XIX century artwork by Russian jeweler Ivan Petrovich Khlebnikov

Russian jeweler Ivan Khlebnikov (1819 – 1881) worked in St. Petersburg until 1867, and in 1871 founded the company in Moscow. Khlebnikov’s Factory of diamond, gold and silver jewelry was well equipped with the latest technology for all kinds of work, its products were considered one of the best in Russia. The factory of Khlebnikov had a special art school, there were special workshops. Socioeconomic changes taking place in Russian life in the second half of XIX century could not but reflected the motifs of jewelry. There are stories on the theme of peasant life, which is displayed in a highly glamorized, and far from the truth. Made by small groups sculptures on the theme of peasant life, cast in silver, sometimes fortified on stone pedestals, served as ornaments for a desk or a table.
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Button ‘Cat trying to catch a lizard’. copper

Antique buttons art. Button for a long time served as a decorative ornament. Buttons were made ​​from precious metals, coral, amber, pearls. The shape, size, decoration and number of buttons on clothing informed about a person’s wealth and social status. Some garments were often more than a hundred buttons. Fur coat might be cheaper than the existing buttons on it. Historically, fashions in buttons have also reflected trends in applied aesthetics and the applied visual arts, with button-makers using techniques from jewellery making, ceramics, sculpture, painting, printmaking, metalworking, weaving and others.
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Cameo, 12th century; frame – the end of the 16th century. Agate, gold, pearls, precious stones

Antique gem carving art is known as Glyptics, and it is the art of carving on multicoloured or precious stones. Glyptic works are called engraved gems. The activity is called gem carving, and the artists – gem-cutters. References to antique gems, and intaglios in a jewellery context, will almost always mean carved gems. Gems with embedded images (intaglio), and with bas-relief images of convex (cameo) are distinguished. They were born of the classical art of antiquity, an art which poeticized and proclaimed as aesthetically pleasing all that was best and most worthy in the ideal of harmonious and perfect man. A craftsman could spend months and even years on the creation of a single cameo. E. Babelon, the French scholar of the early twentieth century and one of the most eminent connoisseurs of glyptics, remarked that it took as long to make a large cameo as to build a whole cathedral.
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Icon made in the technique of Georgian cloisonne enamel Minankari

Georgian cloisonne enamel Minankari
Georgia is famous for its art of color and boundless energy. For many centuries it was amazing symbiosis of Georgian, European and Oriental influences. At the XIX century was the recovery and development of Georgian culture with the recreation of unique technology of the past and developing new. This happened with the famous jewelry – Georgian cloisonne enamel Minankari. This jewelry of amazing beauty hits with incredible subtlety of color solutions. Besides, the method itself remains unchanged for twelve centuries. And its cost is not less than jewelry made of precious metals and stones. Cloisonne – labor-intensive and complicated technique of enameling, not amenable to mechanization.
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A bear, a tiger and a pig rings. Work by Japanese self-taught artist and designer Jiro Miura – Count Blue Animal Cling Rings

Count Blue Animal Cling Rings
Made by Japanese self-taught artist Jiro Miura cling rings are, in fact, miniature sculptures of animals. Japanese designer and artist of applied art Jiro Miura has created a stunning gallery of pieces of jewelry. These cling rings are made in the form of various animals. The artist couldn’t even imagine these animal rings and earrings would become so popular that he would have to create his own brand name – ‘Count Blue’, under which he works now. The price for such artful pieces of jewelry is quite affordable ranging from $15 to $200 for one ring.
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Milan, Italy. Dolce & Gabbana Applied Art. Fall-Winter 2014/2015 Artful collection

Dolce & Gabbana Applied Art
Fall-Winter 2014/2015 luxurious collection demonstrates inspiration with applied art and its triumph – Fingerless gloves, embroidered with beads and stones, handbags and shoes in stones and rhinestones, coats and jackets with embroidery, whimsical floral appliques and prints – a truly amazing collection in detail for inspiration and creativity. As always, Dolce & Gabbana was creative, luxurious and fairy-tale like, from “Once upon a time in Sicily…” beginning. The ‘key’ motif was literally the key itself, gold key prints covered beautiful textile.
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Red color semi-precious stone. Love mineral Rhodochrosite

Love mineral Rhodochrosite
One of the oldest gemstones known to mankind, Rhodochrosite is a semi-precious mineral appearance and markings reminiscent of rhodonite. Their similarity is due to the presence of the chemical formula of the same element manganese, caused by the appearance of a beautiful and stable color from pink to crimson. And this, in particular, reflects the title of the stone, from the Greek “Rhodes” – “Rose”.
Rhodochrosite has a glassy luster. Depending on the impurities that have been the formation of rhodochrosite, the stone may appear in shades of gray, yellow, brown, greenish colors. In the world there are many places of extraction of the mineral – Mongolia, Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Russia (the Urals and Trans-Baikal).
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