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Jewelry  consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewelry may be attached to the body or the clothes.For many centuries metal such as gold often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewelry.

Most modern commercial jewelry continues traditional forms and styles, but designers such as Georg Jensen have widened the concept of wearable art. The advent of new materials, such as plastics, Precious Metal Clay (PMC), and coloring techniques, has led to increased variety in styles. Other advances, such as the development of improved pearl harvesting by people such as Mikimoto Kōkichi and the development of improved quality synthetic gemstones such as moissanite, has placed jewelry within the economic grasp of a much larger segment of the population.

The “jewelry as art” movement was spearheaded by artisans such as Robert Lee Morris and continued by designers such as Gill Forsbrook in the UK. Influence from other cultural forms is also evident. One example of this is bling-bling style jewelry, popularized by hip-hop and rap artists in the early 21st century, e.g. grills, a type of jewelry worn over the teeth.The late 20th century saw the blending of European design with oriental techniques such as Mokume-gane. The following are innovations in the decades straddling the year 2000: “Mokume-gane, hydraulic die forming, anti-clastic raising, fold-forming, reactive metal anodising, shell forms, PMC, photo-etching, and [use of] CAD/CAM.” 

Also, 3D printing as a production technique gains more and more importance. With a great variety of services offering this production method, jewelry design becomes accessible to a growing number of creatives. An important advantage of using 3d printing are the relatively low costs for prototypes, small batch series or unique and personalized designs. Shapes that are hard or impossible to create by hand can often be realized by 3D printing. Popular materials to print include polyamide, steel and wax (latter for further processing). Every printable material has its very own constraints that have to be considered while designing the piece of jewelry using 3D modeling software.

Artisan jewelry continues to grow as both a hobby and a profession. With more than 17 United States periodicals about beading alone, resources, accessibility, and a low initial cost of entry continues to expand production of hand-made adornments.Some fine examples of artisan jewelry can be seen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The increase in numbers of students choosing to study jewelry design and production in Australia has grown in the past 20 years, and Australia now has a thriving contemporary jewelry community. Many of these jewelers have embraced modern materials and techniques, as well as incorporating traditional workmanship.

More expansive use of metal to adorn the wearer, where the piece is larger and more elaborate than what would normally be considered jewelry, has come to be referred to by designers and fashion writers as metal couture.

 

 

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