Most people know something about rhinestones or at the least know that they exist, if just because of the song Rhinestone Cowboy!.  For most people the first point that springs to mind when rhinestones are brought up is glitzy dance shows in Las Vegas, even though nowadays they are used very normally for a full range of common clothing and dress jewelry pieces. In reality rhinestones are everywhere, every day, and we don’t even notice most of them.

The very first, true rhinestones came from the River Rhine in Germany and Austria, and were a sort of crystal.  Adding metal to the support of these crystals produced what is today known as rhinestones.  The metal caused the crystals to reflect back the light, rather than letting it through, creating qualities and a look which were very similar to diamonds. And that’s how rhinestones were born.  

Approximately a hundred years later, another jeweler named Daniel Swarovski produced a way to cut crystals rapidly and simply to make them look more like gems. Applying this new method, jewelry makers were able to produce large amounts of rhinestones comparatively cheaply, making a true mass market item. Of course, as the crystals from the Rhine River began to get low, resourceful jewelers had to look for new ways to  produce these fashionable items.  

Modern rhinestones are generally made from either glass or an plastic mix, although it is still possible to find crystal ones.  To produce rhinestones from glass, the glass is sliced into diamond type shapes and then has the metal backing added to it. Acrylic rhinestones are even easier to produce, as the acrlyic is simply poured into industrial style metal moulds and cooled to create the diamond shapes . Irrespective of how they are made, rhinestones come in pre-determined sizes which vary from just under three mm to over 10 mm across.

Rhinestones have nowadays become one of the most popular stones available.  Dress jewelry is still their most common use, but they are also starting to be far more fashionable as add-on to clothes, in the form of rhinestone buttons, buckles, belts and other fashion add-on.  One growing trend is adding rhinestones to normal clothing to provide an extra nice effect and a hint of class to daily clothes  

Rhinestones are still quite fragile though and complete care needs to be taken with them. Some Vintage rhinestones can easily scrape or even snap if they are not treated well, so you want to make sure you look after them.  Try to keep them in tight packages and produce sure the individual rhinestones are not touching each other, as this can lead to  chafed surfaces. The other golden rule with rhinestones is to keep them far away from water.  If they get wet, it will frequently cause the metal mount to begin to rust or disintegrate,  and in old pieces it can even cause the stones to fall out of their mounts.

Tags

Jewelry, Watches & Diamonds