Enamel Embellished Hair Accessories Sizzle As Latest Trend

Enamel Embellished Hair Accessories Sizzle As Latest Fashion Trend

I will confess that I've always been a sucker for anything with enamel.  Over the years I've collected some gorgeous hair accessories, earrings and related accessories with enamel embellishments.

Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Celts, Georgians And Chinese Applied Enamels To Jewelry

The ancient Egyptians applied enamels to pottery and stone objects, and sometimes jewelry, though the last less often than other ancient Middle Eastern cultures. The ancient Greeks, Celts, Georgians, and Chinese also used enamel on metal objects.

Enamel was also sometimes used to decorate glass vessels during the Roman period, and there is evidence of this as early as the late Republican and early Imperial periods in the Levantine, Egypt, Britain and the Black Sea.

What's Old Is New Again

What way better way to add a bit of colorful shine and a pop to metals than enamel?  The ancient technique of fusing glass to metal may be centuries old, but designers continue to create new updated designs.  From abstract “stained glass” hair jaws, claws and skinny clips to cuffs and bold pendants, enamel is painting the scene in jewelry this season.

One of my all time cuffs of all time is a Gerard Yosca cuff which always wins me lots of compliments.  I have been a huge fan of Gerard and his designs since the mid-1990s.

Karen Marie Metal Hairclip With Enamel In Sky Blue

Shown to the top and the left is the Karen Marie Enamel and Metal Hair clip.  Vintage inspired, the long metal jaw clip is approximately 2 inches long.

The metal clip is covered on each side with a shimmery sky blue enamel complete with beautiful swirls.  The enamel covering is accented with light blue, aqua and Aurora Borealis (AB) crystals.

The jaw opens approx 1 1/2" wide and holds approx 2" to 2 1/2" of hair. There are approx 62 crystals which accent this piece.

The gorgeous handle features an etched enamel with accent crystals.

Karen Marie Enamel And Crystal Encrusted Dragonfly Jaw In Aqua

The vintage inspired Karen Marie Enamel Dragonfly Jaw Clip has metal wings covered in enamel.

The edges of the wings are outlined in shimmering aqua crystals in a lighter accent hue to bring attention to the beautiful wings.

This beautiful dragonfly features over 65 sparkling crystals in three different hues of blue.   The wingspan measures approx 3 1/4" wide at widest and has six teeth approx 1/2" long each.

More About Enamel

Enamel may be transparent or opaque when fired. Vitreous enamel can be applied to most metals.

The great majority of modern industrial enamel is applied to steel in which the carbon is controlled to prevent reactions at the firing temperatures.

Enamel can also be applied to copper, aluminium, stainless steel, cast iron,  or hot rolled steel, as well as gold and silver.

Vitreous enamel has many excellent properties: it is smooth, hard, chemically resistant, durable, scratch resistant (5-6 on the Mohs scale), long-lasting color fastness, easy-to-clean, and cannot burn.

Enamel is glass, not paint, so it does not fade with UV light.  Its disadvantages are its tendency to crack or shatter when the substrate is stressed or bent, but modern enamels are chip and impact resistant because of good thickness control and thermal expansions well-match to the metal. Its durability has found it many functional applications:

Summary

To check out all the gorgeous enamel covered accessories options available at the HairBoutique.com Marketplace enter the words "enamel" in the search on the Marketplace front page.