Way too pleased with myself
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Posted by: beadiste Post Reply
10/09/2017, 11:08:59

You know how it is when you struggle through a design and win through to completion... For me it seems that seldom does anything work out exactly right on the first pass. By the time I've re-done something what feels like 144 times, the theme music running through my head and gritted teeth seems invariably to be "My S---- F----- Up" by Warren Zevon.

The first necklace combines those Deco-era glass beads engraved with a Shou design + old cut Bohemian cane beads ("Crystal Russians"). The cut cane beads were just worn enough to show their age, and do a pretty good imitation of cut rock crystal beads. The piece can be worn 4 ways - flapper length, short/long, doubled, and tripled as a choker. The magnetic clasp makes it easy to adjust, and the Rio Grand locking silver jump rings make pulling on the clasp secure.

The second necklace recycles a string of Chinese oval glass beads carved in a cursory everlasting knot pattern. Instead of knotting, I used rock crystal beads to plug the giant holes in the glass beads and to allow the use of the filigree beads with their small holes. The Chinese clasp is not original to the beads, is stamped "925."

What's the current consensus on where and when these beads were made? They're all hand-wound glass, not pressed, with the designs carved in afterward.
Bohemia for the blue Shou rounds?
China for the pale sapphire ovals, imitating in color and Endless Knot pattern the old court necklace beads?
1920s?

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