No 4a (these are out of their original sequence)  

 4.5 inches of sophisticated delight  Vintage glass pearls, freshwater pearls in ivory and wine red to match the vintage ones, layers of oxidized beadcaps enfolding the pearls, a counterpoint to their gleam and glow, and little pearls on an oxidized silver chain wired on at angles so as to break up the vertical/horizontal lines of the pearl and brass drops.  Oxidized sterling silver earwires.

4 b

4c

  No  14

In 2001, my older son introduced me to the internet.  I straightaway started searching for beads and ran across a website with the most marvelous little curved glass lampworked leaves.  The picture was small, the curves were breathtaking.  I sat and stared at it, tracing the curves over and over with my eyes, my love for organic forms in full flood, spellbound at perfection.  

I've combined leaves in smoke and burnt peach here, suspending them from a lampworked silver foiled glass bead from the Czech Republic ( as are the leaves).

 Cranberry glass and burnt peach make a stellar combination, as do teal and grass green, neither of which I have photographs for until the next partly sunny day. 

No 15

The beadmaker who draws the little leaves from gathers of molten glas also makes these longer teal aroque drops.  They are stunning just by themselves, hanging from a vintage crystal or a lampworked foiled bead like the one on the left where my lousy camera actually caught the gleam of the foil in the bead.

No 16 - sold

Burnt peach combines beautifully with this soft blue, reminding one of the readers of my other blog of angels.

This one can be made again, until I run out of the vintage crystals that match the blue of the drops. 

 No  17    The drop also lends itself to adding other

elements like these tiny opal glass lillies.

I've in my mind to replenish my hoard of these drops, adding colors like cranberry I've not worked much with before.   There are also little glass carrot- shaped drops, ones with tiny spikes like those often scattered about on 1930's-50's Venetian glass lampworked necklaces with the graceful small birds and wonderful flowers.  

Lily wishes you all a grand weekend.

Lily's been designing and hand-crafting fine jewelry since 1986. I've sold to many museum shops, including the Phillips Collection in DC and The Art Institute of Chicago, at trunk shows in Bloomies, to fine boutiques and, most interesting of all, at the beginning, at Eastern Market on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. That's where I learned my craft and refined my art, so I am grateful to customers and other artists of the market who followed my work as it developed, offered commentary and support and wore my designs to some darn fine Washington parties.

No.11

I found this little brooch, about 1 inch in diameter and not heavy, on ebay and snapped it up.  It's handpainted - a peek with a magnifying lens reveals the painted in one single stroke curls framing the young woman's face.  It also seems reasonable to date it to the Victorian era. 

I couldn't tell from the ebay photograph that she was painted on slightly luminous white opal glass, although now that I know that, I think I would have picked it up from the pic in the listing.  I knew I wanted it to match with the Victorian laviliere drop, another item I picked up years and years ago, moving it form one storage place to another, never quite loosing trace, with its blue and clear rhinestones.   

Once I had these two pieces and some vintage brass chain, it was clear that the earring with the brooch had to have a bit of glitter to echo the rhinestones in the lavalier.  A mad internet hunt turned up nothing, but some time spent with my stash turned up another Victorian piece, a little gold pin with three tiny rhinestone drops.  So I added one, saving two for another day, to the brooch earring, along with Swarorski crystals in white open and clear light sapphire.  I also had 4 mm pale pale blue English cut opal glass beads, and used them as dangles from the loops on the brooch's setting.  (They don't show their subtle color well in this picture, nor is the little clear rhinestone drop really visible- it hangs on the chain between the blue and white crystals - nor does the brass glow - icky photographs.)   To top off the brooch earring, I chose a light blue lampworked glass bead, framing it with vintage brass beadcaps. 

The closeup of the brooch gives a bit better idea of its lovely use of soft colors and at least hints at the fact that the base for the little painting is white opal glass.  And, since that glass has a bluish undertone, the choice of ribbons and gown in blues was a particularly effective one. 

To complement the earring with the laviliere, a Victorian word for a little pendant, I used contemporary Swarovski crystal in white opal and light sapphire blue.  I had found some marvelous vintage drops, a tiny rectangle with white and blue opal glass combined in the drop, and added one as the perfect complement,  Then a vintage gold colored bead with light sapphire rhinestones, itself embraced by two more vintage brass beadcaps,  finished it.  Add 14 karat gold filled ear wires (leverbacks available if you prefer) and voila.! 

These are 3.5 inches long, from the point they attach to the earwire.

Regards

Lily