Peace 101

We've had a busy couple of weeks around Beadaholique HQ, and I'm always looking for a way to relax, chill out, or kick back. I figured it was high time to set out on a journey toward transcendental enlightenment. Unfortunately, my idea of taking a six week yoga retreat to India didn't pass muster, so I've investigated a symbol known from Antarctica to Timbuktu, whose origins are little known among the legions who seek to create a world where its meaning is realized. Climb aboard the magic bus, put some flowers in your hair, and pass the wine skin; it's time to talk peace!
The peace symbol's roots lie not in the anti-war tumult of 1960s America, but in the British anti-nuclear  movement of the late 1950s. It was designed in early 1958 by Gerald Holtam, a professional designer and artist, for a protest against the construction and proliferation of atomic weapons led by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. When the letters N and D are represented in semaphore, a Naval sign language, and then imposed over each other, they form the easy to recognize symbol. Holtom later expanded on the idea, saying he drew inspiration from Goya's "The Third of May, 1808", with its exasperated subject throwing his hands in the air as his captors level their rifles.
The symbol crossed the pond in 1960 when Philip Altbach, an American student, brought a bag of peace symbol buttons to the campus of the University of Chicago. He convinced the Student Peace Union to adopt the symbol, and over the next decade its popularity would soar. Quickly, it became the ubiquitous badge of the anti-war movement. The humble emblem began appearing everywhere; if it wasn't dangling from a strand of hippie beads around the neck of a flower child during the summer of love, it was scrawled across the nose cone of a bomb in the sweaty jungles of Vietnam.
Instantly, the peace symbol was implemented into the bohemian fashions of the 1960s. It didn't matter if you were in a halter top and drawstring skirt or a tie dyed t-shirt and patchwork bell bottoms, odds were there was a peace symbol in one place or another. Never before had a single design so defined a generation. However, the symbol didn't stop there; it kept on truckin' through the 70s, and into the 80s. Even now, the peace sign remains a steadfast reminder of what could be. Sure, a couple of lines inside a circle might not solve the world's problems, but it's nice to show the world there's at least one person who believes in the idea of peace. If you'd like to do your part, take the long, strange trip to our website for some groovy peace symbol jewelry components 
By Zachary