The Art Deco Jewelry Movement Inspires Many Custom Jewelry Designers Today.

When we think Art Deco jewelry a few images come to mind. The simple straight lines influencing architecture and the decorative arts of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

The elegance and sticking simplicity found in the modern costume jewelry designed by Coco Channel and Elsa Schiaparelli.

The Flapper girls with their beautiful dangling pearl necklaces

What is Art Deco jewelry?

This artistic movement represented the rapid modernization of the world. It came at a time between the mid 1920's and 30’s when the world was recovering from the devastating effects of one war and racing towards another.

The economic and social pressures that immediately followed the First World War brought with them a new mood for a rigorous and clean-cut look.

The slicked, streamlined forms of this art movement conveyed elegance and sophistication.

After years of devastation brought by the firs world war, people were ready to have fun and the age of the Flapper, the Jazz and the Machine Age emerged.

Modernization was at its peak. People wanted new machines. The streamlined, symmetrical style of the costume jewerly of this era with its use of materials and jewelry supplies such as plastics and enamels, reinforced concrete and a new type of glass called vita-glass, perfectly represented the times.

• Platinum and precious jade gemstones: Post-war prosperity broadened the market for for platinum, diamonds and precious stones. Platinum was the newly discovered metal and it was usually set with opaque stones like jade, coral and lapis lazuli.
  

• Dramatic Combination: Society's emphasis on freedom of expression and uninhibited values gave rise to unexpected and dramatic combination of materials in jewelry; Costume Jewelry design used materials that ranged from gold to plastics, rubies to pearls, silver to stainless steel.
  

• Geometric Shapes: Jewelry and the arts incorporated futuristic lines and were greatly influenced by cubism and graphic design. However, jewelry of the art Deco period utilized geometric shapes: circles, arcs, squares, rectangles and triangles and so on.
  

• Egyptian Motifs: The discovery of King Tutankhamen tomb in 1923 incited a craze for Egyptian motifs like the scarab, sphinx and falcon. Stones which had been used in King Tut's jewelry, like lapis lazuli, carnelian and chalcedony, became popular.


• Speed Motifs: With the invention of the automobile society glorified speed and motion. Jewelry designs include motifs like autos, planes, arrows, gazelles and panthers.
  

• Popular Items: Several unique costume jewelry forms enjoyed a particular vogue during this era, including dress clips, flexible diamond "strip" bracelets, and pearls worn as long ropes or lariats. The recent marketing of the cultured pearl made the latter much more affordable.
  

Learn more about gemstones you can use when making art-deco inspired jewerly

Art Deco jewelry was the showcase of a modern society in which tastes and styles were becoming international, shared as much by the VIP players of the Roaring Twenties in the United States as by Indian maharajahs and the high-society of Old Europe. With its sense of modernity and its simple, elegant style, the costume jewelry has proven to be ageless.

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