No, that large white metal bead didn't start out life green. I did the salt, and, um, (let me go do a quick check of the McCreight book, The Complete Metalsmith –which I recommend highly, by the way), oh yes, ammonia. I think I must've let the beads sit in solution for a month, or at least till the water evaporated.
The coating has proven to be quite durable, and the blue green color pulls the large metal bead into the complementary color scheme of pink (light red) and bluish green. (You knew that green and red are complements, right?) I've also incorporated lapis nevada, which is a pink, green and white stone; and by carefully graduating the beads, achieved some nice color effects in the strand of 4mm beads below the accent. I decided fairly early on working only with silver or gold fill was silly, and having made the decision (along with a lot of other metalsmiths in the last 20–50 years or so) that metals may be mixed, started adding copper to the mix. So this piece has copper and brass accents both; brass to pick up the gold on the porcelain beads, and copper to echo the red in the rhodonite.
Necklace of pink rhodonite, lapis nevada, india agate (fancy mixed jasper), virdolite (african turquoise), porcelain (?), champleve, glass, mixed metals including brass, copper, & gold fill; strung on acculon (16” for body of necklace) and silk and nylon kumihimo (oimatsu pattern) 12” each side.
$175
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
