People/ from almost all cultures/ throughout history/ have been making and wearing jewelry. Jewelry/ is valued/ for its visual quality, the richness/ of its materials/ and the expert way/ it is made. Since ancient times/ people/ have worn jewelry/ like rings, bracelets and necklaces/ to decorate their fingers, wrists and necks.

Ancient peoples/ who lived/ near the ocean/ used the shells/ of sea creatures/ to make jewelry. Other ancient peoples/ used materials/ like small colored rocks/ and animal bones/ and teeth. Jewelry often/ was made/ from whatever material/ was considered/ rare and costly. It expressed the wealth/ and social importance/ of its wearer.

Later/ cultures/ learned/ how to find/ and work with gold. One of gold’s important qualities/ is that it is a very soft metal. It can be easily formed/ or even flattened/ into extremely thin sheets/ of metal.

Some of the oldest and finest known jewelry/ comes from the burial site/ of the Sumerian ruler/ Queen Pu-abi. This Mesopotamian culture/ existed more than four thousand five hundred years ago. In this area/ that is now Iraq, archeologists/ discovered fine examples/ of gold jewelry.

Many of the jewelry designs/ combined the brightness of gold/ with the intense blue stone/ called lapus lazuli. This jewelry/ shows some of the earliest examples/ of metalworking methods/ such as filigree and granulation.

Granulation/ is a technique/ in which tiny gold balls/ are placed/ in a decorative pattern/ and joined/ onto a gold surface. Filigree/ is made/ by arranging fine gold or silver wires/ into patterns or images. Filigree work/ can either be joined/ onto a metal surface, or left/ as openwork. Many cultures/ have left extraordinary examples/ of this technique. Examples/ include the jewelry/ of ancient Greeks/ and the eighteenth century Qing period/ in China.

Several other metal working methods/ were developed/ in ancient times/ and still define jewelry design/ today. They include cloisonne work/ and casting. Cloisonne/ involves forming metal borders/ to make different contained areas/ on the surface/ of the piece of jewelry. These spaces/ are then filled/ with different pieces/ of finely carved precious stones/ or with small bits of glass/ that are melted together.

The ancient Egyptians/ were experts/ of the cloisonne method. For example, at the Metropolitan Museum/ in New York City/ you can see a beautiful cloisonne necklace/ made more than four thousand years ago. More than three hundred small stones/ make up a detailed image/ of Egyptian symbols/ such as birds and snake creatures. The symbols/ tell about the sun god/ giving long life/ to the Egyptian ruler/ of that time, King Senwosret the Second.

For thousands of years, Egyptian jewelry/ represented a great tradition/ of artistic skill. Many of the pieces/ were not only beautiful, but also believed to be magical. Amulet jewelry/ was believed to protect people/ or give them special powers. For example, scarabs/ in the form of the beetle insect/ were believed to be the symbol/ of new life. Jewelers/ in ancient Egypt/ made many examples/ of finely carved scarab rings/ and necklaces/ that still exist today.

One very old technique/ of metal casting/ is called the lost-wax method. With this method, an artist/ carves the shape of jewelry/ he or she wants/ to make/ out of wax material. This shape/ is placed/ into a piece of clay, which is heated/ at high temperatures.

The clay/ takes the form/ of the ring, but the wax/ inside/ melts away/ because of the heat. This is/ why the method/ is called lost-wax. The original carved wax model/ is lost, but its form/ remains/ in the clay. Hot liquid metal/ such as gold/ is placed/ inside this clay form. As the metal/ cools and hardens, it takes the form/ left by the wax.

The rulers of Asante/ in modern day Ghana/ wore gold jewelry/ made with the lost-wax method. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Asante jewelers/ made beautiful, fine, detailed gold objects. The ruling family/ and other leaders/ wore objects/ as symbols/ of their importance, wealth and power.

Granulation, filigree, cloisonne and casting/ are only a few/ of the metalworking methods/ used by jewelers/ both in the past/ and today.

Of course, not all jewelry/ is made/ by metalworking. Many cultures/ throughout history/ used other valuable materials/ as well. For example, in China, carved jade stone/ was part of an ancient jewelry tradition. This green stone/ was beautiful/ and also thought to have magical powers. In southern Nigeria/ during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, only the ruling family of Benin/ had the right/ to wear jewelry/ carved of white ivory material.

These are only a few examples/ of the creativity/ humans/ have demonstrated/ with the art/ of making jewelry. What kinds of jewelry traditions/ exist/ where you live?

The methods/ we have described/ are still being used/ by artists/ today. Modern technology/ and newer methods/ have only added/ to the countless ways/ that stones, metals and other materials/ can be formed. Today, jewelry designers/ combine old and new methods/ with styles/ from around the world. Many/ also use unexpected materials, such as plastics, cotton and wood. The creative possibilities/ of modern jewelry making/ are limitless.

The Torpedo Factory Art Center/ is in the old area/ of Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Here, on the second floor/ is a workroom and store/ called Susan Sanders Design.

“I'm Susan Sanders. I'm a jewelry designer/ at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. I started making jewelry/ when I was in college/ but my desire/ to make things/ started much earlier/ than that. My father/ was a graphics designer/ and brought me home/ professional supplies. My original plan/ was to be a furniture designer, but I like things/ I can hold/ in my hand.”

Susan Sanders says/ this ring/ is not the easiest of her rings/ to wear. It is more like a finger sculpture. She carved the main sterling silver form/ of the ring/ from a piece of hard wax material. With the lost-wax method/ we told about earlier, she carved the wax model/ to make the silver form.

Then, she used a milling machine/ to create a perfect circle opening/ for a finger. She also used this milling tool/ to carve out the areas/ where she placed small pieces/ of onyx and jasper stone. Once the stones/ were in place, she ground the surface/ to a smooth finish.

Like most of her work, this ring/ is very modern and geometric. Susan Sanders says/ she is not exactly sure/ where her ideas/ come from. Some ideas/ come from subjects/ she loves/ such as modern architecture. But the hardest part/ is choosing an idea/ for a piece of jewelry/ since she does not have the time or resources/ to make every design/ she imagines.

Susan Sanders/ sells most of her work/ in her store/ in Alexandria. If you visit the store, you can see her/ hard at work/ on new jewelry. Galleries/ in California/ also carry her designs. She has even shown her work/ in countries/ such as Italy/ and South Korea.

Listen/ as Susan Sanders tells/ about an exciting show/ she helped put together/ in Russia: “I have had quite a number of shows/ in different countries. The most exciting of which/ was a show/ that we had/ in Moscow/ in Russia/ that was called Two Capitals/ which was jewelry designers/ from the Washington, D.C., area/ and artists/ also from the Moscow area. We put together a show/ and went over there/ with it. We had a fabulous time."

"We were entertained/ by three of the country's best opera singers/ and one of their top pianists, which was absolutely incredible. We had an opportunity/ to meet some of the other Russian jewelers/ and visit their studios, so we feel like we have friends/ over there/ even though we had to speak/ through an interpreter.”

Susan Sanders says/ to be a good jewelry maker/ you have to enjoy working long and hard/ on very small details. She says/ it is not work/ that goes quickly. Sanders feels lucky/ to have grown up/ with the choices/ she had. Because her father/ was an artist, he supported her creative goals/ early on. Many women/ did not have the same choices. Susan Sanders says/ she is thankful/ to be an artist/ doing work/ that she loves.