A Cool Discovery In Surfsville Bloglandia

You know how it is. You take a little break and visit a couple of your favorite blogs and before you know it you've been sucked into the tube, the pipe, and you keep following those waves from one blog to another. :) Soooo that was me the other day, took a break to let my joints have a bit of a rest, and before I knew it I had stumbled on some neato-banito sites. I found one called "Antique Jewelry University" and I gotta say it's one of my new favorite ones. Just like the title says it's all about antique jewelry from wearing a few bones around our necks to the current fads. It has an encyclopedia section. A forum you can read or join, a news letter to subscribe to, a library and a photo gallery. Here is their self description (and they do it so much better then me)


"AJU, what is it exactly?The Antique Jewelry University is a project that has the aim to be the most extensive source of information on period jewelry available online. The goal is to attract a community of appraisers, jewelry historians, gemologists, collectors and other jewelry lovers who will share their knowledge in order to help the public and each other expanding their understanding of jewelry. We invite you all to play an active roll in expanding AJU as a valuable source of information to the jewelry community. "

It's a relatively new brainchild and it's being added to all the time. I tried to copy their header for ya, but all I go was an inch of the Pantheon (Looks good huh??) So you'll just have to surf over from here to see it all.

I did copy a couple of different photo of ancient jewelry to share. I love to go back into old archives to see what was created in the past that can be used for inspirations here in the present. Its amazing to see what my human ancestors created, how they lived and what they thought. And it's great fun for me to wander back to the past for a few inspirations on creating jewelry for the present.

Look at this necklace. If I told you I just found it at someones ETSY store you'd waste no time finding out who created the beads. Right?? Only thing is it the artist lived a couple of thousand years ago!! :)

This piece of Minoan the inhabitants of the island of Crete around 1400B.C.E Huh I just bought the new Contemporary Copper Jewelry book by Sharilyn Miller and dang if she doesn't have almost the same twisted/hammered wire links!! :)


And look at this piece It's Etruscan a civilization in Italy around 900B.C.E Could pass as a piece of Metal Clay work I'm a thinking

This is one type of portrait painting that really creeps me out. It was all the rage in the Georgian period especially in France. It's a great way to carry a picture of your lov....er good friend around in your pocket without anyone really knowing what the person around the look like.... yeah right and if you believe that...... But I swear I've seen a number of contemporary artists use this concept in their creations. I guess that's what they mean when they say "nothing is new under the sun"
We humans spend a lot of time taking from the past and remaking to be our own. To me that's a good thing. We honor the gifts of those that lived before us, but still have the need to make them our own.

Soooooo when you have a bit of time and ya want to take a bit of a trip back to the past jump on the AJU time machine and go exploring. You never know what you'll find that might inspire you!!

Have a most audacious today or tomorrow depending on where in the world you are p;)