Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornmentOstier, Marianne
History
Jewels and the woman: The romance, magic and art of feminine adornment
Ostier, Marianne
Jewelry
If the knuckles are large, the ring that passes over them will of
course be loose where it is supposed to stay snug. Here too the jeweler
can assist. A simple adjustment, of which there are several types,
accommodates the ring to the different finger sizes. The ring will slip
off easily, yet stay fixed in the proper position, neither sliding nor
turning around.
_Rings and Nail Polish_
More than once, in selecting a ring, a woman has rejected one that was
quite beautiful, because it did not look well on her hands. This is an
excellent reason—if the hands were not prejudiced by the nail polish. The
polish should be fitted to the ring, not the ring to the polish. In other
words, when the selection of a ring is the business of the day, a neutral
polish or none at all should be worn. After the ring has been chosen,
the polish should be selected to complement the stone. With the colored
stones of a dinner ring, this is important.
With a diamond ring, for example, the frosty white nail polish should
be avoided, as it diminishes the beauty of the gem. With a coral ring,
the nail polish that suggests itself is of an orange hue. With a ruby,
perhaps a purplish polish, but not too deep, lest by its ardor it make
the ruby look pale. Some colored stones will be attractive with more than
one shade of nail polish. A little experimentation and taste can create
surprisingly varied and dramatic effects, as the nails, differently
colored for an evening and for a weekend afternoon, differently interplay
with the colors of the ring.
_About Wearing a Ring_
Some fashions in rings and their wearing call for brief comment. Although
the Elizabethan men and three hundred years later their sisters in the
frenzied Twenties of this century wore rings over their gloves, the
practice has lapsed from good taste. A ring with a large stone or a
dome-shaped design should be turned with this toward the palm before a
glove is put on; there will then be no difficulty nor tear.
The current fashion of fingernails keeps them long and almost pointed.
A woman who for practical or other reasons wears her nails short will
find that her rings appear to better advantage if she keeps her bracelets
a little higher on the arm. This, in a sense, incorporates part of the
wrist into the hand, giving at that end the greater length which has been
lost at the other.
Rings should always be taken off when the hands are washed. This is
even more important when what are being washed are not the hands but
the dishes, for soapy water may harm the rings. It may actually take
the lustre from certain stones; but in any case, a film of soap on the
under-surface of a stone deprives the jewel of that glow it is supposed
to have and mars the beauty which is the jewel’s excuse for being.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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