#quendi

The adornments of the pre-journey Quendi are/were as diverse as the speaking peoples were themselves - so very diverse indeed!

Materials are an incredibly important aspect of jewelry, and early Quendi work reflects that. The physical location of a group of elves influenced the materials they had access to, and thus what sort of jewelry they make - from the work of the first goldsmiths experimenting with nuggets and flakes found in mountain streams, the rare washes full of opalized wood, all the way to those focused on biotic materials like porcupine quills*, shells**, feathers***, bones****, and many, many different kinds of plants.

Lifestyle would also influence materials access! More sedentary Quendi groups would have more investment in mining and thus metalwork/gemstones or other crafts that require not-so-portable setups to produce.

Despite this grounding in the local environment, a LOT of jewelry travels through trade routes - friendships, marriages, nomadic kin-groups meeting...

And once materials like glass, gems, and metals are extracted and processed they do become highly portable! And can thus be integrated/used by nomadic or traveling craftspeople.

There is SO much space to theorize how immortality would impact the social behaviors and trade/travel between early Quendi.

Notably, jewelry would not travel as a result of armed conflict and spoils of war.

And as the jewelry travels, so do the methods behind the making! Either reverse-engineered with local materials by strangers who have never met the crafters, or by a sharing of minds/ideas/demonstrations of techniques. Or both! Craftspeople might come across a reflection of their work hundreds of years after it's spread to a village they've never visited.

It is a glorious and somewhat chaotic melting-pot of primordial jewelry soup.

Trends in both materials and methods usually travel along trade and kinship lines, but nobody is keeping close track of exactly where and when every idea appears.

However, some styles may be named for (presumed) areas of origin, kin-groups, or even individual craftspeople who developed these techniques.

Jewelry associated with trade brings up the question of value. And value is a fascinating concept in the literal cradle of Quendi civilization! One that is probably a separate post, alas. Suffice to say there are three main components to value in early Quendi jewelry: investment (most often time), beauty, and emotional attachment/history.

Post-Journey, much of this early work is not well-representing in the public consciousness of Valinor. One part revisionist history positing all Great Advances in society/crafting as having occurred after their arrival in Valinor, and one part those items often being treasured keepsakes for those who went on the Journey - of lands and people they left behind or of the traveling days themself. No museum donation after grandma kicks it here! Additionally, a lot of the jewelry produced was somewhat perishable, at least on the time scale of the Quendi. Even wood will wear away with enough use and exposure.

Links to other posts in the Jewelry series:

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*Many different Native American/First Nations American groups use porcupine quills decoratively, although historically this use was not necessarily in art and adornment that would fit European concepts of jewelry.

** Cowrie shells have a long and extensive history in Africa as money, and thus as jewelry; furthermore, the oldest currently known human-created adornment is snail shell beads from 142,000 years ago! (Also African, specifically found in modern-day Morocco)

***Maori feather cloaks (kahu huruhuru) and Chinese tian-tsui (jewelry made with kingfisher feather inlays) come to mind.