Middle Eastern Jewelry Designs: Hands

More on Middle Eastern jewelry designs – some silver hands from my personal collection:  I’ve been collecting interesting jewelry items from the Middle East since my days as a purveyor of belly dance costumes and jewelry.  I’ve been particularly taken with hands and with amulet cases of various designs.  

I’ll share a few of my favorites.  Every hand in my collection is different.  One of my favorite hands is this silver one with chasing and a bezel set carnelian cabochon.   Carnelian is a much beloved stone in Middle Eastern jewelry.   Carnelian is considered to bring luck and is thought to enhance creativity and provide protection to the wearer.  Iron gives carnelians their orange color, which ranges from a very bright orange to browner shades.

You can see the chased design on some of these pieces, including the copper hand with respousee’ that I did a while back.   Wall ornaments are very popular in the Middle East and the copper hand would make a terrific wall ornament