Wednesday, September 06, 2006

sky stone landscapes

the native americans, in many of their languages, called turquoise "fallen sky stone."

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the plan was to make some beads to go with several outrageous strands of turquoise nuggets that big poppa just bought at the flea market.

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this set far exceeded my expectations. each bead is like a precious glass landscape, wonderful to the touch.

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these beads were made by first winding a core of opalino turquoise and copper green.

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then i assembled a frit mixture of dark ivory, gold aventurine, green aventurine, avacado and lots of tiny, tiny torn bits of silver leaf.

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after partially melting in the frit, i encased opposite ends of each bead with transparent light blue and transparent olive green.

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finally, i shaped the outside encasing, using a flat cheese knife, into facets. giving each bead a great organic nugget shape and lots of sparkle.

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the original idea page for these beads from one of my bead sketchbooks.

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the large focals in this set of sculpted beads are huge and heavy. i have no idea how to wear these, especially if i mix them with turquoise nuggets as i had planned...

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but, i am sure i will somehow manage.

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