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.
Lampworked beads are handmade by melting rods of glass with a torch and then forming the molten glass into beads.
This heart has a sweet flower-and-leaf design on a translucent heart of orange glass.
The heart is about 19 mm in size and was handmade in California by a company called Grace Lampwork.
I used sterling silver wire to attach the heart to a jump ring with a wrapped loop. Then I threaded a yard of brown grosgrain ribbon through the ring, and added a high-quality cultured pearl on another jump ring.
The ribbon is long enough to tie a bow at the back of your neck. It's also long enough that you can adjust the length of the necklace to suit whatever you are wearing.
If you find the ribbon is too long, cut it with a very sharp pair of scissors.
The necklace is one of a kind, of course.
Price: $85, which includes postage, insurance, and so on. To order:
I would love to make lampwork beads myself, but I don't think I have the necessary hand-eye coordination, plus, I'm afraid of the torch.
If you feel like trying your hand, here are some instructions, from the Beadworx site:
Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.
@ Jeanne Sather 2011.
You could search a long time before you'd find glass hearts as beautiful as these.
In fact, I did search for quite some time before I found these handmade hearts in various designs and colors.
This heart has a dramatic but sweet design of flowers, swirls, and little raised balls of glass. One is the center to a flower, the others are part of the overall design.
The heart is about 19 mm in size and each one is handmade individually in California of Italian and German glass by a company called Grace Lampwork.
I used sterling silver wire to attach the heart to a jump ring with a wrapped loop. Then I threaded black velvet ribbon through the ring, and added a high quality cultured pearl on another jump ring.
You can't see the pearl in this photo, but here's a different necklace with a pearl: Glass Hearts: a Variation
I have some earrings made with the same pearls and jump rings: Precious Pearl Earrings
The black velvet ribbon is long enough to tie in a bow at the back of your neck. You should be able to adjust the length to suit the neckline you are wearing it with.
If the ribbon seems too long, just cut the ends with very sharp scissors. It won't fray as long as the scissors are sharp.
Price: $85, which includes postage, insurance, and taxes. Buy this necklace:
"Where?" you ask. Right on your ears.
These pale-pink dogwood flowers are vintage glass and just perfect for spring. Think Easter. Or spring festivals of various kinds. You can even wear these earrings to work, except this pair is guaranteed to make you want to play hooky! Spring fever.
The flowers are a bit more than half an inch in size. The centers are small carnelians, and the findings and wire are sterling silver, of course.
These flowers came from my favorite vintage bead dealer, Cynthia, who lives in Colorado. In her past lives she has also designed jewelry, raised her kids as a back-to-the-land hippy mama (in a cabin with a wood-burning cookstove), and she still makes a few pieces of jewelry.
She also works 80-hour weeks routinely--this is a grandmother, mind you--and is thinking about retiring.
Of course I want Cynthia to do whatever she wants to do, but I'm worried about having my supply of vintage materials cut off. She says she'll still sell to friends even if she closes her online shop. Or maybe she'll find a way to cut back ... uh, huh, the people who know her are saying.
This pair of earrings is $30. I only made one pair, but they turned out so well that I e-mailed Cynthia while her online store was closed for vacation, and asked if she could let me have any more dogwood flowers. She is sending me four more, as a gift, so once those arrive I will be able to make two more pairs.
Buy the earrings:
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):
This necklace shows off a red glass heart and a skeleton key on a antiqued silver-tone chain.
The heart is one inch, and the key is two inches long. The chunky chain closes off to one side with an oversized clasp, also of silver-toned base metal.
I took the necklace for a "test drive" the other day and received lots of compliments.
One of a kind.
Price: $60, which includes taxes, postage, and insurance to U.S. destinations.
Here's a variation on the necklaces I've been making with lampwork glass hearts and velvet ribbons.
The hearts are about 19 mm in size and each one is handmade individually in California by a company called Grace Lampwork.
The heart in the photo has swirls of purple, blue, and white, and is more abstract than most of the hearts I have for sale.
I used sterling silver wire to make a wrapped loop for the heart, and attached that to a jump ring. Then I threaded navy blue velvet ribbon through the ring, and added a high quality cultured pearl on another jump ring.
I have some earrings made with the same pearls and jump rings: Precious Pearl Earrings
This necklace is a gift for a friend, but I have all the components to make one more. Price: $85.
These handmade glass hearts have been very popular with my customers, and I love them as well.
The hearts are about 19 mm in size and each one is handmade individually in California of Italian and German glass by a company called Grace Lampwork.
I like the complexity of the designs--the mix of colors, the way the different colors of glass overlap each other, and the raised details.
I make a loop for each heart with heavy sterling silver wire, and then slide it onto a ribbon--typically black, purple, or deep navy blue velvet. I also have grosgrain ribbons in various colors.
The ribbon tie makes it easy to adjust the heart necklace to the length you prefer.
I've also been adding a high-quality pearl on a sterling jump ring to the last few necklaces I've made. You can slide the pearl to the center of the necklace next to the heart, or you can move it several inches up the ribbon. (It will stay where you place it because of the thickness of the ribbon.)
When you order, specify which heart you want (from left to right above: pink/lavender, brown swirls, and rose pink.) I will e-mail you to discuss the best color for the ribbon.
Price: $80, which includes taxes, postage, and insurance to U.S. mailing addresses.
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
