Most Fashion Jewelry is created using non-precious materials.
Metal parts are often gold- or silver plated and with or without crystals, pearls and stones.
Fashion jewelry is nothing new it has been around since the early ages of humans in one way or another and is going to continue to be present all through the future as well.

From ancient history we know that humans in all corners of the World have been appreciating and using some kind of fashion jewelry.
Up through the times there has been a mixture of precious, semi-precious and non-precious parts used in fashion jewelry.

Today the classification of jewelry is separated into two categories mainly due to the amount of precious metals, stones and other parts, and therefore a different price range, even though the cost of some fashion jewelry can be higher than the cost of some fine jewelry pieces. And also the workmanship can be of a similar quality in both categories.

In ancient Egypt gold was the preferred metal for making jewellery. It was malleable and therefore could be worked on quite easily. In addition it was rare and did not tarnish easily.

In ancient Greece, beads were manufactured on a large scale and made into flowers and other forms found in the nature.
In addition to precious stones they were also using coloured glass and enamel.

All jewellery was hand made until the industrial revolution in the 18th century, also called the machine age.
Handmade jewellery was still to be regarded as “the real thing” all the way up until our age actually.
Machine made items were, and are, much cheaper as they can be reproduced in large quantities.
Still, handmade jewelry is regarded as the better choice.

Classification

In our time, besides the two main categories, fine jewelry and fashion jewelry, each of these categories are further divided up into other separate categories.
In the case of what we understand as fashion jewelry today we have jewelry made of higher grade materials and others made of a lower grade material. Some machine made and others hand made.

When the items are new it is difficult to see any difference between the higher grade and the lower grade products unless you are a professional in the business. Therefore the fashion jewelry business is open to manipulation by un-honest players, and people are very often fooled into believing they buy handmade, high grade, products when the items are actually made with low grade materials.

Do-It-Yourself

There is a very large market for fashion jewelry and the number of suppliers is constantly growing as well. Many of these suppliers are, or become, artists in their own right creating beautiful pieces of jewelry. It is an ideal way of creating personalized jewelry for own use and/or for distribution to others. The cost of starting up is low and most people treat it as a hobby until they get more experience with regards to techniques, materials etc.
There are a large amount of instruction material in the market, both offline and online, to get you started.

Beads

A large variety of materials are traditionally used to make beads such as jet, wood, amber, gemstones, pottery, ceramic, metals, horn, coral, ivory, tortoiseshell, crystal glass and pearls. Some modern materials such as plastics, nylon and polycarbonate variants are also used to make beads.
Fashion jewelry can be antique, period, or contemporary and there are many collectors of every style of Fashion jewelry. Venetian glass pieces of Fashion jewelry are particularly collectable as well as being extremely popular for people to wear.
Within the last 30 years or so the techniques of lampworking glass has spread to many parts of the world and you can find artists using these techniques almost anywhere.

Cleaning

Fashion jewelry is easy to clean but it needs to be done often to prevent tarnishing and keep the items in good condition. Simply use a mild detergent mixed in water and a soft cloth.
It is important not to soak the jewelry and to make sure it is dried properly before storing it.

The main reason for tarnishing of fashion jewelry is reaction with the atmosphere and oxidizing.
Also exposure to perfumes used by the person wearing it, body sweat and other factors and chemicals are affecting the condition of the jewelry.

There are some anti-tarnish paper you can buy to store with your jewelry before you put it away for any length of time.
If you are storing fashion jewelry in a loosely sealed container like a cardboard box the anti-tarnish paper can help keeping the jewelry in good condition for up to 6 months whereas if a tightly sealed container like a zip-lock bag is used, it can keep it for up to 2 years. It always depends on how well protected the jewelry is against environmental exposure.
Regular cleaning is, however, the best defence against tarnishing.

Skin Sensitivity

Unfortunately, there are a large number of people who are unable to wear Fashion jewelry next to their skin. This is because of their sensitivity to the metals used. It is important to make sure that anyone that you are selling the jewelry to, or buying the jewelry for, is not allergic to nickel, copper or other metal combinations or types, especially with pierced earrings. Nickel is not so much a problem anymore as most fashion jewelry is made with nickel-free metal parts. Check with your supplier whether the metal parts are nickel-free or not.

Fashion jewelry may look beautiful and, especially in the case of contemporary pieces, be reasonably priced but it is not suitable for everyone to wear. For many people a piece of Fashion jewelry may be the first jewelry that they have worn and it is important to look out for signs of a reaction, especially after extended periods of wear. Often people will not show a reaction if they wear the jewelry for a short amount of time and this can be an ideal way to avoid any possible discomfort. You can also buy a special coating that you apply to the back of the Fashion jewelry to protect the skin from having direct contact with the metal.