Jewelry and Greek tradition

Traditional costume jewelry “The jewels of Greek costumes, expressing directly the level of aesthetics, economics and social conditions of their place of provenance, blend harmonically with the type of costume and become inextricable decorative elements of it…” Jewelry has always been an essential part of traditional clothing, especially concerning women’s costumes. Gold, silver, and often the admixture of silver with copper were the most popular materials, which combined with the artistic sense of the creators, gave birth to proper works of art. The technique used to create these pieces can be either graven, anastatic, casted, flimsy, wired or filled with smalt, revealing the creativeness of people with varied cultural backgrounds and a strong sense of beauty. There is a great variety of jewelry for female headbands, such as pins, half diadems, and intricate chainlets. Inseparable elements of the headband are the heavy earrings that hang from it. A very popular form, the tepelikia, are small flat slightly concave discs, used to adorn the top of the head and the part that maintains the headband around the jaw. The haimailia, a sort of lucky charm for men and women, can be round, rectangular or square and is usually hanging from a chainlet that goes from the neck to the left armpit, thus warn sideways. Giordania are necklaces of all kinds that can go from simple chains and strings with coins or colored stones to impressive very long strings mostly used for Athenian costumes “ which are hung at the shoulders by two hooks and many chains of different lengths with round discs of wire, adorned with big colored stones made from glass which cover the whole chest, almost reaching to the waist”. Kioustekia are impressive chained pieces that decorate the chest and the waist. They exist in many versions for men and women, and are usually worn by women form Northern Greece and war chieftains of the Macedonian War in Northern Epirus and Mesologgi. The Porpi is a distinctive piece from popular silver craft which exists in great variety concerning techniques, motives, shape and dimensions. Belts also exist in huge varieties, as they can be wired, made in tin, smoked with multicolored smalt on the porpi like in Souli, or with smalt as a main element and silver wire like on the traditional ornaments of Thassos. {gallery}greek_trad{/gallery}