What is the point in wearing jewelry?

Have you ever had this question in your mind? For non jewelry wearers when you see someone walking down the street wearing a Diamond necklace, or a lady wearing a gold earrings and you ask the question what is the point? Well there are lots of reasons why someone may wear jewelry but in order to answer that question lets go back into time and take a look at a brief history of jewelry.

Brief History of jewelry

Jewelry has a very long history dating back to thousands and thousands of years. The first ever signs of jewelry was found in Kenya, eastern Africa. Shell jewelry from snails or other crawling creatures have been used as beads for necklaces in ancient Africa.

Ornaments made from Ostrich egg shells have also been discovered. Even in places like Russia mammoth tusks used as a pendant were found which shows that jewelry has been around for a very long time.

 

Ancient Egyptian gold earring

Even in ancient Egypt jewelry has been around dating back up to 5000 years ago. Jewelry in ancient Egypt symbolized religious power, wealth and other luxury. This was also the first recorded time when gold jewelry was used. Even in death jewelry was worn when the kings and queens and pharaohs where laid to rest. So this shows that jewelry was  an important and significant factor in the lives of ancient Egyptians.

Jewelry has been around for thousands of years and has been in use all over the world including Europe, Asia, India (Jewelry has had religious and ceremonial meaning here) and the Americas.

In countries such as Greece, women wore jewelry to show their status in the community such as their beauty and their wealth. In African countries wearing certain jewelry is believed to protect a person from certain charms and spells in witchcraft.

Jewelry today

Jewelry had been used to hold clothing and hair in place. Many wholesale jewelry stores sell ornaments which can be fixed to clothing to help fix clothing together e.g crystal buttons .For example

today in the 21^st century commonly people wear jewelry items such as necklaces, earrings, rings, necklaces and other types of body jewelry. People are more concerned with looking good and styling out but this isn't the only reason why people wear jewelry.

Functionality- One of the reason jewelry items have been useful is because of their functionality.

Watches are used for telling the time and people either get a basic watch for time telling, others invest a lot of money into getting the best looking diamond watch to show off their wealth to others.

Jewelry is also used to fix hair and clothing together. For example women may have hair jewelry products to keep their hair looking nice and neat.

Affiliation- Jewelry has in the past and also today been used as a stamp on an individual’s affiliation with a religious group or an ethnic group. For example many people these days wear cross shaped or crucifix necklaces to show that they are Christian and believe in God.

In Africa you can have tribes who wear necklaces to denote that they are from a specific tribe, for example the Massai in Kenya.

Social/ personal status- Another reason why people wear jewelry is to signify their social or personal status in the community. For example at a dinner party, a woman might wear a diamond necklace to signify their wealth and their upper class standard.

Another common example are wedding and engagement rings which show that a woman/ man is connected with their significant other.
People will buy wholesale body jewelry in order to sell them at a higher price to people who like to pierce their body to display a message.

Wholesale jewelry
People go to wholesale jewelers for a couple of reasons. The most common is to save money and the other is to find their own supplies in order to make their own custom jewelry.
The industry has expanded and you can find wholesale costume jewlry- Wholesale costume jewelry-jewelry customized for costume events and parties, wholesale silver jewelry- Silver parts which are eventually used to make silver rings, earrings, necklaces etc.
Many people just go to wholesale jewelers to buy jewlery less than what they would buy them for at more established jewelry shops.

Other people just wear jewelry for the fun of it, or to compete with their friends.  People nowadays will spend a fortune to get the brand new Rolex just so that they can compete with their friends. Or there may be an earring club, and if you do not own an earring, you cannot join that club.

 

Brand new rolex watch for the wealthy

Someone may also wear a jewelry item because they feel deeply connected to it, for example a necklace which has been in the family for generations being passed on from the grandparents, to the child, to the child’s child.

There are lots of reasons why people wear jewelry and the list goes on and on. If you wear a  jewelry item, what is your reason for wearing it?

The jewelry industry has grown today, and many people are splashing cash buying Rolex watches, diamond rings, diamond chains are so on. Other people on a budget go to wholesale jewelry stores to buy wholesale jewelry supplies in order to make their own  custom jewelry.





For more information about jewelry, be sure to check out the wikipedia page via this link.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewellery