What are Rhinestones?
The beautiful piece of jewelry that sparkles and shines may not always be the real thing. Rhinestones are made of bits of glass to resemble authentic gem stones. The name Rhinestones comes from the original rock crystals that were taken from Austria’s Rhine River shores. Rhinestones are fairly inexpensive and can be made from a number of materials such as gem or paste quartz, acrylics and glass. Rhinestones are often used to embellish tiaras for weddings, the headdresses that the showgirls of Vegas sport and the costumes of figure skaters. They are also a popular form of costume jewelry. George Frederic Stras, a jeweler of the 18th century developed a way to coat the back of the crystals with metal which forced through the back of the stone a reflection. This is the method that creates rhinestones as they are known today. A century later Daniel Swarovski developed a technique that would cut the crystals to make rhinestones mimic the look of real gemstones and this allowed rhinestones t
