Many people throughout the world find the symbols and meanings of Celtic jewelry designs fascinating and like to collect gold or silver Celtic knot jewelry. There are many lovely pieces of jewelry depicting Celtic knots and other Celtic designs and it can be intriguing collecting jewelry with either a distinct type of pattern, for example trinity knots, or a set including all styles and often with set with amethyst.
It can give more significance to your collection if you understand something concerning the history and mythology of the Celtic people who used these designs in their day by day life on their jewelry and everyday items. Although meanings of Celtic knot designs are, in general, missing to us, yet a great deal is known concerning the history of the Celtic people.
The period of the history of the Celts dating from roughly 600 AD. in Great Britain after the Roman Era, known as the Insular Art period, saw an outburst of jewelry design and crafting. Craftsmen used gold and silver to put together many intricately detailed pieces ornamented with the well recognised Celtic knots but also animals and spiral designs. As well as ornaments, illustrated texts were created, the most well-known of which is the Book of Kells. Stone crosses were engraved with Celtic knot designs and are seen all over the British Isles, in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Creators of Celtic Knot jewelry at present are motivated by the objects that were fashioned throughout this time, taking their ideas from the illustrated texts, stone crosses and relics still seen all over the country today. Irish craftsmen are experts in making fine jewelry in gold and silver, bearing the convoluted designs so loved by the Celts in the past. They embellish their jewelry with the elaborate knotwork seen in these ancient relics.
The earliest meanings of several of the designs are lost and several meanings have been made up by modern people, so finding out the original meaning of a lot of the designs is tricky and in a lot of cases not possible. In spite of this historians can concur on a small number of things in relation to the Celtic knot designs. The elaborate knots symbolize how all things are inter-connected and also stand for God s never-ending love. The Book of Kells is ornately illustrated in bright colours with Celtic knots. The Celtic knot is possibly, the most well known and most broadly loved Celtic representation and is a attribute of numerous pieces of fine Celtic jewelry including earrings, Celtic crosses, and wedding bands.
Trinity knots, or triquetra, are often seen in metal objects from the Insular Art period especially in illuminated manuscripts, such as the Book of Kells, and in metal work. It was customarily used in combination with other knots and was repeatedly used as a space filler rather than a stand alone design. In recent times the triquetra has developed into a symbol of the Christian church representing the Holy Trinity or as a symbol of special threefold things such as mother, daughter and granddaughter.
