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Gold Nugget
Gold nuggets are very hard to find, but the biggest one that has ever been found weighed over two hundred pounds in Australia. The largest gold nugget found in the US was just under 200 pounds in California.
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Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II keeps her jewelry collection below Buckingham Palace in a special room roughly the size of an ice rink.
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60 Miles of Gold
You can make a 60-mile wire out of a single ounce of gold.
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Electricity + Silver
Silver is a great conductor of heat and electricity.
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Seed Beads
Seed beads reached the plains Indians in the mid-1840s.
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Anglo-Saxon Meaning
The word bead comes from the Anglo-Saxon words bidden (to pray) and bede (prayer).
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Translucent Gold
Gold can be hammered so thin that the sun can shine through it.
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Narváez and De Soto
The Spanish explorers Narváez and De Soto carried glass beads for trade with the native inhabitants of Florida in the early 1500s.
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Food Preservation
To prevent food from spoiling, the Phoenicians used silver bottles to preserve their foods.
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Eggs
Eggs can tarnish silver very quickly.
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Diamond Value
The value of a diamond depends upon carat weight, color, clarity and cut. Cutting, polishing, limited natural supply, and mining operations makes a diamond so costly.
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Artbeads.com Products
Artbeads.com now carries over 22,000 individual products (SKUs) with 13,500,000 individual saleable pieces in stock!
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Egyptian Glass Beads
Egyptians were making glass beads as early as 1365 B.C.
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Bead Orders
Artbeads received its first order in January 2000 and has since processed over one million orders and growing.
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Battle Jewelry
Men were the first to wear jewelry as a status symbol and as good luck amulets to aid them in battle.
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Trade Beads
Although they are typically associated with West Africa, trade beads were originally created in Venice, Bohemia and Holland.
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Ancient Civilizations
Jewelry of gold, copper and silver dates back to the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Egyptians and Romans.
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Engagement Rings
About 75% of American brides receive a diamond engagement ring.
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See-through Stone
Iolite has the same polarizing capability as a pair of sunglasses. In fact, the Vikings would look through Iolite to find the sun on a cloudy day.
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Color
The most important quality of a ruby, sapphire or emerald is its clarity of color.
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Greatest Gold Collector
The legendary Croesus was the first King to mint gold coins. He was the greatest collector of gold in history.
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Largest Diamond
The largest diamond ever found was the The Cullinan. It weighed 3,106 carats, or about one and a third pounds!
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Diamond Hardness
Although it is the hardest substance known, diamonds can be chipped. They have a grain line and may be broken by a sharp blow along this line.
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Largest Pearl
The Pearl of Lao Tzu is the largest pearl ever found, weighing 14.1 lbs and 10 inches in diameter.
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First Beads
It is believed that the first beads were worn as protection against uncontrollable events and the forces of nature, as well as to show one's status in the community.
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The First Twelve Birthstones
Aaron, first high priest of the Hebrews, wore 12 gemstones (representing the 12 tribes of Israel) in his silver breastplate. This is when birthstones originated.
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Amethyst For The Drunkards
Amethyst is said to protect against drunkenness if worn as an amulet.
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Early Uses For Agate
Agate was used in Egyptian rings and cameos over 3,000 years ago.
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The Incans And Gold
The Incan people considered gold to be "the sweat of the sun".
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Gold in Volume
All of the gold in the world could be compressed into an 18-yard cube, which is about 1/10 the mass of the Washington Monument.
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Diamond Wearing
Agnes Sorel, the mistress of King Charles VII of France was the first woman to wear diamonds.
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Earliest Examples Of Jewelry
A pair of beads made from Nassarius snail shells - approximately 100,000 years old - are thought to be the earliest known examples of jewelry.
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Red Sapphires
Sapphires come in almost every color except red, because a red sapphire is actually a ruby.
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Amber Comes From...
Amber is actually fossilized tree sap that is at least 30 million years old. It is called copal when it is under 30 million years old.
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