Jewelry Precious Wood Necklace by Mediterranean Interiors

The Middle Ages was a period that spanned approximately 1000 years and is normally restricted to Europe and the Byzantine Empire. The material remains we have from that time, including jewelry, can vary greatly depending on the place and time of their creation, especially as Christianity discouraged the burial of jewelry as grave goods, except for royalty and important clerics, who were often buried in their best clothes and wearing jewels. The main material used for jewelry design in antiquity and leading into the Middle Ages was gold. Many different techniques were used to create working surfaces and add decoration to those surfaces to produce the jewelry, including soldering, plating and gilding, repoussé, chasing, inlay, enameling, filigree and granulation, stamping, striking and casting. Major stylistic phases include barbarian, Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian, Viking, and the Late Middle Ages, when Western European styles became relatively similar. Most styles and techniques used in jewelry for personal adornment, the main subject of this article, were also used in pieces of decorated metalwork, which was the most prestigious form of art through most of this period; these were often much larger. Most surviving examples are religious objects such as reliquaries, church plate such as chalices and other pieces, crosses like the Cross of Lothair and treasure bindings for books. However this is largely an accident of survival, as the church has proved much better at preserving its treasures than secular or civic elites, and at the time there may well have been as many secular objects made in the same styles. For example, the Royal Gold Cup, a secular cup though decorated with religious imagery, is one of a handful of survivals of the huge collections of metalwork joyaux ("jewels") owned by the Valois dynasty who ruled France in the late Middle Ages. In addition to basic forms of personal jewelry such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and brooches that remain in use today, medieval jewelry often includes a range of other forms less often found in modern jewelry, such as fittings and fasteners for clothes including, buckles, "points" for the end of laces, and buttons by the end of the period, as well as hat badges, decorations for belts, weapons, purses and other accessories, and decorated pins, mostly for holding hairstyles and head-dresses in place. Neck chains carried a variety of pendants, from crosses (the most common) to lockets and elaborate pieces with gems. Thin "fillets" or strips of flexible gold sheet, often decorated, were probably mostly sewn into hair or head-dresses. Arm-rings ("armillae") and sometimes ankle-rings were also sometimes worn, and sometimes (for the very rich) many small of pieces of jewelry were sewn into the cloth of garments forming patterns.

Article title : Medieval jewelry
"basic forms of personal jewelry such as rings, necklaces, bracelets, and brooches that remain in use today, medieval jewelry often includes a range of..."
Article title : Native American jewelry
"Native American jewelry refers to items of personal adornment, whether for personal use, sale or as art; examples of which include necklaces, earrings, bracelets..."
Article title : Cross necklace
"and non-Christian, wear cross necklaces as a fashion accessory. The Metropolitan Museum of Art book Metropolitan Jewelry by Sophie McConnell and Alvin..."
Article title : Costume jewelry
"outset, costume jewelry — also known as fashion jewelry — paralleled the styles of its more precious fine counterparts. It is also known as artificial..."
Article title : Jewellery
"Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants..."
Article title : Jesus piece (jewelry)
"have them decorated with many precious gems. Cheaper Jesus pieces have also been sold in other materials including wood and inexpensive metals. Traditional..."
Article title : Art jewelry
"counterbalance to the use of "precious materials" (such as gold, silver and gemstones) in conventional or fine jewelry, where the value of the object..."
Article title : Armenian jewelry
"women since ancient times and mostly earrings, necklaces, hairpins, rings, chains and pins were worn. Jewelry had not only practical and aesthetic value,..."
Article title : Amber
""Safety Communications - FDA Warns Against Use of Teething Necklaces, Bracelets, and Other Jewelry Marketed for Relieving Teething Pain or Providing Sensory..."
Article title : Cuban link chain
"Chain Sparks Athletes Vs. Rappers Jewelry Debate Online". Yahoo Sports. 2024-12-19. Retrieved 2025-02-12. Zuylen-Wood, Simon van (2022-12-05). "The Story..."