I made my first piece with one of Anne Choi’s quote beads. The quote reads, “The Greatest Pleasure in Life is Doing What People Say You Cannot Do.”
Amen!
I strung the oxidized silver bead with large gray pearls, dotted sterling bead caps and spacers and six blue flash labradorites. The clasp is sterling.
I bought a fascinating glass sculpture from a talented glass artist in Scotland. He called it “Wind.” But what I saw was a gorgeous pregnant belly. So I called the wind Mariah.
Mother’s Day is coming up and this would be a great gift to yourself to commemorate your pregnancy, current or past. Or a great gift to another mother.
This subtle glass sculpture is aqua with deeply encased lilac dichroic on the front and gold, orange and aqua dichroic on the back. The artist added a violet luster when he annealed it in the kiln.
I admit that I never thought I would make jewelry with Lucite. Then I found some 80 year old vintage Lucite beads. After so many years, they develop chatoyancy, a cat’s eye phenomena seen mostly in gems and translucency. Their reflectance can be seen across the room.
I was lucky enough to buy some beads from a visionary lamp work artist from Luxembourg. One pair seemed to have eyes and reminded me of DROIDS. Another seemed to have been excavated from Ancient Crete. It made me wonder if there were droids even then.
I just added these and six other items to my Etsy shop, SusanDolphinDelaney. I hope you will visit and see if there is anything there with your name on it.
I make Luxe Jewelry for busy women who want to put on their jewelry in the morning and forget about it until they take it off in the evening. However, I build into each piece fascination. If you are stuck in a boring meeting or on a long call, you can look at your pendant or one earring and discover all of the unique features in it.
When I opened the package with these two remarkable Basha Bead tubes, I immediately “saw” this necklace.
The Basha beads begin with pink and silver, move to aqua and silver and finish with shade upon shade of silver. I used a single large Swarovski pearl as the center of the design. I strung the Basha Bead tubes on tiny silver beads for flexibility and finished the necklace with plump lavender rice pearls.
A remarkable, nature-loving metalsmith created this nest of twigs from brass. She half-silvered it, giving it the look of golden dawnlight on snow. I hung an icy blue Basha Bead from the nest.
The bead dances with every shade of silver and of pale aqua. The pendant is 2”.
This pendant necklace will be a great companion in a long meeting, as you study the half-silvering of the nest and the mystery within the Basha Bead. I hung the pendant from a 1.3 mm 18” sterling wheat chain.
An Oregon lamp work artist creates Basha Beads of dichroic glass. I just photographed A SINGLE BASHA BEAD Pendant for my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/SusanDolphinDelaney?ref=ss_profile. (There are usually a dozen or so items with wonderful Basha Beads in my shop at any one time. I’ll list the ones currently available at the bottom of this post.)
I turned the bead a little for each photo. You can see swirls of iridescent pink, blue-violet, aqua, gold, blue and violet, all in the same bead.
Wouldn’t this pendant be a great companion if you were stuck on a long conference call or in a long meeting? You could turn it every which way and begin to discover all of its mysteries.
The bead cap is sterling silver as is the 18″ wheat chain.
I design elegant, classic, minimalist jewelry for the working woman. You can put my jewelry on in the morning and forget about it. My jewelry will never distract. However, most of my jewelry contains fascinating components like this Basha Bead, to keep you company in trying times.
I bought a silver blue baroque pearl which was utterly amazing. The ridges and valleys on the pearl offered beauty and peace. Then I looked at it in bright light. Whoa! Coral luster with flashes of emerald. Once I moved it and the whole back flashed emerald.
I was lucky enough to find some silver blue pearls in the same hue, only darker. I put the necklace together and added accents of white pearls.
Here are photos of the necklace, the luster on the front of the pearl and the luster on the back.
My Etsy shop IS SusanDolphinDelaney. I focus on simple, classic, elegant jewelry that a working woman can put on in the morning and forget until she takes it off at night. My necklaces, pendants and earrings will never distract.
HOWEVER, most of my neckpieces have a focal that will fascinate you. If you are stuck on a long phone call or if you are in a long meeting, my jewelry will be a good companion, offering you something to look at. Something that will never reveal all of its secrets, no matter how long you own it.
I intend my necklaces, pendants and earrings to be Instant Heirlooms. Jewelry that you will want to pass on to your daughters and granddaughters.