I've almost run out of Czech vintage glass beads, and I don't have any more of these exact beads so if you want this pair of earrings, buy them now.
The glass beads are floor sweepings from factories in what is now the Czech Republic.
I love the beads as much for the story as for their gorgeous colors and that feel in the hand that new beads just don't have.
Read more: Vintage End-of-Day Beads
This pair is $25, and it is one-of-a-kind.
Photo: @Monica Strasen 2011.
@ Jeanne Sather 2011.
Beads can do all sorts of powerful things:
Keep you safe. Mark boundaries. Give you something to hold onto in the dark of night or the glare of a fluorescent (medical) environment.
I have been using beads—and charms, and wire, and cord—to make jewelry for more than two years now. But only recently did I come to realize what I was really doing.
I started buying old factory floor-sweepings from my friend Cynthia in Colorado. Then I put them together into one-of-a-kind necklaces and bracelets.
Each bead I added to a strand was a prayer.
Then I made a prayer bead necklace for myself, just as the brain tumor chapter of my life was beginning. And I wore it to my dates with the cyberknife machine, and kept it wrapped around my hand at night as I slept. Now that I'm in remission, I keep it on my bedside table.
The beads are floor sweepings from those old factories in what is now the Czech Republic. The little glass frog was also made in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. The charm is valued at about $70.
Glass animals--cats, frogs, various breeds of dogs--were made as charms to go in Christmas crackers. You know, the kind you pull and the prizes fall out. They are slightly less than an inch in size. Some are translucent, like this frog, some are opaque.
They probably cost a few cents in the 1920s, but they are collector's items now. I get them from Sandy's site: Sandy's Vintage Charms
I made two more strands of prayer beads/worry beads with Czech glass animals, one a pale green cat, the other the cutest little French bulldog. One of these was sold, the other went to a friend as a gift.
See also: More Prayer Beads
Price for the frog bracelet: $150, which includes postage, insurance, and so on.
Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2011.
@ Jeanne Sather 2011.
These vintage glass beads were made in the late 1940s and early 1950s at factories in Czechoslovakia. The loose beads were swept up at the end of the day and collected in jars.
They were called "end of day" beads or "floor sweepings." Once enough beads were collected, they were strung in interesting, varied strands, typically 55 to 60 inches long.
I use these to make necklaces and prayer-bead bracelets as well as earrings.
Read more about the history of these fascinating beads: Floor Sweepings Gallery
Buy the pair on the left (Floor Sweepings 5):
Here are two more pairs of earrings made from beads swept up off the floors of bead factories in Czechoslovakia.
Floor Sweepings 3 (at right)
Price: $25
