Really Cool Beads (and really old, too...!)

Here are some pics for a new piece I'll put out on Etsy later tonight. It's been a good week so far, I sold two pieces over the weekend. 

Frist up: 

 The pics make this two-strand piece look pretty chunky, but this is actually a pretty dainty piece. The real show stopper is the central monochrome silver/white glass beads on the shorter, inner strand. These beads were excavated intact from an archeological dig in Rome; they were originally made as beads, unlike some Roman glass beads -- which are indeed made of shards of ancient Roman glasswork, now repurposed as beads. 

These beads are authentic antiquity artifacts, though unregistered or with any actual provenance speak of. They bear the signs of great age, and some of the beads still show natural iridescence rom having lain buried for so long, and some also have their original inclusions of gold or silver foil. 

These are framed by tiny AAA quality natural aquamarine, mother-o-pearl, and rose quarts. 

The second strand is made of the same gemstones, with Peruvian blue opal and electroplated quarts.    

(Dime for scale.)

I'm really happy with how the Roman glass is selling. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that there's such a huge market for it right now -- I went a little crazy myself a few months ago and got tons of it, and I'm still working with it -- as you can see above. 

There's a lot of variation in what is called "Roman glass" and at some point I'll post about some of those distinctions. But for now I want to point out the wide variety of colors in very old beads that were actually intended as beads. 

Here's one example of variations in size, shape and color of some very old beads that technically fall within the category of "ancient Roman glass." 

This piece is made of very old glass in different colors and shades of green, but also with yellow, orange, blue and beige. I added a few natural ruby chips and one or two pieces of Italian red coral to make it pop. 

These beads are a little larger than in the necklace above, but still to huge like, say, an African Krobo bead. (I love African Krobo beads, I'll post some pics of those one of these days.) 

May add some kind of pendant to one of these strands, but there's already enough going on with all the colors and shapes in it. 

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how these are turning out, and will have some more pics to show soon. Meanwhile, anyone interested can find them in the shop. 

Also, remind me to hire some decent models recruit some of my cuter friends for these Etsy pics.