large customer base for silver with its wide range of gorgeous and intricate ornaments such as necklaces, earrings, pendants, rings, bangles, anklets, hair ornaments, brooches, bracelets etc…etc…
Pure silver is very soft and malleable, but gets damaged very easily. It is approximately 99.9 % silver and is suitable to create only intricate jewelry where its delicate nature is needed. Alloys of silver are used to make much sturdier and stronger jewelry
Important Alloys of Silver
Britannia Silver has 95.84 % silver and 4.16 % copper. Mexican Silver contains 95 % silver and 5 % copper. Sterling Silver consists of 92.5 % silver and 7.5 % copper. Coin Silver is a combination of 90 % silver and 10 % copper and German silver is 80 % silver.
Sterling silver, perhaps, is strong, durable and harder than pure silver and the most suitable silver alloy to make jewelry. It can reflect light very well and it does not wear like silver plating. Silver trinkets can be made either by machine or hand. Machine can make very fine silver jewelry having a better overall finish. It becomes cheaper, as it is produced easily at a very large scale. The advantage with handmade silver jewelry is that it is very unique, and could be customized. Only skilled craftsmen can create silver jewelry with hands and two pieces of jewelry can never be identical.
Keep silver jewelry in a separate pouch or a compartment of the jewelry box to save it from getting scratches and avoid any contact with chemicals like bleach, ammonia and chlorinated water. If got tarnished, silver jewelry could be polished to its original shining.

Indian Jewelry is very special and unique characterized by its elegant simplicity and superb craftsmanship. Each part of India produces particular types of jewelry out of different metals and each exhibits its own splendor and charm.

The northernmost state Kashmir brings out rings, chokers, bracelets and earrings made out of blackened silver and polished brass and embedded with semi-precious stones. Tiger stone, coral, turquoise and jade in stained pink, amber and green are also available and these reflect the beauty of the sunset, flowers and trees of the Kashmir Valley. Elephant tusks were mainly imported from East Africa to be carved into marvelous earrings, necklaces and bangles.
Rajasthan State offers brightly colored, light and delicately chased lacquer bangles that bring a dash of colors from their rainbow hues. Also available are bangles having small beads and mirrors studded in the lacquer, which shine and sparkle with every turn of the wrist. Menakari, a form of gold jewelry from Rajasthan is studded with precious gemstones that are later enameled with gold. Magnificent Kundan jewelry is yet another famous art from Rajasthan. Kundan, a semi precious opaque crystal is shaped individually and then soldered and inserted into a dazzling stone.
We get a variety of silver articles from Indian coastal areas such as heavy pieces of silver jewels from Maharashtra and dainty filigree in leaf, star and flower patterns from Orissa. Delhi’s heavy silver bracelets, necklaces, rings and lockets with delicately carved traditional patterns like the paisley leaf, the lotus, the almond, and the mango are in great demand. Andhra Pradesh produces very popular cuff-links, buttons, and earrings of silver embedded in oxidized black metal.
The best Terracotta jewelry found in West Bengal is made from clay with engraved designs. Splendid necklaces, rings, bracelets, anklets, pendants, bangles, and other trinkets are made out of terracotta for women. West Bengal is also famous for Navaratna jewelry, a necklace of nine gems. The nine stones strung together are considered to bring wealth and prosperity to wearer and it protects from various diseases and danger.
South Indian states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu offer temple jewelry made of 22-karat gold and studded with precious stones. In southern India you get ethnic jewelry like Mangamalai, Khasumalai and Mullaimottumalai made of pure gold. The word manga means mango and malai, chain. Thus Mangamalai is a gold chain having small shaped mangoes joined together. In the same way Khasu means coins and Mullaimottu, jasmine buds. Hyderabad is famous for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bangles and other ornaments studded with various colored pearls.

From primitive ages men and women used to adorn themselves with beautiful handmade ornaments with the materials available to make trinkets embellished with stones, bones, and other organic material they got easily.

As they make improvements in tools, discover new better metals and stones and grow in skills, today they create more versatile and intricately designed jewelry, one best example being Silver Gemstone Jewelry.
Silver Jewelry
The metal silver is used in the production of various types of jewelry, chunky and bold pieces and also delicate and elegant ornaments. Silver jewelry is normally gold plated and also often embossed and engraved. Beautiful and intricate designs, sometimes, are crafted in separate silver pieces and then joined to bring out enchanting jewelry. When silver jewelry is embellished with attractive gemstones it becomes Silver Gemstone Jewelry. These gemstones help the purely silver trinket to enhance its beauty by lending their vibrant colors and cheer.
A gemstone is always valued with its beauty of cut, color and capacity to refract light. Based on these properties these have been classified into precious (cardinal) and semi-precious gemstones. So the cost of silver gemstone jewelry, naturally, depends on the type and value of the gemstone used to decorate it.
Though around 130 minerals are cut into gems and nearly 50 of these are used in gemstone jewelry and for various other purposes only the diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald and amethyst are considered as the most precious traditional gemstones. Modern gem has included certain organic materials too, such as pearl, ivory, coral, bone, amber, ammolite, jet etc…etc…
Silver gemstone jewelry is very popular among people of all ages and all countries. People wear these ornaments casually as well as on all formal occasions. No wonder, silver earrings, necklaces, pendants, bracelets, brooches, anklets, rings and other ornaments embellished with the charming gemstones are so loved and every one is too crazy to possess at least one of these.
Everyone has a desire to own a gemstone due to its various intrinsic qualities. To make the gemstone jewelry more beautiful and attractive they are given various finishes, to name some rustic, antique, hammered, polished etc. Gemstone jewelry is largely considered as a dedicated art since it requires tremendous skills and craftsmanship. Gemstones could be used in a traditional style with a modern contemporary twist making it more wearable and thus enhancing one’s personality more and more.