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I 💜 when companies become eco-responsible and realize that improving their products will benefit the earth in the long-term and this is one great idea. We must all pull together and strive to leave less of a footprint for our grandchildren and great-children or there will be nothing left on the earth for them. #SimplyScottSquad #TossTheTube #sponsored

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The Backwater Primer Is Now On Bloglovin!

The Backwater Primer Is Now On Bloglovin!

The Backwater Primer is now on Bloglovin!  If you are on Bloglovin, please feel free to follow along there too.  Just click the hyperlink below please:

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Some of my favorite pieces of jewelry in my ‘collection’ are the few cameo pieces I own.  I don’t know what attracts me to them.  Is it their vintage, old fashioned appearance?  Or the uniqueness of the pieces?  Let’s first discuss what a cameo is.

A cameo as carving into an item or jewel, the vessel being made in the same manner.  It can either be of vintage quality or contemporary.  Almost always, the cameo displays a (positive) relief image that contrasts with an intaglio, which is made of a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting colour to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colours met, removing all the first colour except for the image to leave a contrasting background.

Today, cameo may be referred to pieces that do not have a contrasting color and the cameo head is replaced by other images in the oval frame, like animals or flowers, etc.

Ancient and Renaissance cameos were made from semi-precious gemstones, especially the various types of onyx and agate, and any other stones

The Portland Vase is an Illyrian cameo glass vase, which is dated to between AD 1 and AD 25, though low BC dates have some scholarly support.[1] It is the best known piece of Illyrian cameo glass and has served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards. It is first recorded in Rome in 1600-1601, and since 1810 has been in the British Museum in London. It was bought by the museum in 1945 (GR 1945,0927.1) and is normally on display in Room 70.

on a flat surface where these contrasting colors meet.  These are called the ‘hardstone’ cameo.   The famous Portland Vase, was made out of a glass vessel by the Greeks.

Modern cameos are produced by putting a silhouette. such as a portrait, on top of a contrasting background color. Glass and shell make up the cheaper and more modern pieces.

  A modern cameo is made by setting a carved relief, generally a portrait, onto the background of a contrasting color.

The traditional method of carving the cameo directly of a material with integral layers or banding can be used.  The banding is made out agate or layered glass, which have different layers with colors.  Sometimes dyes are even use to enhance the colors.

Sir Wallis Budge states the noun “Cameo” apparently comes from Kame’o.  Kame’o is a kabbalistic slang word that means “magical square”, or a talisman where magic spells are carved.

Though often worn as jewelry, cameos were also worn as signet rings and large earrings.  The largest example of this would have been way to big to wear as such and were just admired as objects d’art. As far back as 3rd century B.C.,  stone cameos of great artistry were made in Greece.

    The Farnese Cup (Tazza Farnese) is a 2nd-century BC cameo cup of Hellenistic Egypt in four-layered sardonyx agate. It is 20 cm wide.

  The oldest remaining major Hellenistic piece surviving is the Farnese Cup.  Not only were they very popular in Rome, but also in the family circle of Augustus.

The technique of making the cameo this way enjoyed some revival during the early Renaissance period, as well as the 18th and 19th centuries.

Napoleon supported glyptic arts, which began the neoclassical revival in France.  Even his coronation crown was decorated with cameos.  How lovely!

During King George III’s reign in Britain, along with his granddaughter, Queen Victoria, together they began to be major promoters of the cameo trend and they began mass-produced by the second half of the 19th century.

        Young Victorian woman wearing a cameo

Classically, the images depicted on a cameo were usually scenes of Greek or Roman mythology or portraits of rulers or important dignitaries.  These cameo portraits were often gifts from royalty to their subjects.  Surviving antique cameos, some of them are over 2000 years old, are either in private collections or displayed in museums.

  Many modern cameos have many layers of agate carved into them.  The layers are then dyed to create a strong casting color.  Most popular colors are white on red-brown, white on blue, and white on black to create two-layer stones.  The artist creates translucent layers so the shading of the background can come through.  This way, a very life-like quality can come about.

  White on black cameo

White on blue cameo

White on red-brown cameo

  Other types of cameos are shell cameos, Ultrasonic machine carved cameos, and hand-worked portrait cameos.

One type of cameo that I think it absolutely lovely is the antique Wedgewood cameos.  Josia Wedgewood, a potter, created Wedgewood Cameos in the 1700s.  Josia Wedgewood created this unique blue color of the cameos, is called jasper wear.  These cameos are unique in which no other cameos in the world look like them because of their jasperwear and the portrait figures crisp, clean and with distinct lines.  There is no mistaken these Wedgewoods for any others.  Wedgewood cameos come in a few main colors like white, pink, green, blue, and black.  The styles they come in are pendants, rings, bracelets, and brooches.  To see if you have a real Wedgewood Cameo, it will be marked in the rear WEDGEWOOD MADE IN ENGLAND.  Here are some examples:

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Mary Cameo Ring in Wedgewood Blue

Wedgewood Cameo set in gift box

Alexa Wedgewood Blue Cameo Dangle Earrings

Black Wedgewood horse cameo in sterling

Wedgewood Cameo in gift box

Vintage Diana Cupid Wedgewood Cameo Pendant Brooch

I love cameos because of their vintage look, their connection to the past,they go with anything, and how feminine they look any way you wear them.  They are just a great piece of timeless jewelry that would be a great gift and to pass on from generation to generation.  Your Grandma would agree too!  :)

  These are my cameos.  I don’t care much for the green one because of discoloration on the back of it, so I hardly wear it.  I just bought the little heart one off of Ebay last week.

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This cameo I bought last week off of Ebay. Seller said it was bought at an estate sale near Princeton.

My first cameo…I love horses and I just adore this one!

This is the green one…as you can see, the front is very beautiful but the back is horrid :(

  A great source to get even more information on cameos in general and to purchase authentic cameos, like the Wedgewood Cameos I have shown you here, I highly recommend checking out Cameo Jewelry( http://www.cameojewelry.com/index.php)  Not only do they tons of information, but tons of lovely cameos for sale, a newsletter you can sign up for, and I see they also have an affiliate program.  I want to try to get in on that.

  These opinions are 100% my own.  I am NOT currently affiliated with Cameo Jewelry.  I wrote this post because of my burning passion for cameos  :)

  I hope you have enjoyed this post.  If you did, please click ‘like’ below and if you haven’t already, I invite you to suscribe.

  Till next time….Cheers!  Have a wonderful weekend, my dear readers!

  A Basic Primer on Cameos Some of my favorite pieces of jewelry in my 'collection' are the few cameo pieces I own.  

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Why You Not Come Tonight, Sleep???

Why You Not Come Tonight, Sleep???

      Good morning, my lovely readers!  I am up quite early for sleep did not come tonight.  We went to bed around 10ish and I just laid there for a couple of hours.  So I thought I would get up and get a drink, thinking that would help.  No…  And before I knew it, 2am was here.  I have had a lot of trouble sleeping these past few months and had been going to bed and waking up, wide awake, about…

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Typical WNY Sight

Hi everyone🙌

This is a typical sight in this backwater area of WNY. This was taken about a month ago whilst driving my parents home from Buffalo. My Dad was driving and my Mom’s bff was driving and she took us a way home we had never gone before. We always go the same way home from Buffalo. Please ignore the blemish in the lower left. The window was closed when I took it and we were moving(yes, i…

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For Tea's Sake!

For Tea’s Sake!

“As far as her mom was concerned, tea fixed everything.

Have a cold? Have some tea.

Broken bones?

There’s a tea for that too.

Somewhere in her mother’s pantry, Laurel suspected, was a box of tea that said,

‘In case of Armageddon, steep three to five minutes’.”

-A. Pike

Do you love tea? What is overflowing in your ‘tea chest’? Do you have a favorite flavor? Click ‘like’ below and leave a comment…

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What's Been Going On?

Since I haven’t officially started The Backwater Primer, I thought this is a good day as any.  So let’s dive right in, shall we?

Fall has settled into western NY and the ground is covered with beautiful red, orange, and yellow leaves.  We have the prettiest landscape the east coast can offer here in WNY!

Gone are the long summer days, the warm nights, the pretty flowers.  Now the temperatures…

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Inspiration  Here is some inspiration to jumpstart your week. Image courtesy of: SnapKnot - Wedding photography prices

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We have slipped into full-blown Autumn here and my creative, inspiration, and even motivation have waned.  It sucks.  It really does.  My posting goes down tremendously over the winter but I am going to try to catch up and post the rest of the photos I took over this summer.  Winter sucks.

If any of you are followers or my friends on FB, you might have seen we adopted a dog about a month ago.  Our local SPCA was having an adoption event so Chris and I decided that we wanted a dog.  After being taken on a tour through the kennels to look at the dogs, we decided on a golden colored Boxer/lab cross named Isabelle.

She’s 4 years old or there abouts.  She is really sweet, really hyper, and playful.  Isabelle loves walks and being destructive.  Every toy we have bought her, she has destroyed within 2o minutes of having.  She will start with the tag and go from there.  But she just adores Chris.  Always excited when he comes home and paces all day long when he leaves.  Drives me nuts lolz.  But she is always up for a nap and will go in and lay down with me when I go in for one.  She is such a happy doggie.  Always wagging her tail.  But if you are out walking her, keep your eyes open for squirrels, because then it’s all over because she is on a mission to get them and then it’s all over.

Here are some pictures of her that I have taken so far.  Isabelle refuses to sit for pictures or look at the camera.  So some of them don’t look that great of her.  :)  All except for the first one were taking when we took her fishing at the pond in September.

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This was the first night we had her here at home with us.

Introducing Isabelle We have slipped into full-blown Autumn here and my creative, inspiration, and even motivation have waned.  It sucks.  

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Javier Pedro Fernandez Ferreras

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Vintage and Nature Blog

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Ebola outbreak: Australia will not send health workers to west Africa Australian Associated Press, theguardian.com

Foreign minister Julie Bishop says Australia could not bring people home if they contract the disease

Australia will not send health workers to west Africa’s Ebola outbreak zones because there’s no way to get them home safely if they catch the…

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Check out my Flipboard magazine, Ebola http://flip.it/HAobb

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Check out my Flipboard magazine, Ebola http://flip.it/HAobb