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.

Ancient egyptian jewelry techniques.

Gold and other precious metals. The main reason for wearing jewelry is because of its aesthetic function. When gold was discovered along the river of nile egyptian created gold mines to extract as much gold as possible. Some of the earliest forms of egyptian jewellery were beads made from stone or shell.

King tut s mummy had 11 collar pieces and 20 amulets in its wrappings. Many methods were used together spells would usually accompany the acts and the different tools were used for different purposes. The egyptians are sometimes credited with making the first costume jewelry making fantastic pieces with glass beads that resembled semi precious gems. Egyptians had access to precious metals and gem stones.

Gold represented the flesh of the gods in ancient egyptian jewelry. 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. Use your creativity and think like an egyptian to. Drilled stone and shell appear as early as 5000bc.

Many objects especially small amulets and inlays were made from a manufactured material known as egyptian faience. 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 grandeur of the ancient egyptian civilization is evident in the crafts and artifactsleft behind including jewelry. There are a few other techniques that were part of ancient egyptian magic like breaking pots using wax figurines and binding.

The egyptians were also skilled at using glass beads to simulate the look of semi precious gems. The egyptians were quite soberly dressed in white linen fabrics and jewelry offered a possibility for contrast. 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. The egyptian preference was towards the use of bright colors lustrous stones and 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. 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. Jewelry had to be surrendered if one was defeated in battle. Some of the jewelry techniques we associate with victorian jewelry repoussé granulation filigree and chasing were practiced as far back as 1700 b c.