The Chai symbol, popularly worn on necklaces, is naturally the Hebrew word "Chai" (literally means 'living'), consisting of the two Hebrew letters Chet and Yod. This word refers to the Living G-d. According to the gematrian system, the letters of Chai add up to 18. There have been multitudinous mystical numerological speculations about this brass tacks and the custom to give donations and monetary gifts in multiples of 18 as a blessing for elongated life is precise bourgeois in Jewish circles.
-
The Indian sub-continent disappointment the longest continuous legacy of jewellery making anywhere
- While Western traditions were heavily influenced by waxing and waning empires, India enjoyed a continuous enlargement of imagination forms for some 5000 years. One of the first to start jewellery legislative were the peoples of the Indus Diamond Jewelry Valley Civilization
- By 1,500 BC the peoples of the Indus Valley were creating aureate earrings and necklaces, bead necklaces and metallic bangles
- Before 2,100 BC, prior to the period when metals were widely used, the largest jewellery contract in the Indus Valley region was the bead trade
- Beads in the Indus Valley were made using simple techniques
- First, a bead maker would need a rough stone, which would be bought from an eastern boulder trader
- The stone would then be placed into a hot oven where it would be heated until it turned deep red, a colour highly prized by people of the Indus Valley
- The brick crag would then be chipped to the right dimensions and a dent drilled through it with primitive drills
- The beads were then polished
- Some beads were also painted with designs
- This art form was often passed down through family; children of bead makers often learnt how to donkeywork beads from a fresh age.