Why Do People Value Jewelry Beyond Its Practical Uses?

[Cyrus]

puppies are free from the shelter! Thats a nice gift, because you save the puppies life and the puppy will give years of happiness emotionally to the person you give it to. It won't sit in a jewlery box collecting dust and come out once in a blue moon.

 

[Evo]

a puppy could cost you a few grand... trying to buy evo?

Yeah, just the socks will do.

 

[Cyrus]

Fine I am keeping the puppies and kittens for myself muahahhahh! See what happens when you give a gift, they complain....

 

[Pengwuino]

Did someone mention socks...

 

[Gale]

hahahahaha, that's why you don't like to give gifts. you're just not very good at it? practice makes perfect!

 

[Cyrus]

Ok, I will give you some ballet slippers, happy now? Please just be freakin happy with them! (Pulls his hair out)

 

[Gale]

i'd love you (in many ways *wink*) if i got some ballet slippers!

 

[Cyrus]

http://www.shellysonline.com/shoes/danshuz/ToeShoe.jpg

How can anyone wear those torture devices? It soooooooo bad for your feet.

 

[Gale]

those are point slippers, i don't need point, just regular slippers. regular ballet slippers are just soft and lace up and they're flexible, and pretty and i want some!

 

[Cyrus]

This is why I don't like to give gifts.

http://www.freemotion.com/media/GR2007.jpg


If you don't like these, too bad You just cost me the pair of the pink ones, which I have to now drive back, wait in line, and return. Then look for the white ones, oh they don't have the white ones in your size. So now I have to drive all the way down town to get the white ones, which are twice as expensive as the ones at the normal store. Then I have to drive in rush hour traffic all the way back, and get in a car accident with someone that has no insurance. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Make the insanity stop!

 

[Gale]

haha, those are point too! they're called point because they let you point your toes like that and stand on them, they have hard tips. i don't need that. i just want regular slippers silly. and any color is fine (but the whites kinda nicer!) and if you want i'll even come with you to make sure they're the right size. and when we get home, i'll help you detress with a nice massage by candle light eh?

 

[Cyrus]

I like the way you think.

 

[Pengwuino]

balley slippers are stupid, this has been mathematically proven

 

[franznietzsche]

balley slippers are stupid, this has been mathematically proven

Ah, the elusive balley slipper, invented in 1803 by Shephard Balley McFlarnmunster.

 

[Astronuc]

you all are strange. I like diamonds, big diamonds. You aren't supposed to put your hands in your pockets. you aren't supposed to have pockets. I like my women in sexy dresses and sparkley jewelry. You look like a million dollars, so why not wear a million dollars as well.
Fantasy date: sexy slinky dress big diamond necklace for dinner and drink(think Pretty Woman and the red dress scene) , long t shirt to bed. Legs always showing
I don't care what she wears

I wouldn't make anything terribely intricate. And if she (or he) won't accept anything that isn't gaudy and from Tiffany's then I'm not marrying her.

I couldn't afford to marry her.

I am pretty plain and simple, not fancy - I'll wear a suit and tie (professional responsibility) or casual dress, but I mostly prefer blue jeans, and more preferably cutoff's, T-shirt (sleeveless, with pocket for my mechanical pencil Pilot razorpoint pen), and I go barefoot. I basically prefer to wear a minimal amount of clothes, while being socially acceptable or at least not too offensive, and with minimal restriction on my extremities.

When I was single, I preferred a Spartan life. Nothing fancy. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, nice (but simple stereo system), and a dry place for my books. As an older person, I like to have a garden. I think in my last years, I would like a nice cottage (dry place for my books) with a garden and orchard by a stream.

I don't need jewelry, nor do I want any.

 

[Moonbear]

Look instead of all that crap Evo, wouldn't it be a better gift to have a nice dinner with your loved ones than some junk that cost a lot of money? I think there are better ways to show your love than buying JUNK JUNK JUNK JUNK JUNK! Showing somone you care about them is a personal thing that no gift can replace. A modest gift is nice, an expensive gift is just pathetic.

I don't agree with your delivery here, but the overall message I definitely agree with. We covered this in another thread this week...I don't ask for gifts. If someone puts a lot of thought into buying me something I'd like, I don't refuse it, but just giving gifts for the sake of gifts isn't something I like, because, yeah, you get a bunch of junk (ooh, I have so many occassions to wear those socks I got with candy canes and Santa all over them ). Ever notice how when women get engaged, the first thing people say is, "Ooh, let me see the ring!" Is it going to be a bad marriage or show he loves her less if she didn't get a ring, or it has only a small diamond?

But, I have another side to how I view jewelry as gifts too. If it makes a guy happy to buy something pretty for his girlfriend or wife, and he enjoys seeing her wear it, then I don't mind wearing it for him (as long as it isn't completely atrocious). He just shouldn't ever feel obligated, like she's not going to like him if he never buys her jewelry, because that would suggest bigger problems than just a lack of jewelry.

I also look at it as what can you afford? If you're on a tight budget and trying to save up for a new house or much needed car or even to pay for the wedding, then throwing money away on things like jewelry is completely foolish. But, if you have a lot of disposable income, and buying something frivolous isn't even going to make a dent in your budget, then if it's something you like, why not?

 

[BobG]

Isn't jewelry kind of like long fingernails? Both prove you can afford to have someone else do any labor that might damage them (or any labor that might snatch your jewelry and carry your finger or ear along with it).

Actually, a little jewelry is nice, but I don't care that much for multiple body piercings (especially on my daughters' boyfriends). If you hold up the line at the airport waiting to get through the metal detectors, then you probably have too much jewelry.

When I refereed, if I noticed a player wearing jewelry, I was supposed to send them off the field to remove it. I always thought it was pretty funny when someone wearing a tongue stud started telling me what a lousy job I was doing.

 

[Blahness]

I get it!

It makes them feel worth that much to you, because you're willing to give up that to be nice to them.

...Still, as Evo said, it should be PRACTICAL gifts, like cookware or chemicals for testing various reactions. <_<'

 

[BobG]

I get it!
...Still, as Evo said, it should be PRACTICAL gifts, like cookware or chemicals for testing various reactions. <_<'

No, you don't.

Rule 1: Never give anything that can be used in the kitchen as a gift - those are tools and they kind of belong to the house for common use. (Exception: those are okay as wedding gifts for a couple)

Rule 2: Never give anything that can be used to test your own various reactions (chemicals are only mildly bad - giving your wife an electroejaculator would be much worse).

The practicality should be a side benefit - not the main purpose of the gift.

 

[Blahness]

Fine.

Well, at least it's not part of my worries for now, I'm only 15. X.x'

 

[Michael_E]

This has got to be the funniest thread that I've read on this forum yet. I'm having to stop periodically to catch my breath.

The reason for this is that I make jewelry. I used to do do design engineering at an aluminum smelter, but this is a lot more fun. It's actually kind of a cross between engineering and art, since you get to design gem cuts by using CAD programs and then polish them using what amounts to art. It's all in the "touch" . I started by cutting gems...that's still the most fum part of this. It's sort of mesmerizing watching a chunk of expensive gravel turn into an even more expensive, flashing lure, (that's not fishing lure, though some people do use this stuff in a similar manner).

When you ask what's the point, well it has two parts. In my mind, number one is beauty. This stuff can be really beautiful. The sparkle and glimmer of a well cut gem, in a well made setting, is just plain beautiful. I guess that sort of attraction, the appreciation of beauty, is just built into some people. The second part revolves around all of those strange social vagaries that are also built into many people's psyche. It's about money, self image, self importance, social postion and on and on. Your own particular reaction to jewelry can be a mix of these influences and the easy way to tell where you stand, is to watch yourself and see if you spend more time looking at your jewelry or showing and telling other people about it. It's really easy to "get", just head over to a jewelry forum and listen for a while...if you can stand it, (it can drive you nuts after a while).

It's really weird that the things that I've made that I like the best are the facted "eggs" that I've cut from busted up quartz crystals. They sit on the window sill and on a sunny day they just spray the entire room with rainbows.

I've attached a couple of pics of a pink sapphire in a trillion cut and a platinum ring with a similar stone shoe-horned in, under the center stone. Those little devil diamonds on the sides are just under 1mm in diameter and have to be set under a microscope. Making this stuff is a big pile of fun and sure beats the heck out of dealing with the grime and politics of an aluminum smelter !

 

[Cyrus]

Those are very nice. And I agree with you, in appreciating them for their art and craftsman ship, but not to go around wearing. I think it should be something people can enjoy in a museum. I do like the math they use to find the best geometries to cut the rocks. I saw it on pbs, it was really cool.

 

[Moonbear]

No, you don't.
Rule 1: Never give anything that can be used in the kitchen as a gift - those are tools and they kind of belong to the house for common use. (Exception: those are okay as wedding gifts for a couple)
Rule 2: Never give anything that can be used to test your own various reactions (chemicals are only mildly bad - giving your wife an electroejaculator would be much worse).
The practicality should be a side benefit - not the main purpose of the gift.

Yes, if you give women something practical for the kitchen or for cleaning (unless she has specifically asked for it), she will find a way to make it more entertaining by beating you with it.

Though, in reality, I'd rather get the practical gifts...but practical means I have to actually need it or want it, not just that it has a use. So, pass on the new, fancier vacuum cleaner if the one I have works just fine, but I sure could use a nice set of patio furniture or a new grill come spring time, or my cookie sheets are getting a little sad looking and could be replaced...that sort of thing.

 

[Moonbear]

It's really weird that the things that I've made that I like the best are the facted "eggs" that I've cut from busted up quartz crystals. They sit on the window sill and on a sunny day they just spray the entire room with rainbows.

Now that is something I would really enjoy!

 

[tribdog]

Though, in reality, I'd rather get the practical gifts...but practical means I have to actually need it or want it, not just that it has a use

really? How practical are Legos? And how did you feel when you opened up that package?

 

[Moonbear]

really? How practical are Legos? And how did you feel when you opened up that package?

They were very practical! They provided for hours and hours of stress-relieving activity. They certainly weren't jewelry.

Okay, those fall in the category of completely unexpected, and thoughtful, and something to show you're actually paying attention to the woman, not just buying some baubles to show off how rich you are.

 

[tribdog]

Okay, those fall in the category of completely unexpected, and thoughtful, and something to show you're actually paying attention to the woman, not just buying some baubles to show off how rich you are.

really? I thought it was just an attempt at getting laid.

 

[Evo]

This has got to be the funniest thread that I've read on this forum yet. I'm having to stop periodically to catch my breath.

Welcome to PF Michael_E!

Making jewelry sounds like fun, and rewarding as far as art goes. I personally like jewelry too much. The colors, the sparkle. :!)

That pink saphire is really pretty.

 

[tribdog]

no you can't have it

 

[Michael_E]

Thanks Evo,
This is a neat forum. A really good place to keep quite, listen (or read),and pick up some great links to technical sites and papers.

Jewelry for me is a way to make a living making things, and not so much art. I don't try to ascribe some significance to what I do, other than try to make it "beautiful". It's more like craft, (of course using optics, mechanics and intuition to try new things). To tell you the truth, I agree with many that jewelry is not practical in the sense that you can't use it as a tool or to gain information. But it is practical in developing an emotional response, as art does, and that alone makes it worth doing as it makes a person more balanced in their views.

For me it's really a toss up what to do with my limited resources. On one hand there are gem crystals to buy and on the other there are always new tools to acquire. I'm trying to justify a dividing head for my milling machine now. It's practical, but I don't need it. Anybody think of a good reason to have something I don't really need ? I'm sure that I'll think of something, but every bit of ammunition that I can muster helps !

cyrusabdollahi,
The math to do the cutting has been encapsulated in several really good programs that take care of all the details for you in a graphical manner. The really cool part is that you can import and export all of the models into and out of numerous other programs and do some really neat things with modeling. This applies to way more than jewelry. I personally use Rhino3D to model this stuff, as well as machinery. If you're into making things, this is a great time to be alive. There are so many resources on the 'net and elsewhere that it just amazes me.