It seems pitiable to die with a bunch of really cool beads that I never did anything with. With that morbid consideration in mind, I finally decided to use some beautiful pewter beads I purchased from Green Girl some 20 (or 25) years ago.[1] Since they were basemetal, I just went with that: the finding are also mostly base, though the soldered jump rings are sterling. There's all sorts of weird stuff in there, including some little charms that I thought were tierracast but, since they're stamped ‘sweden’ obviously weren't made by them.
Charm bracelet. The bulk of the lampwork were from a 2013 feb challenge. The red and white dotted bead is one of Frances’ xmas beads from a different exchange; and the red bead with the black scrolling is actually a sample that iirc I made during a Sarah Sally Lagrand workshop exploring reactive glasses.[2]
My friend Jen will be happy to know that some of her mother's components, such as the clasp, also made it into the bracelet. Loosening up on the ‘all sterling’ rule also meant I could incorporate those very fun double-hole rhinestone beads, which I redrilled through the corner to get them to lay the way I wanted to. A gift of basemetal wire from a neighbor cleaning out her crafts area provided the material for the linkages, eyepins, etc.
Green girls’ hearts are for the most part double-sided, so this view shows that. The pewter shield with the prayer from Joshua is not precisely apropos but the shape fit the overall design.
2017 bonus! Shot with a new ceiling reflector & flash. 8.5", basemetal wire, clasp & eyepins; sterling soldered jumps
[1]Or mebbe not: all of these beads are still in production, which seems kind of unlikely for products that old.
[2]So tired of this thing rolling around, but I treasured the experience enough that I liked the idea of incorporating it into this piece, which in many ways is a memento of various beady relationships;)
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
