Ancient Egyptian Jewelry Techniques

While you may not be able to recreate the techniques the ancient egyptians used to make their fantastic jewelry you can look to these pieces as inspiration in making beautiful jewelry today.

Ancient egyptian jewelry techniques.

Here are the main techniques and materials that the ancient egyptian jewelers and craftsmen used to make jewelry for the royals and noble families. King tut s mummy had 11 collar pieces and 20 amulets in its wrappings. The egyptians were also skilled at using glass beads to simulate the look of semi precious gems. The grandeur of the ancient egyptian civilization is evident in the crafts and artifactsleft behind including jewelry.

A cache of royal jewelry from the tombs of middle kingdom princesses displays extremely high levels of skill in terms of design as well as precisely cut stone inlays repoussé and cloisonné. Drilled stone and shell appear as early as 5000bc. Gold and other precious metals. Stone and shell can be shaped using sand and simple drills such as the bow drill can be used to make holes in beads or pendants for stringing.

First used by the egyptians this decorative technique involves the application of niello a black coloured powder made by fusing together copper silver lead and sulphur onto designs engraved on small scale metal objects usually made of silver. The egyptian preference was towards the use of bright colors lustrous stones and precious metals. When gold was discovered along the river of nile egyptian created gold mines to extract as much gold as possible. The discovery of gold in abundance in the nubian deserts revolutionized the egyptian jewelry making.

With their advanced tools technology and skilled craftsmen they were among the first who established the jewelry making industry in the ancient world. Many methods were used together spells would usually accompany the acts and the different tools were used for different purposes. Jewelry had to be surrendered if one was defeated in battle. Many objects especially small amulets and inlays were made from a manufactured material known as egyptian faience.

Amulets and collar pieces were placed between each layer of wrapping on a mummy in order to provide protection rather than as adornment. There are a few other techniques that were part of ancient egyptian magic like breaking pots using wax figurines and binding. Gold represented the flesh of the gods in ancient egyptian jewelry. The egyptians were quite soberly dressed in white linen fabrics and jewelry offered a possibility for contrast.

Some of the jewelry techniques we associate with victorian jewelry repoussé granulation filigree and chasing were practiced as far back as 1700 b c. Use your creativity and think like an egyptian to. Though ancient egyptians prized silver for its rarity they used gold often and perfected many of the techniques that would eventually be used in modern jewelry making. Some of the earliest forms of egyptian jewellery were beads made from stone or shell.