Kathy Barrick: French Cut Steel

Thursday, May 3, 2012

French Cut Steel

5:55 PM | | Edit Post

My latest jewelry passion is French Cut Steel. These are the most amazing old metal beads!

The were popular in France in the late 1800's and were used to make purses and to embellish clothing.

The trend made it's way to the USA and manufacturers started making them here. But the quality wasn't as good. The US beads tended to rust while the French beads didn't.

Not being one to do anything a little bit, I've been making necklaces with these beauties....not just one or two, but a whole bunch of necklaces!

All jewelry in my Etsy Shop. All beads hoarded away really well!

4 comments:

Beth Twist said...: Mmm... yummy... How about loops of multi-colored beads like in the 5th picture, made into ear bobs? ;); May 4, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Kristen said...: REminds me of the Cut Steel Tiara owned by the Swedish crown. It's from the Napoleonic era. See an overview here (no affiliation, I'm just a fan of the site):
http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/2011/08/tiara-thursday-cut-steel-tiara.html; May 15, 2012 at 10:11 AM
Kathy Barrick said...: Thank you so much Kristen! What a great site!

Kathy; May 15, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Kathy Barrick said...: And bobs they should be Beth!!

xoxox
Kathy; May 15, 2012 at 10:00 PM