How to Wear Bracelets with Style and Flair

Beautiful bracelets can really enhance an outfit. Here’s how to wear them with panache. Bracelets can enhance an outfit as well as a nicely manicured hand. They’re particularly attractive in the summer when you have a sun kissed skin tone which can play up the look of a simple gold bracelet on the wrist. Bracelets are immensely versatile and can give your wardrobe a huge style boost. Here’s how to wear bracelets with style and panache:

How to wear bracelets: Enhance the colors of your outfit

Colored bracelets, particularly lucite ones, are hot for Spring 2010. You’ll find them in a brilliant array of colors to complement the bold, graphic color designs being shown for spring. Buy a top in some of the new flattering spring colors along with several lucite bracelets in matching shades. Wear two or three colored lucite bracelets with your top and you’ll be right in style for spring.

How to wear bracelets: Show off sun kissed skin

Nothing shows off skin gently darkened by the sun (or self tanner if you want to avoid sun damage) than gold bracelets. Keep it simple by playing up your tan with a 14K gold cuff bracelet or one of two gold bangle bracelets. You can even add a delicate, gold ankle bracelet to your ankle when you head out the door in your shorts or casual skirt.
How to wear bracelets: Play up your manicure
If you just got a manicure and are anxious to show off your hands, choose a colorful bracelet that complements your nail polish or stick with one or two gold or silver bangles
to highlight your hands and perfectly shaped nails. After you’ve spent all that time and money on a manicure, you need to make sure people notice your freshly buffed hands.

How to wear bracelets: Wear a functional bracelet

If you want a bracelet that’s more than a bracelet, buy a bangle watch that will not only show off your hands and wrists but will keep you aware of the time. You can find bangle watches at all price levels from high end gold and silver designer bangle watches to fun, casual ones you can wear every day. It’s a great alternative to a boring wristwatch.
How to wear bracelets: Make your own
It’s super easy to make your own bracelets.

How to Look Fabulous in Pearls

Pearls are a versatile addition to any wardrobe but sometimes they need to be updated a bit. Here are some fashion forward ways to wear pearls. Pearls can look stunning for both day and evening wear and can be the perfect finishing touch to an outfit worn to the office or to a more formal evening affair. With such versatility is there any wonder that pearls have been so

popular over time? Unfortunately, a simple strand of white pearls, although elegant, can look a bit trite and uninspiring for some occasions. Why not jazz up your pearls a bit by adding some additional fashion touches? Here’s how:

How to wear pearls: Wear oversized pearls

Oversized pearls can make an ordinary outfit look dramatic, yet still elegant. Although a strand of large cultured pearls might be out of your price range, don’t be afraid to buy a strand of high quality glass pearls. Look for ones with a nice reflective surface and sheen to them. You’ll find yourself pairing our oversized pearls with everything from your winter sweaters to your evening attire. When you wear oversized pearls, be sure to keep the rest of your jewelry more understated. Let the pearls be your focal point.

How to wear pearls: Add a pendant to your pearls

You can completely change the look of a strand of pearls by adding an enhancer with an attached pendant. An enhancer is simply a piece that clips on to your pearl necklace that allows you to hang a pendant or a cluster of stones on your pearl necklace to give it a whole new look. You can usually purchase an enhancer at your local pearls jewelry store or online. When purchasing an enhancer at your local jewelry store, bring along your strand of pearls so you can see how different enhancers work with your necklace.

How to wear pearls: Mix pearls with metal

For an evening look, layer a few long strands of glass pearls with metal chains in either silver or gold to add a touch of drama to your outfit. Pearls and gold are always a beautiful combination but long strands of glass pearls can look hip worn with long link chains in sterling silver and even copper.

How to wear pearls: Go for colored pearls

You can buy freshwater and glass pearls in a dizzying array of beautiful colors to enhance spring outfits. Look for freshwater pearls in a variety of pastel shades as well as beiges, creams, and even metallic. Layer on several strands of colorful freshwater pearls to enhance a blouse or dress in spring colors. Freshwater pearls are an inexpensive way to add color to your outfits.

How to wear pearls: Layer pearls and stones

Intersperse strands of pearls with strands of semiprecious stones for a layered look. The semiprecious stones will add additional color and texture. 

Choosing Turquoise Jewelry

Turquoise jewelry is fashionable and lovely, but is a soft gem that requires careful handling. Turquoise also comes in many shades, depending upon where it is mined.

By J. E. Davidson

 

Beautiful blue turquoise stones bring to mind the American Southwest and the cultural influences of native American tribes. Turquoise is one of the oldest known semiprecious gemstones and is still making a big impact on today’s fashion scene. It is the birthstone gem for December and the traditional gift for a five-year marriage anniversary.

Given as a gift, turquoise is said to bestow good luck, wealth, and happiness on the receiver. Ancient peoples revered turquoise, and no one was allowed to wear the stone; it was reserved as a gem to be offered to the gods.

The History of Turquoise

Turkish tradesmen brought the lovely gem, along with many other gems, spices, bolts of cloth and other valuable goods, with them across the commercial trade routes to Western Europe, where the blue-green gemstone quickly became fashionable.

The ancestors of the Aztecs and other tribes of Mexico, Brazil, and Peru migrated from the flat grasslands of what is now Mongolia and brought their reverence of turquoise, and the skills to work the rock, with them. After the demise of the Mayan empire, the Pueblo people kept this reverence alive.

Turquoise Was Considered To Have Supernatural Properties

Turquoise was believed to overcome the glare of the Evil Eye. In Middle Eastern countries, people still weave turquoise into the manes and tails of their beasts of burden to bring good luck and protect the animal from missteps. In the 13th Century, horsemen carried the gem as a talisman to protect the horse from overheating due to physical exertion and keep the rider from harm.

 

The Color Of Turquoise Varies With Mining Locations

Turquoise deposits are mined in many Middle Eastern countries, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and a few Eastern European countries as well as the American Southwest. The deposits are formed in the earth by water trickling through rock containing copper, aluminum, iron, and other minerals. Chemical reactions create these deposits, which can range in color from a gorgeous sky blue, the most desirable color, to shades of teal and lighter blue-greens, to apple green.

The gem has a matrix of lines running throughout, formed by the chemical bonds created over millions of years. The matrix can be black, yellow, or brown, depending upon the rock that is bound to the turquoise, and adds to the beauty of the gem. Spider webbing refers to very fine lines of matrix.

The hardest turquoise is found near the surface of the earth where it has had a chance to dry and cure. It is 5-6 Mohs on the hardness scale, with 10 being the hardest. Most turquoise is soft and chalky, too porous to be used unless it is treated.

Turquoise Treatments

Exquisite turquoise, which is hard enough to be used in its natural state without treatment, is exorbitantly expensive. It may be cut and polished but no other artificial changes are made to the gem.

Most turquoise on the market has been chemically treated to stabilize the color and harden the stone. Stabilized turquoise has been infused with an epoxy resin which fills the pores of the stone.....

Reconstituted turquoise is created by mixing pulverized turquoise with resin and blue powder. Larger turquoise chips may be processed in this manner and referred to as Compressed Nugget.

Block turquoise is made from blue dye and resin, and contains no real turquoise. It is a man-made stone that comes in many colors.

Much turquoise from China, who supplies much of the turquoise used in the jewelry industry, is wax treated. The surface of the stone is impregnated with paraffin, which deepens and stabilizes the color.

Dyed stones are naturally occurring stones that resemble turquoise when they are dyed blue. Other simulated turquoise.

Before paying premium prices for turquoise jewelry, know the reputation of the person you are buying it from. They should be knowledgeable about all aspects of the jewelry.

Handle Turquoise Jewelry With Care

Since turquoise is a soft gem, it requires careful handling to keep it beautiful. Don’t store it with other jewelry where it may get chipped or scratched. Avoid exposing it to solvents, perfumes, hair sprays or other chemicals.

While the popularity of turquoise jewelry declined a generation ago with its association with the hippie era, today it has been catapulted into fashion circles. Many top jewelry and fashion houses are using it in their new lines, and whether it is set in a traditional native American setting or more contemporary style, turquoise jewelry is back with a vengeance.