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Arts and Crafts Movement 265
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à jour, or
open, method. This is best adapted to transparent stones, exposing them
freely to the light. The projecting claws of the open setting are
slightly cleft near their extremities and these, under a pressure that
inclines them slightly inward, pinch or grasp the stone at the girdle.
Opaque stones, such as turquoise, bloodstone, or onyx, are usually set
in the encased mount, in which the gem is set in a metal bed, with only
the top exposed.
While
to some degree anything fashioned by machinery is open to the
detracting term " commercial," there is often much artistic merit in
the designs issuing from the factories of manufacturing jewellers, but
nothing can rival the charm of objects wrought solely and entirely by
hand.
The
work of the more expert of the students taking the jewelry course in
Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, and at other educational institutions
where this department of art and manual training is a serious feature,
is a revelation of present attainments, and a hopeful sign that the
jewelry of the future in America will conform more to true artistic
ideals and serve less as a medium for mere ostentatious display. An
exhibition of the work of students in the jewelry
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