Byzantine dream ring - Aquamarine

Byzantine dream ring - Aquamarine from Burnstein Azalee Jewelry
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* 18-karat gold, Aquamarine
* genuine design
* without blinking, low lag
* handmade jewelry

Perms: copy

Prims: 4

IM Chrysalida Burnstein if you want to personalize your gift, for 10% of price, with special message/notecard, in beautiful box.

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Size settings:

All of pieces from Burnstein Azalee Jewelry comes with a resizing option.

After you wear piece of jewelry, touch the object. After touching a prim it offers you options to resize all prims of the piece of jewelry 1, 5 or 10 percent smaller or bigger.

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Byzantine jewelry was a full continuation of the Roman traditions which were kept alive behind the high walls of the new capital, Constantinople. The Roman techniques and styles continued to form the foundation of Byzantine goldsmith's skills. Byzantine jewelry had a huge influence on the manufacturing of personal decoration in the rest of the Medieval world. The Carolingian (start 742 AD) and the later Ottonian courts (start 962 AD) were linked to the Byzantine empire and adopted their fashion resulting in the northern European Romanesque jewelry style.

In the Byzantine Empire jewelry played an important role. It acted as a way to express ones status and as a diplomatic tool. In 529 AD Emperor Justinian took up laws regulating the wearing and usage of jewelry in a new set of laws, later to be called the Justinian Code. He explicitly writes that sapphires, emeralds and pearls are reserved for the emperor's use but every free man is entitled to wear a gold ring.

Just like in Roman times gemstones were extremely popular and the display of gems became more important than the surrounding goldwork. Precious stones came mainly from the East. Flourishing trading contacts with India and Persia brought vast amounts of garnets, beryls, corundum and pearls to Constantinople. Gold was being mined within the empire's borders in modern day Greece, the Balkans and in Turkey, where silver was found with gold. The people of the Byzantine Empire liked their jewelry colorful. In addition to gemstones the desired polychrome effect was achieved by the use of enamel.

Gemstones were often were rounded (if not already done by nature), polished and then drilled. A gold wire would then be passed through the drill hole and bent into a loop on either side of the gem. This way the gemstones could be attached to one another to form necklaces, pendant earrings, headwear or bracelets.

Another typical Byzantine way of using gemstones was to cut them into polished cabochons and set them in collets. The gem became more important than the gold in Byzantine times and less effort is put into gold surrounding big gemstones. The art of glyptography was kept in honor and cameo's and intaglios were popular as ring stones and pendants.

Traditionally, motifs on gold were produced in a few ways: repetitive motifs were embossed on gold with the aid of a die, more individual work was chased and fine detail was achieved by engraving with a very fine tipped tool. The Byzantine masters added and perfected the technique of highlighting such fine details in relief with the use of niello. Openwork had been popular in the Roman Empire and continued to be a favorite method of decorating goldwork in Byzantine times. Opus interrasile work became even more detailed and was used more elaborately then before.

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