Costume Jewelry And Estate Silver Jewelry
By John Terry
Costume is often created with non-precious metals, usually gold or silver plated, and with or without beads and stones. Costume has been extremely popular around the world for thousands of years. The Ancient Egyptians are known to have worn decorative beaded necklaces and Cleopatra is probably one of the original wearers of what we now call costume jewelry. In more recent times the people of the Germanic and Slovak regions became highly skilled at developing intricate patterns in glass beads. However, beadwork used in costume is not only limited to glass.

A large variety of materials are traditionally used to make beads such as jet, wood, amber, gemstones, pottery, ceramic, metals, horn, coral, ivory, tortoiseshell and pearls. Some modern materials such as plastics, nylon and even polycarbonate variants are also used to make beads. Costume can be antique, period, or contemporary and there are many collectors of every style of costume jewelry. Venetian glass pieces of costume are particularly collectable as well as being extremely popular for people to wear.

Sterling silver is an excellent choice in estate jewelry. Long lasting, easy to care for, and so beautiful. Buying estate sterling silver can be a lot of fun but it can also be confusing.

Whether

you are looking at sterling silver for a gift for that special someone or looking to add to your own to make that fashion statement, it’s important you understand the terms that are used throughout the industry.

Once you understand the terminology you will be better equipped to choose quality pieces of sterling silver and you’ll be able to complete your purchases with a lot more confidence.

It doesn’t matter whether you are buying on line or at your local store. It doesn’t matter if you are buying in the USA or Canada or in Europe or China. The terminology used to describe silver are the same around the world.

Sterling silver has always been popular and remains so today. Sterling silver estate has also shared it’s time in the limelight but in recent years its popularity has exploded. That’s because buyers are looking for something a little more unique than modern sterling silver can offer.

Everyone knows how beautiful sterling silver is and how durable it is, that’s one of the reasons it’s such a popular choice. And of course let’s not forget how affordable it is!

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