Information About Antique Wedding Ring Filigree

Information about Filigree
Ladies antique filigree wedding rings from the Edwardian Jewelry Period and the Art Deco Jewelry Period of the early 1900s are increasing in demand.
The term used for filigree is started with the Italian word filigrana, which is originally from the Latin word filum, meaning a thread of wire and granum meaning a grain or bead.
Filigree is formed by twisting and bending wire into fine unique designs. These fine designs were used as openwork (without a backing) or they were applied to a metal surface. The metal wire used for antique bridal ring sets were primarily gold or platinum, though metal work was used in silver or bronze. The wires used were plain, twisted, untwisted or plaited.
Through the findings of antique jewelry, the creation and use of filigree may be tracked back to early metal work from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Etruria, Greece and Byzantium. Early practices of wirework jewelry and decorative items were created using small pieces of metal and then hand setting these metal pieces for design granules.
There are four basic structural ways to create filigree.
The first type of filigree is openwork, where the design does not have a backing and is generally constructed using a heavier wire. Wires are soldered together at points to hold the design together. Edwardian wedding rings are often created with openwork filigree. This type of filigree was used to create a light, lacy design that matched the lacy clothing of the early 1900s.
The second type of filigree is ground-supported. This type of filigree as used in bridal jewelry has a metal backing and has decorative metal wires that are soldered to the metal surface.
The third type of filigree combines openwork and ground-supported types, so that the completed types of openwork wires are attached to solid metal. Attachment types could be non-soldering methods, such as split rivets, rivets, bezels, or claws.
The fourth type of filigree work is used when a material is added as fill between the wires. Often the filler used would be enamel. This type of filigree is not often seen in wedding jewelry.
In early 1900 bridal rings, most design styles were linear. This is because wire is the main material. Frequently found are small wires twisted and patterned into areas built within the borders of larger areas. The larger areas will allow the wedding ring to be more durable, while the smaller areas will be used for more decorative purposes. In traditional filigree, the wires will never overlap, however, the wires may come close to or border other wires. For openwork filigree, structural frames are always used and are important for the strength of the ring. Whereas, in ground supported filigree the structural frames are for design and are not functional. The wire strand may be used to give a design pattern or even be an area filler.
The making of the wire design is a simple process and does not require complex utensils. Tweezers, pliers and hands are used to shape and bend wires. Cold chisels or wire cutters are used for cutting.
Finger rings from the early 1900s are created with openwork designs. These rings may use either bezel or prong settings to hold gemstones for embellishment. Edwardian rings would often feature filigree in shaped to form hearts, flowers, blossoms or even stars. Rings would also be embellished with engraved designs.
During the Art Deco Jewelry Period of the 1920s and 1930s openwork filigree wedding and engagement rings would use diamonds or synthetic sapphires mounted with an open backing. Art Deco Wedding rings would focus on geometric and abstract designs and patterns. Often the center stone would be mounted in a square, hexagonal or octagonal design. Art Deco Rings would also use engraving or stamped designs.
Ten Two Three specializes in Antique Old Diamond Filigree Wedding Rings. Ten Two Three ships within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdon and Australia. For questions please contact: Info@TenTwoThree.com

Flawless Relationships Antique Wedding Rings

It’s not the perfection of a gemstone that makes the gem interesting. It’s the flaws, the imperfections, the impurities that give a gemstone character. Without the flaws, a gemstone is just a color. Or, in the case of a diamond, its lack of color. In the case of an antique filigree hand cut diamond diamond ring, it is the beauty of a diamond that is not symmetric and gold filigree that is knife cut by hand which shows slight irregularities.

The ideal in a diamond is the flawless, colorless stone. A flawless stone is one that is free of impurities. At least free of impurities that can be seen under limited magnification. A stone that has no discernible color of its own. A perfectly white stone. A stone that simply refracts and reflects light.

But when you look through a flawless, colorless diamond, you see nothing. It’s not identifiable. You could never recognize it by any identifiable object contained in the gem. It would be just like looking through air. It would just be a clear, transparent object.

So, what makes a clear, flawless, colorless gemstone interesting? In diamonds, there is just one thing that makes such a stone of interest and of value.

The value comes from the fact that such a stone is rare.

A perfect diamond is not as rare as finding a perfect person. Perfect people don’t exist. But what if one did? Wouldn’t that person be incredibly boring? What would a perfect person do that would make them identifiable or memorable? It is our imperfections that make us interesting. It is our flaws that give us character. It is our impurities that make us fun.

What first attracts people to the one they love is that first, breathtaking moment when you see that person as perfect. When the air around them seems to radiate and glow. When the person before you so captivates you that you can hardly breathe. When you want that moment to never ever end. A moment that 50 years from now, you can recall as if it just happened all over again. The moment you found your soul mate. The person who, for you, is perfection.

But, while that first burst of emotion, that first taste of love, will only grow through your life together, it is not your mate’s perfection that will endear them to you. It is their imperfections that make them so very enjoyable. So identifiable. So real. It’s the goofy little habits and oddities of your mate that will make you smile and warm your heart. It is the fun times, made more fun by not so much the parts that were perfect but the unplanned, unexpected imperfections of the moment that make the best memories.

So when you are shopping for that perfect antique diamond wedding ring to celebrate the perfect moment when you propose to the one you love, just remember that a small imperfection in the gem, or in the carefully planned proposal, that may give the moment the character that truly makes the moment memorable.

Ten Two Three offers online ladies antique, estate and vintage bridal wedding jewelry.

Ten Two Three specializes in Antique Old Diamond Filigree Wedding Rings. Ten Two Three ships within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. For questions please contact: Info@TenTwoThree.com

Make Your Bride to be Happy Choose the Wedding Ring She Wants

IT ONLY MATTERS THAT SHE IS HAPPY

Old mine cut, European cut, brilliant cut, color, clarity, ladies antique filigree bridal sets. Details - it’s all a mystery!

What carat gold would she prefer? Does she like white gold? Is yellow gold better? Would she really prefer platinum? What is the difference between 14 carat gold and 18 carat gold?

So many people spend so much time trying to learn all about diamonds so that they can give the perfect ring to their perfect girl when marriage is proposed.

What is a filigree anyway? Does it have anything to do with blood lines?

And trillions. Isn’t that just more money than I could afford?

Green wedding rings? Are they really green?

Why do they use baguettes? Are you supposed to hide the ring in the bread?

So many questions and so little time to choose. You want to get engaged. You want to spend your time with the most wonderful person in the world. You are supposed to be out on dates, going to dinner, having a picnic, taking in a movie. Not trying to become an expert in something you know nothing about.

Yet all the research and study, the doubts, the fear that you will make a mistake and buy the wrong ring mean so little in the end. There is, after all, only one “right” ring for your lady love.

The “right” ring is the ring she wants.

Whatever ring you choose, she will love. Or she will attempt to love it. She will at least attempt to love it because it is the gift from you that is your ultimate expression of love for her.

But she will be wearing the wedding ring everyday for the rest of her life. She will be most appreciative of your thoughtfulness in picking out the ring of her dreams. Not the ring you think she should like. Or might like. Most girls have a decided preference for a particular style of ring.

So, find a way to figure out what she really likes in a ring. Find out whether the color and clarity of the diamond is more important to her than the size of the gem. Or if size no matter how poor the quality of the stone is all that matters. Does she prefer a modern setting or an antique? Or does she really prefer colored stones such as a sapphire over a diamond. Does she want an environmentally friendly ring?

Pay attention when she is looking through online estate jewelry photographs, send these photographs to her friends or pay attention to what she wants in bridal magazines. If there is a conversation about jewelry, which if the relationship is serious there will be, ask her what she likes about rings. She will tell you.

Then, when that magic moment comes and you propose, you will have chosen the perfect wedding ring.

Ten Two Three Estate Jewelry distributes our antique bridal sets through our online store worldwide to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, Montreal Canada, Toronto Canada, Melbourne Australia and Glasgow Scotland.

What are attributes of Art Deco Wedding Rings?

Antique Filigree Wedding Rings are sought today because of their quality of materials, exceptional craftsmanship and their intrinsic beauty. Questions often arise as to what are the attributes Art Deco Bridal Jewelry and how it is recognized.

The Art Deco Jewelry Period is considered to have occurred during the 1920s and 1930s. The term, Art Deco, was derived from the Parisian Exhibition of 1925, called the Exposition des Art Décoratifs et Industrials. It was during this exhibition that many renowned jewelry designers displayed their latest jewelry creations. These new jewelry selections showed a shift in design from the white, lightweight and lacy styles of the Edwardian Bridal Jewelry Period to designs influenced by current events of that era. Designers were inspired by Cubism, Modernism, The Russian Ballet and the discovery of King Tut’s Tomb.

Filigree Wedding Rings would be a prevalent style during the Art Deco years, however, the designs would be reinvented. 1920s wedding mountings would become more geometric in design and more abstract. Diamonds would be mounted in square, hexagonal or octagonal mountings. Beaded millegrain metalwork would continue to be used. Bridal rings would be have more formalized and stylized floral designs. Their filigree flower petals would show stiff curves and more angular leaves. Floral bouquet wedding rings, a cluster of smaller diamonds that appear to be a ribbon of flowers would be sought. Designers would often engrave flowers such as the orange blossom on the metal. Designs would have more spiral motifs and a greater use of sinuous curves. Rings might use the bows designs that from the Edwardian Jewelry Periods, but the deco bows would be more substantial. Often two metal colors would be used to in order to create a more linear, geometric design.

Platinum, or newly introduced white gold, would replace the use of yellow gold. In the late 1920s, the first matching bridal set would be marketed.

By the late 1920s, men’s wedding bands would be fashionable again. Many of the men's wedding bands would match the bride’s wedding set.

Gradually designs would shift towards simplicity. By the 1930s curves were more austere or would be converted into angles. Art Deco wedding rings would become bolder, heavier and place less significance on gemstones.

During this period diamonds cuts would transition from the squarish Old-Mine Cut to the rounded Old-European Cut. Diamond cutting equipment would be greatly improved, allowing for new diamond cut creations with far greater symmetry. Baguettes, emerald-cuts, trillions, trapeze-cut and calibre cuts would be used to embellish the center stone. The use of colored stones would be used for bridal jewelry. Synthetic gemstones began to replace natural gemstones when it became impossible to get sapphires and rubies out of India and Burma due to the start of World War II.

If you have any questions about any of our antique wedding rings we offer, do not hesitate to email us at Info@tentwothree.com. We are happy to answer your questions and help you choose the right wedding ring. Vintage Bridal Sets are available in a variety of designs to provide enjoyment for a lifetime.

Ten Two Three specializes in Antique Old Diamond Filigree Wedding Rings. Ten Two Three ships within the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.