Because the rhinestones are a great complement for our collection, we will tell a short story about the history of the rhinestones.
The history of the rhinestones:
Rhinestones are pieces of faceted glass. The original rhinestones were pebbles of rock crystal from the Rhine River (Austria's western boundary).
The true sparkle began in about 1775 when a French jeweller named George Frederic Stras had an idea to coat the lower side of glass with metal powder. The resulting quality closely imitated diamonds. They still were not real affordable because the stones were individually handcrafted.
In 1892 Daniel Swarovski, son of a Bohemian gem cutter, applied for a patent on his first invention: a machine that cuts crystal jewellery stones with unprecedented precision. A couple of years later Swarovski moves to Austria, where his invention could be powered by water, to set up a factory specializing in the production of cut crystal jewellery stones. Success in producing rhinestones economically without compromising the quality of the cut is achieved which meant acceptance in the jewellery industry. Fifteen years later Daniel and his three sons refine methods to produce stones to a state of flawless brilliance. They had a very great success with it. Later they applied a coating to crystal stones to produce a rainbow of colors effect.
In 1956 Daniel dies at the grand old age of 94 leaving one of Austrians largest companies and one of the world’s largest producers of rhinestones which exports 80% of its production.
Today rhinestones are primarily used for clothes and they are most of the time made of glass. People who dance and skate use it a lot, but you can use them everywhere. For example, on maps, leather belts, hand bags, shoes and also nice as a logo for your company or sports club.
