A piece of scrap lightweight (probably .015) beadalon probably was the original impetus for this keychain charm: it, with the first four beads (floral thru dichro) sat on my desk for some months before a minor cleaning frenzy finally propelled me to finish it. .015 is really too delicate for anything but the least frequently used key: but once I decided to keep it, that problem stopped bothering me, since of course I can just restring—and do.

Lampwork, glass, amethyst, (base?) metal, brass, beadalon; 10" long; September 2012.

The other driver was the floral, which, a la Geldard, has a simple background of just a dusting of white thompson enamel on transparent grass green. It's the floral cane I particularly love. When I first examined it, I presumed the outer cane was EDP254 cased in 456 Gold Ruby, swiped on one side with periwinkle which in turn was striped with ink blue. I still think that's the case, but the inner petals presented more of a mystery.

It looked like Opal Yellow/Silver Pink cased in Gold Ruby, but where was that aqua/green tinge, which kicks up the liveliness of the design so much, coming from? Aha, after some thought I realized I probably cased the cane with a transparent pink artisan glass (e.g. TAG Juno). That along with a bit of EDP striping gives us the basis for that.

At any rate, I thought the outcome pretty sweet, which is why I reserved the bead into a piece of jewelry for myself, so it would be certain to continue to inspire me:)^[1]

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.