Balinese Jewelry Traditons

If you enjoy beautiful and intricate designs in silver jewelry you are likely to already be familiar with the famous jewelers of the island of Bali. The Indonesian culture has long been revered for their ability to work with silver to create unique and beautiful pieces of jewelry that have both traditional Asian and Indian influences but are also on the forefront of creating new jewelry trends. Interestingly enough gold jewelry was originally the biggest export of the country, but this has changed over the last 20 years to reflect the increasing demand for high quality silver jewelry.

The history of silver work within the area begins in the Bronze Age with the local artisans trained in working silver and other metals by jewelers from China and Southeast Asia. Since both gold and silver were and are mined in Indonesia, the artisans had lots of raw materials to work with both in the form of the two metals but also in pearls, gems and jewels as well as other naturally occurring items such as bone, shell and beautiful polished rock. In fact by the end of the 1300s Bali was the central area for silver work and jewelry making in Indonesia and was a true hotspot of trading activity in the East.

Bank's main areas of work are Celuk, which is located in the southern part of the island city. There is distributed to other artisans on the island, but mainly concentrated in the Celuk area. Skills and training, has been circulating on the quality, uniqueness and beauty of family films produced by the family are very proud of the island. Some of these families can be traced back the family and their boat returned to the region's first silversmith, even if the local legend that silver is actually the technical work to teach God's family. There are different models, household use by a number of silversmiths in Bali, the design and those who are very familiar with the production of craftsmen able to determine which of the design of silver jewelry to create a style and usage patterns of the different parts.

One of the most common methods used to produce the distinct jewelry from the island is know as granulation. A solid natural silver piece is decorated using small granules of silver to form the pattern. This takes a tremendous amount of precision to work with these tiny spheres to place and fix them in the pattern. Since the silver is left natural and not plated or treated, the background between the spheres becomes black, providing a sharp relief to the pattern and really making it pop from the base. Often, especially in the more modern pieces, gems and other metals are used in the design and may play more of a center role in the pattern than would have been found on very early traditional Balinese jewelry.

Another form of decoration used in Bali is actually more from the area of Java, but is still widely used in Bali. This style produces very fine and intricate filigree patterns that are attached to polished silver, resulting in amazingly detailed pieces. Jewels and other metals can also be used in this style, as can a combination of granulation and filigree work. Recently a style of silver jewelry that looks like woven or basket weave patterns on necklaces, bracelets and even earrings has become popular in the exported silver items from the island.