What is Art Nouveau Jewelry?

by Jennifer A. Life Style and Jewelry Blogger

What is Art Nouveau Jewelry?

Art Nouveau jewelry is a rather specific form of jewelry that originated in France, towards the late nineteenth century. The History of specific jewelry types and categories is often mystifying, and makes little sense. Moreover, certain specific techniques of jewelry making may have been introduced in earlier times, but were considered ‘ahead’ of their time. Art Nouveau jewelry falls roughly in this category.

The reasons are plenty. The concept “Art Nouveau, or ‘New art’ was created between 1895 and 1910 in France, and could be said to be ahead of time. The concept itself revolved around the celebration of nature and women.

Art Nouveau Jewelry History

This was just before the World collapsed into the First War, which was back then called the Great War. This was a time when the mass-manufacturing industry had just taken its first steps towards the modern world, and jewelry designers found that they could save a lot of time in the actual creation of jewelry.

Further, within fifteen years the World War 1 had arrived, during which the jewelry industry was stagnant, at best. Regardless, the designs themselves were a result of the Women’s Movement in France. The French society was at this time discriminatory against women, and they were not given the same kind of job opportunities and rights. This in turn led to a flurry of designs that aimed to capture the essence of womanly freedom.

Hence, new designs, including designs related to the ‘Art Deco’ period, in addition to Art Nouveau jewelry became popular. Regardless, these pieces were intricate, over the top, and often held elaborate imagery of women and nature.

Art Nouveau Jewelry characteristics

When Art Nouveau jewelry first came into prominence, its popularity tapered off within fifteen years. This was because of many reasons, as well. First and foremost, these designs of women and nature were seen as too elaborate and ‘over the top’. Designs such as one of a soaring bird through the sky, or an authoritative looking Queen is not just an aesthetic or design based inclusion. These designs represent freedom, and equality.

The Art Nouveau concept aimed to completely transform the way women were depicted in French culture. While that did not happen, the designs did manage to find a completely unique way to combine concepts such as women, nature, and sexual gratification with pieces of jewelry.

Moreover, during the initial years, ‘Art Nouveau’ jewelry was seen as suitable for women who were ‘on the fringes’ of society.

These were single women who were wealthy. Single, because women in relationships were not ‘supposed to’ wear such pieces, and ‘wealthy’ because well, most of these pieces were very expensive.

Of course, the one constant thing that has been observed with Jewelry trends is that they are highly cyclical. Further, women nowadays are no longer inhibited with the same kind of things that they were before. Today, they already have the kind of rights and opportunities that they earlier had to fight for, even if only on paper.

Regardless, there has also been a general tendency among women over recent year to be willing to try out different and new kinds of jewelry designs and pieces. Further, the better technology and even lesser time that machinery nowadays takes has fuelled a a plethora of modern ‘Art Nouveau’ designs. In this article, I will look at two specific pieces that are sure to blow your mind away!

Heart with Wings necklace

As you can see in the image, the heart with wings necklace has a rather elaborate design. The trendy and modern ‘Art Nouveau ‘ piece has Hand-Carved Multi-Colored Tourmaline, Morganite, and Rubilite Tourmaline Necklace. The necklace can be said to represent a butterfly, while it also represents a ‘heart with wings’.

The necklace has a multicolored ‘impossible to not notice’ design which can be worn alone, and even does well when accompanied with different types of pieces. Further, the Pear shaped Tourmaline hanging from the center adds a rather mesmerizing twist to the overall look.

Furthermore, for women who might not be too impressed with the rather tacky or bright color scheme of this particular necklace, there is another option that you can look at.

Blue Butterfly Necklace

The blue butterfly necklace has a different, lighter color scheme which does not necessarily make it any less beautiful. On the contrary, the piece has a rather mature elegance about it, and comes with 100% natural and hand carved Aventurine and Morganite stones. Of course, the heart shaped morganite at the center of the piece makes it quite the full package, as far as Art Nouveau necklaces are concerned!

South Sea Pearl Pendant

The second piece on this list is arguably more impressive than the previous one, and features multiple multicolored pearls! The South Sea Pearl Pendant has a radiating beautiful look and symbolizes the creation of life itself. The evident Art Nouveau design has been created to remind people of a sweet curl of the leaf, or the flapping of a bird’s wings, or the grasp of a vine on a twig.

As always, each of the products that I sell on the Marla Trudine website is handmade, and uses only 100% natural stones. Further, all of my products are Made in America, and is truly one of a kind and unique. Further, if you want to go for a subtler variant of the above product, you can always choose the Rose Pearl Pod Pendant, whose image you can see below.