How to tell what a cameo is made of

28 Oct 2016, 09:50 Marco Jovon 34716 views

How I can understand what a cameo is made of

Today we talk about Cameo Jewelry: the different materials!

As you can imagine this is the typical question that me and my brother we hear everyday in our shop in Venice.

Let's clarify with samples and 2 easy tricks that everybody can count on

Cameo Necklaces and Pendants

We're going to talk about cameos mounted into a charm or a pendant for a necklace but the appreciation works as well for rings, earrings and brooches

Is my cameo real or fake: 2 easy tricks to distinguish the real ones

The first step in pricing a cameo is to understand what the actual cameo part is made out of.

Let' s try to point out the differences between a shell cameo and a cheap plastic or resin impostor. And just guess where the fake ones came from ... I'll answer for you: for sure not from Italy! And I'm sure you want a real italian cameo .. don't you?

Today we gonna talk only about shell cameos: if you love our Blog, you know for sure that cameos can be done in different materials like stones, coral, agate and as well glass like we explain in this Post of our Blog

A molded plastic is made to look like shell, but is usually thicker in most of the cases ... so... let's see the first tip

take your cameo pendant and ....

Tip N.1: Put the cameo through the light !

a shell cameo will be for sure translucent, anyway, some plastic cameos are thin too, so that' s not enough. Beware from cameos whose set is closed in the back! Beware from cameos that has a set just made to distract you from what is important: the cameo itself!

Imagine to have the possibility of buying the "Monna Lisa", would you really care about the frame?

Tip N.2: Use a 10 x magnifying glass !

Cameo jewelry, if real, should be handmade so it would be easy to see very fine markings or indentations from the carving tools, indicating the piece has been carved manually. The plastic is uniform, it' s not handmade and most of the plastic cameos have the same exact face .... so if you buy a pair of earrings the faces should be slightly different: imperfections are guarantee of handmade jewelry.

for even more information about this millenary art I suggest you to download our free Ebook on cameos