However it gets there, that piece of jewelry adorning a world-class model on a fashion runway, being shown at a world-renowned fashion house, or appearing behind the window at your local jeweler, has a history and a story that will most likely never be known.

FORBES: All that Glitters is Beauty and Business

Young, creative and successful, jewelry designer JESSICA McCORMACK has all her creations made by hand and looks to the great jewelry houses of the past for a model upon which to build her future business.

WSJ: Watches & Jewelry 2013

Ads show model Carolyn Murphy wearing 21 different pieces of jewelry, large and small.

FORBES: Reconstructing Harry

The business model was simple: a website that rented high-end jewelry for special occasions at a fraction of the retail value of each piece.

FORBES: The Good Side of Failure: Three Painful, but Worthy, Lessons

It has towns devoted to single crafts or occupations, which used to be a worldwide model, but globalization has passed Bali by - you go explore the jewelry town, the teak carving town and so on, stepping back in time.

FORBES: Hopeless Romantics: Bali, Indonesia