Description

• These earrings are handcrafted from:
  Handmade Fraser Tartan art glass cabochon charms,*
  Sterling silver plated French hook ear wires.
• Earring drop approximately 1 1/12 inches/ 3.81 cm
  

Researching Tartans, I learned that tartan is alternating bands of colored threads woven to each other in crisscrossed, horizontal, and vertical bands. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. and are associated with Scotland.

Tartan is often mistakenly called “plaid” (particularly in North America), but in Scotland, a plaid is a large piece of tartan cloth, worn as a type of kilt or shawl. The term plaid is also used in Scotland for a blanket.

Particularly interesting to me is The Dress Act of 1746 that attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. When the law was withdrawn in 1782,  tartan was no longer ordinary Highland dress but was adopted instead as the symbolic national dress of Scotland, especially popular after King George IV wore a tartan kilt in his 1822 visit to Scotland.

Probably one of my favorite things about the Highland Games is wearing my ancestor’s Tartan and seeing everyone else proudly wearing theirs!

Put on these earrings and your best Scottish accent and you will be guaranteed to be the center of attention!

“I have always loved tartans – such an ornamented type of weaving, so vivid in color, and such a masculine aspect. But actually, I think tartans can be feminine or masculine.
-Christian Louboutin

(*Glass cabochon charms are water resistant but not waterproof, make sure you don’t immerse the earrings in water!)