Amber is Beautiful

Written by Sher Maten


Amber is a beautiful! A true gift from mother nature. It comes in many different colors - yellow, orange, red, white, brown, green, blue and almost black. It may be transparent or clouded. Transparent tones range from pale to dark yellow, to yellow light brown. Cloudy amber comes in a wide range of colors. Amber is fossilized resin of ancient trees that grew in amber forests. Through various physical and chemical changesrepparttar resin becomes Amber. Amber is unique because it is able to preserverepparttar 148429 organic tissues in it. It is very common to find pieces of plants and insects, trapped in amber making it extremely valuable to both collectors andrepparttar 148430 scientists. A beautiful and fascinating gem! Amber is found in various parts ofrepparttar 148431 world. The largest amber deposits are offrepparttar 148432 shores ofrepparttar 148433 Baltic Sea. Baltic Amber isrepparttar 148434 most sought after and valuable for making amber jewelry. Baltic Amber has been used for decorative items since prehistoric times. A Baltic amber amulet has even been found in Egyptian tombs . Amber was also very popular in ancient Rome duringrepparttar 148435 reign of Neron when: jewelry, ornaments, amulets, and even dice were made from amber. Duringrepparttar 148436 Middle Ages, amber prayer beads were exported. Fromrepparttar 148437 16th century intorepparttar 148438 18th century item made from amber included jewelry, dishes, buttons, pipe mouth pieces, chess sets and a host of other fine products. The majority of Baltic amber comes from a 400-square-mile area -repparttar 148439 Samland Peninsula, now known asrepparttar 148440 Kaliningrad region. The Kaliningrad amber mine supplies 99% ofrepparttar 148441 Baltic amber. Up untilrepparttar 148442 19th century amber was retrieved manually fromrepparttar 148443 sea. Duringrepparttar 148444 latter part ofrepparttar 148445 19th century operations became much more sophisticated as they began dredging and mining for amber. Since then millions of pounds of Baltic amber have been mined.. A small town inrepparttar 148446 Kaliningrad region hasrepparttar 148447 world’s largest amber mine.

Nina Ricci - Top Designer

Written by Sher Matsen


In 1883 in Turin, Italy Maria Nielli was born. In 1895 when Maria was 12, her family moved to France. When she was 13, she apprenticed to a dressmaker. Atrepparttar age of 18 Maria had becomerepparttar 148428 head ofrepparttar 148429 salon and atrepparttar 148430 age of 22 she was their chief designer. In 1904 she married a jeweler named Luigi Ricci. In 1905 she gave birth to their son Robert. In 1908 Nina joinedrepparttar 148431 house of Raffin as a designer where she stayed for 20 years.

At age 50, in 1932, Madame Ricci opened her own house with her son Robert. It wasrepparttar 148432 House of Ricci. Robert ranrepparttar 148433 business and Madame Ricci createdrepparttar 148434 garments. Duringrepparttar 148435 1930’srepparttar 148436 business grew very quickly. Beginning as a one room operation it grew to consume 11 floors in 3 buildings.

Nina Ricci created elegant, sophisticated garments in a classic style. She was well known for her high quality garments becoming very popular with older society women. She was highly talented at gettingrepparttar 148437 most out of every print. Both her evening and day dresses were designed to draw attention torepparttar 148438 female figure.

In 1963 Crahay left Ricci and was replaced by Gerard Pipart, who had worked with Balmain, Fath and Jean Patou. Inrepparttar 148439 traditional Ricci style, he designed beautiful lace dresses with appliquéd fabrics.

Atrepparttar 148440 age of 87 Nina Ricci died in 1970. Pipart continued designing forrepparttar 148441 house of Ricc. Robert, Nina’s son was not only an excellent business person, he was an expert perfumer. He has transformedrepparttar 148442 house into a size Nina would never imagined possible.

At age 83 in 1988, Robert Ricci died. In 1998 Mariano Puig, ofrepparttar 148443 Catalan family purchasedrepparttar 148444 house of Nina Ricci in 1998. They also ownsrepparttar 148445 house of Paco Rabanne.

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