Silver jewellery is coming back in style quite quickly these days, particularly in male jewellery styles. Silver rings are becoming more popular, with all the high-end designers such as Ferragamo starting to create them again. Due to the economic atmosphere, gold cufflinks are giving way to silver. Silver bracelets, of course, never even went out of style.
And when it comes to women, silver jewellery has not been in style for a long time, with the exception of a few specialty pieces like silver lockets. Silver necklaces, of course, have always been very popular with women who like minimalist design, as silver is strong enough to allow for the construction of the most slender silver filaments, silken strands of silver that gleam and glitter in the light of a ballroom.
Of course, these necklaces are so slender and elegant that they automatically draw attention to the pendant hanging from them; this is how the concept of the lockets originated. The most classic of all pendant designs, the locket has always been in style, and will remain timelessly sophisticated statement about a woman.
It is important to realize how deeply lockets are tied to tradition. Every girl wants to be a princess, and every princess has a locket – and every girl is a princess to someone; therefore, every girl should have a locket. The logic, really, is as simple as that. Every young lady, for example, should own that classic piece of Disney magic, the silver heart locket that opens up to reveal a photograph (usually of her beau) in a tiny picture frame.
These magical lockets are the quintessential example of what attracted people to jewellery in the first place – not a hint of cynicism, just beauty, authenticity and craftsmanship. And craftsmanship is indeed an important consideration – silver is one of the best metals for jewellers to work with, so a good sterling silver locket should always be of very high quality. If you are concerned about craftsmanship issues, 925 sterling silver lockets are probably the safest to get, as the “925” refers to an industry-standardized silver alloy that is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals that have been added to reinforce the strength of the metal.
The design, of course, can be customized in many ways. One of the most immediate ways, of course, is size. A tiny silver heart hanging from a slender silver necklace says one thing, but a large silver locket with intricate silverwork and ornate filigree conveys an entirely different visual impression. Size, however, is just one way of personalizing your locket to suit you – another way is the shape of the locket itself, with the most popular forms probably being (as mentioned earlier) hearts.
Ovals are quite popular too. Interestingly, high-end jewellers are very keen to offer their personal services to help you create and realize a custom design, if you so choose. The options are really quite limitless – a diamond-shaped locket, for example; or a tiny medallion studded with even tinier sapphires, sparkling blue as the light reflects off them in a stunning azure interplay.
Not to be outdone, the cousin to the locket are silver pendants, no matter what your test or budget pendants are available in everything under the sun, from animals, birth signs, sports themes, proper names, birthdays, chronological age, with or without gemstones. Pretty much anything you can think of is available in a pendant and because they are made silver they are much more affordable than gold.
These are the opportunities that creativity affords us; and since silver is one of the materials most suited to custom craftsmanship, it would probably be silly to pass up the idea of a custom design, particularly if you consider their affordability when compared to the costs associated with creating a custom item from a more expensive metal like gold.