Glass beads

Originating from some large lumps of glass which I found in the Matola city garbage dump in Mozambique in 2007, I recently finished a batch of free-form faceted glass beads which I started and then left to lie around my workbench during the next couple of postings whilst I summoned up the energy to finish them.

I found out a lot about free-faceting glass, and also hole drilling where there is no place to hide (!) with this batch, and the distilled wisdom is included in the Carving Tips section.

But beads can be made from any thick glass - the bottom of heavy wine bottles and drinking glasses or a broken vase for example.  They can also be made from thinner glass you might find washed up on a beach.  So long as you can drill a hole to string them together.

The first picture shows the finished batch and the second where I used one of the smallest members from that batch (the colourless glass bead slightly to left of centre in the middle of the picture) in the string of beads.

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Finger necklace

This is a favourite piece I made back in 2003 – a necklace and ear-rings set of finger-shaped pieces (mostly Marsden) mounted on a sterling silver choker wire, with tumbled spacers (of mixed origin) in between.  The main pieces, many made from the slightly weathered rind of a piece of stone, reflect the ear pendant of Maori culture, but with the twist of the different mounting.  It is just waiting for the right lady to come along!

(Fake) lion's teeth necklace

Whilst living in Maputo, Mozambique in 2004 I found a small piece of creamy marble in our garden.  It was not local and I have no idea how it got there.  It was tooth-coloured and I immediately knew what I wanted to carve from it - lion's teeth.  The carving was easy and maybe the only difficulty was working out what lion's incisor roots look like - I made a guess (it was pre-Wikipedia) and made 3.3/4 teeth out of the piece.  The mounting is a leather thong, and a few local seeds act as spacers and decoration.  I know this might be seen as encroaching on cultural sensitivities, but rather stone lion's teeth than real ones I would say.  Maybe I can spark the development of a lion-friendly industry?  They certainly need a break.

The mother of a Zimbabwean friend saw it and commented, "I expect it has all the powers of a real one."  I was so honoured.