Tuesday Tidbits - Hypersten Bracelet and Luster Necklace

On my beads and books trip to Berkeley this weekend I found some lovely luster coated Czech glass. I got two 10", 10mm sized strands in a pale pink and light topaz, and another two 10", 10mm sized strands in pink with a coppery-pale green luster.

The unfinished approximately 17" necklace below is from the latter set. I also picked up some 4mm transparent pink luster faceted Czech glass beads which I've used as accents along with champagne freshwater pearls from my Rings & Things bead tour purchases, and "cantaloupe" color Swarovski bicones - they aren't marked as to size but I'd guess 8 or 9mm (big!), and they change color depending on the light - in sunlight they are a beautiful light green, under incandescent light they're a pale peach-pink and in fluorescent light they're a very pale gray - nearly clear (shown here in indirect sunlight). The bead caps are antique gold 8mm Tiffany style from Artbeads. The spacers look sort of 'toothed' around the center hole which creates a zig-zag pattern when viewed from the side, from my local bead shop, Global Beads.

I have an idea about using the remaining cantaloupe beads in a bracelet - not sure I'll get to it this week with my daughter in town and all. We're going to take a day trip to San Francisco later this week, I'm scoping out what bead/gemstone stores we'll try to find and visit when we're there. Also, the way the cantaloupe beads change colors (and present a bit of a design challenge) remind me to mention something I didn't really notice or think of, when I was shopping at Beads and Baubles - these crystals appeared to be light green in the store, which was brightly, but artificially lit - so they must use 'natural light' lighting there, which I appreciate.

The other piece I wanted to share today is a bracelet I made from the lovely hypersten stone I bought down at "The Bead Store" in Redondo Beach last month when I was visiting my family there. I've used black beading wire (both SoftFlex and Beadalon carry it, this happens to be Beadalon 49 strand .46mm. I got from Rings & Things but you could get Medium SoftFlex Black Onyx as well).

I used gunmetal crimp tubes, lobster claw clasp and jumprings all available at Rings & Things, along with TierraCast Luna patterned silver plated pewter pendant caps around the hypersten stones, which I have had in my stash for quite some time and don't remember where I got them, but Beadaholique has 47 pages of TierraCast items, and TierraCast 4mm scalloped silver plated bead caps around 'hematite' colored faceted Czech glass bicones. The small glass spacer is an iridescent coated clear Czech glass spacer beads from Rings & Things - I've been stocking up on many different colors of these, as they work so well with so many designs.