“Earth and Sky” hand made necklaces

A year ago a traveller called in to my exhibition at the Arts Centre and had a fantastic selection of beads to show me. Although beautiful I couldn’t really see anything I wanted, as I don’t really feature beads in any of my jewellery designs so I said thanks but no thanks. Then he showed me his selection of ancient glass beads from Afghanistan. I loved the subtle colour range, the imperfections, the matt finish and the ‘ancient’ feel of them. He said they had originally been used as anklets. I couldn’t resist them so bought some strands and since then I have held these beads in my hands, run my fingers over them and admired the colours many times over the last year but couldn’t think of a way to use them. I wanted the beauty of the beads to shine through and not be overpowered by anything else. I finally came up with a solution and here is the finished result. I have used sterling silver in between the beads and kept the silver matt and I’ve also oxidised (blackened) some pieces for contrast. I have created five necklaces all together and have called them “Earth and Sky”.