A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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Comments
Dear Lynn, Very nice indeed! Peter
Very beautiful, Lynn. Are you planning to use the hair-ornaments in a necklace?
Thank you Peter and Betty.
Yes I am wearing the hair ornaments as a necklace on a chain, one or three or all five as pictured. I won't permanently string them because I like the flexibility and for them to maintain their identity as independent objects.
Love these, really beautiful. Do you have any opinion on their age Lynn?
Thank you Cecilia and Alaa. I really love them, they might be my favorites in the collection.
Cecilia I am not sure there is enough information on this type of jewelry to guess the age; I have only seen examples in Heather Coyler Ross' books and one which is a cuff posted here. The bracelet seems very old just by the deep patina and feel of it, but I don't know for sure. Soon I will post more photos of the bracelet. It is super tiny and goes on over the hand like a tight bangle (the hinge opens just a little bit.)
If anyone has more information or examples of these, I would love to see them!
What a great idea wearing those hair ornaments as a necklace! They're truly gorgeous.
Lynn are you sure this is Saudi turquoise? Becasue I do know that the Harrar people , yemeni and iranian favor the light turquois without any black in it. So I thought the whole region goes for the light blue turquois. Just a thought. Never the less the bracelet is a warm sold piece I can imagine why it is your favorit looks comfortable as a cuff. Gr. Ingrid.
I have handled many turquoise stud jewelry from eastern saudi arabia, gold and silver and it seems as if they do also favor the light blue stones when possible, they would even prefer plastic or chemically(?) processed stones if they bear this light pale blue without black cracks or veins BUT it also seems that saudi arabia was a net importer of turquoise stones from Iran and most were of second level quality especially when applied on low grade alloys or regular silver jewels.
On the other hand, it must have been too expensive to adorn these jewels with brilliantly clear turquoises as the cabs size were too large for instance on heair adornment...to afford a neat turquoise of that size with black unclusions would have cost a fortune even to jewel gold pieces and even at that time
On a recent trip to mashhad in Iran, i witnessed the mass production of turquoise bezels and their technique to get rid of the black veins would be to high speed polish the stones to give them a varnish like shine which would "hide" the inclusions and still make the cabs affordable, otherwise there would not be enough clear turquoises available to match the demand
What technics can do.! Thank you Alaa for sharing your knowledge and experiences. GR. Ingrid.
Thank you Alaa and Ingrid for your comments. Ingrid, the main books where these pieces are documented are the books of Heather Coyler Ross who lived in Saudi Arabia. I have not seen them anywhere else except for a few examples online. I would love to see more. She also says that there was a turquoise mine outside Medina.
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