I'm dropping by today to talk about my first jewellery love, amber! I thought I'd go through this resin's long history, religious uses-- and how to accessorize with this weird and wonderful object.
Where this precious jewel comes from?
When we think of amber we usually group it in with the many stones we find in our jewellery. Amber isn't actually a stone, or tree sap as some believe; it's a resin. This is what has always fascinated me about amber. Resin is like our blood. When a tree is damaged it releases honey- coloured liquid resin to cover and heal itself (which hardens over time). Each piece of amber you own is a piece of the life- force of a thousand or even million year old tree!
Most of the amber jewellery you'll ever own comes from in and around the Baltic Sea (this is the area between the goats- headed shape of Scandinavia and Central Europe). How long have we been wearing amber jewellery? People have been accessorizing with amber for more than 15, 000 years! Most of your amber will come from Gdansk in Poland, as this is one of the biggest amber sites off the Baltic coast and these guys have been making jewellery since 1100.
The perks of wearing one
Like many 'stones', throughout the years amber has been thought to have many positive properties. Before civilizations we wore amber amulets to protect against evil spirits and diseases. Later on eastern countries began to use amber jewellery along with amber incense to cleanse the body of jaundice (they believed the amber absorbed what was causing people's skin to turn yellow).
Countries in Central Europe also caught on this, and they believed that this resin also increased the courage and integrity of the wearer.
By 1200 Christianity discovered the importance of amber. The Knights Templar took over most of Prussia (including Central Europe) and found the harvesting fields out on the Polish coast. At this time the seven sins were taken very seriously, so if the devout wanted to avoid the greed related to gold, this gold couloured substance became the next best thing. Amber was declared a pure substance that could only be used in rosaries or in church/ religious friezes and anyone harvesting their own or using it otherwise would be severely punished. This went on for many more years, and amber rosaries are still popular with a number of Catholic denominations due to it being natural, cheap, and beautiful.
How to glam up with an Amber jewellery on
Now to accessorize! As amber has such a warm tone by itself, it's best worn by people with a warm skin tone. If you have a cool tone you'll have to wear smaller pieces, but combining it with silver jewellery like I do works wonders for even the coolest skin tones (like pasty old me).
Big pieces of amber make a big statement, so are best combined with animal print, tribal, and Aztec patterns to make a strong- looking outfit. If the big amber pieces are polished and delicately cut they can be used with a very basic, classical outfit such as a cream fitted dress (one you might wear to a christening), cream shoes, and brown based accessories.
Some big oval earrings with a big- beaded necklace would pop against the sleek neutral colours. If you like your jewellery to say a bit about you, or to accent (but not take over) your outfit gor for smaller pieces, but more of it. Maybe try a small amber pendant with a silver and amber ring and some simple bead- shaped earrings. It brings a bit of colour to any outfit, but dotting the amber around keeps it from being too full- on.
Click individual items to buy
If you're not fond of orange or yellow, amber can actually be found in a number of other colours. From the Baltic you can also get milky (cream), green and cherry red amber. Although it's a lot rarer and more expensive, you can get blue amber mined from the Dominican Republic. This gives you a lot more opportunity to wear amber as these colours are more forgiving, and suit more outfits.
While most amber pieces are in traditional and rough cuts, there are a number of up and coming companies making contemporary designs that can make more meaningful, individualistic and quirky pieces for everyone's needs. You don't see many people wearing amber anymore, so wearing amber will make far more of a statement and can tell other a lot about you and your style. My favorite piece at the moment is this lovely pendant; very fitting for the coming of autumn where I live.
A Guest Post from (About the Author)
Adina Flanagan is a writer, website tinkerer, and lover of all things geeky. She likes to find quirky or unknown things to share with other people, and blogging gives her a great way to do that while meeting some awesome people along the way.
