Restoring a golden touch
Updated: 2013-12-16 07:47
By Kitty Go (China Daily)
|
||||||||
The French jewelry, watch and perfume company Van Cleef and Arpels recreates the use of gold beads to decorate its jewelry. Photos provided to China Daily |
The use of gold beads as a decorating technique called granulation dates back to 2500 BC as evident in royal tombs from Ur in Mesopotamia (known today as Iraq).
It then spread throughout the Middle East. This ancient art was embraced in Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1783 BC) when jewelry making reached its peak, particularly in gold-smithing.
This beautiful effect of minute spheres made of precious metal decorating jewelry inspired Van Cleef and Arpels to recreate this ancient craft in the 1920s. A painstaking procedure then and now, it can only be done using at least 18K gold.
The 1920s, which coincided with the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, was the second phase of a period in art and design called "Egyptian Revival". The first phase occurred around 1870, around the time the Suez Canal opened. "Egyptian Revival" was a time when all things Egyptian - furniture, art, architecture, clothing and jewelry - came into fashion particularly in Europe and America.
For what is now called gold beading, VCA workshops take a thin textured metal to line stones and motifs of jewels to create an elegant and luminous beaded border that acts as a setting. The texture is achieved by maneuvering tools onto the metal to shape a line of minute balls in the ancient Egyptian style.
Snow hits SW China's Yunnan province
Moon rover, lander photograph each other
With a hole in its heart, South Africa buries Mandela
After the storm
Guangzhou beats Al-Ahly 2-0 at Club World Cup
Two students wounded in US school shooting
21 died in Xinjiang coal mine explosion
Mandela's body transferred to Qunu village
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
Today's Top News
China safeguarded national interests in 2013
14 terrorists killed in Xinjiang
Chinese law firm expands in US
Complacency hinders US energy-saving strategies
China plans its Chang'e-5 lunar probe
Dialogue urged after naval incident
Chang'e-3 mission 'complete success'
Cave art's wide influence explored
US Weekly
![]()
|
![]()
|