Pearls are a natural for bridal jewelry. Soft and natural looking, they have a feminine look perfect for spring weddings. Since the traditional bridal gown is still white, pearls are one of the best choices to accessorize.

The history of cultured pearls goes back to 13th century China. Entrepreneurial Chinese put small metal pieces and tiny Buddha statues between the mantle and shell of the mollusk and replaced it in its natural environment. They carefully watched them for a couple years, till the foreign substances were coated in layers of mother-of –pearl. How did they figure out this would happen? Maybe the first brilliant man (or woman) dissected a peal and discovered a small rock in the center, and extrapolated from there.

Not until the beginning of the 20th century was a method devised of creating perfectly formed spherical pearls. Personally, I find the irregular naturally formed pearls the most beautiful.

I don’t want to be mysterious, but one of the ways a man can provide a little personal adornment is with the ubiquitous key chain .  I love to collect them, and even if you don’t change your keys with every pair of pants, there are ways to own a lot of them. (I’m up to six now.)

Maybe I’m bitter. I love jewelry, but since there aren’t many ways a man can wear it, I’ve had to be creative. Until modern conventions change, I’ll work within the system, and key chains are not only acceptable but necessary.

There are hundreds and probably thousands of key rings to choose from. I’m not sure I can stop at six!

Garnets are beautiful , rich looking gemstones, modernly considered the birthstone of those born in the first 3 weeks of January. Most people think of them in their most common color, a deep burgundy red, but the truth is that garnets appear in a rainbow of colors. There are pink, green, violet and even (rarer) black garnets.

The name comes from an ancient Greek word for the pomegranate seed, which has a similar hue to the red version of the stone. The Egyptians long ago used garnets in their jewelry making. Today, garnets are still popular, beautiful and reasonably priced.

Like all gemstones, you have to be careful not to scratch them or expose them to chemicals or temperature extremes, but they are a sturdy stone that can last for many generations with proper care.

I love variety, and realize there’s plenty of room for all types of taste in jewelry. Some people wouldn’t be seen in anything but gold, some need to be dripping in diamonds while others wear only a simple wedding band or a pair of pear studs.

I still find my self attracted to silver jewelry with dogs , cats or other animals. Why is this? Well of course I love animals anyway, but there is something that fascinates me about an artist who can capture all the whimsy and life of an animal in something as tiny as a silver earring, a gold pendant or a platinum ring. And silver charms! Who can resist them?

It’s too bad men are not encouraged to wear body adornment, as they once were. Sure you can wear an earring, but how many men are brave enough to put on a charm bracelet? Yet in many cultures it was the men, like male peacocks, who were the decorated ones.

To me, there is nothing quite so lovely as a well crafted piece of amber jewelry . Perhaps it has something to do with its organic origins. Amber is, after all, resin from ancient trees, often with organic matter included within it.

According to sources, amber can be as old as 90 million years. It’s a looking glass into our planet’s past. The most fascinating amber to me contains not only plant matter but insects embedded in the depths of its rich topaz tones.

I don’t personally collect this wonderful material, but the more I learn about it the more tempted I am to do so. If you are searching for a truly unique jewelry gift, a lovely pair of amber earrings or a beautiful pendant would do quite nicely.

I’ve always been a sucker for sparkling gemstones. Diamonds are lovely, but to me nothing compares to a beautifully cut and polished emerald or ruby. If you want to surprise your significant other this holiday season, consider a dazzling ring or pendant in the colors of the season.

Did you realize that the color in gemstones is caused by impurities? I find that fascinating. Maybe that’s why they’re so appealing to me. I’ve never been one to go for things that are considered “perfect.” To me, an ideal drinking glass is a slightly off-center hand blown one, full of bubbles, thicker on one side than the other. Not to compare the glory of a red ruby or deep green emerald to a drinking glass, but you get the idea.

I encourage you to look at many different rings or pendants, in various settings before making your final decision. Certain settings tend to bring out the “personality” of the stone more than others.

Are there new jewelry looks , really? I think so, if only because new jewelers are being born every day. When you get to be my age, you start looking out for something a little different, and start paying attention to the new kids on the block.

I’m not talking about big jewelry companies, but the individual artists. That’s where it all begins, even if you’re talking about a mega institution like Hello Kitty. Even that funny little cat was designed by an artist, probably working away at his or her studio somewhere in Japan.

But I’d like to focus for a minute on the artists who create their own work, and put their art and livelihood on the line when creating something new. I think being a working artist is one of the most important professions on the planet, whether jewelry artist or painter.

There are niches for some jewelry that you might never expect. Some of them are actually unprintable in a blog such as this one, but most of them cover a small slice of the population without being “r rated.”

I think this is rather interesting! Like all niches, specialty jewelry can be for a handful of people or a rather large bunch. You can see this easily when it comes to birthstone rings and gems. How many people were born in November? Yet there is a market for topaz that is rather large. I suppose it’s possible that 1/12 of the population may have an interest in this gemstone, after all.

And how about the high school ring? I don’t know if that’s still a popular item, but when I attended high school that’s what all the “cool kids” had. I gladly counted myself out of that illustrious niche.

There is elegance in gold, silver and platinum jewelry. Maybe it’s the monotone sparkle, but through thousands of years these precious metals have been admired and thought beautiful. I would argue that the form of the piece is equally important. However, there is something fascinating about color in jewelry design .

Yes, there are brightly hued emeralds, crisp and gorgeous rubies, diamonds that sparkle in many rainbow colors- but what about the use of colored glass, heated and used to form enamel? This has been one of the most popular and inexpensive ways to create colored jewelry, and I’m glad today it’s as popular as ever.

Pearls are in a class all their own. The product of an irritation, the pearl begins as a grain of sand or even a parasite that has gotten inside the mollusk while it was feeding. The animal excretes a substance which coats the invader and eventually forms a pearl.

Amazingly, natural pearl producing mollusks are only one in a thousand. Each species of mollusk produces its own individual color, and that’s why there’s such variation.

Not all mollusks produce attractive pearls; in fact there are just a few varieties that produce the really beautiful specimens. But interestingly enough, all mollusks, whether salt water or fresh water are capable of making pearls.