Cheongsam
Cheongsam captures the mood of 1960s Hong Kong, combining vibrant cerise drops with floral ceramic beads, green glass crystals and glass melons, creating a lively composition that feels retro, yet cool. A piece for someone who loves jewellery with a story and a touch of vintage glamour. For more info on the necklace, please click on Details, and if interested in my musings, please go to Story.
The identification of the beads start from the bead in the centre, moving upwards, with measurement for some of the bigger beads, with metal beads named last.
Length: 70 cm (27”)
Weight: 85.5 gms
Cerise red drop shape plastic beads: 22 mm long and 13 mm at its widest
Green glass cuboctahedrons
White, red and green patterned ceramic bicones: 25 mm long and 15 mm at its widest
2.5 mm metal spacers
3D rhombus metallised plastic spacers
Five-sided silver bicones
Gold filled crimp tubes
Metal hook and ring clasp
I have had all the beads in this necklace for a long time now. The oldest are probably the cerise red drop shape (plastic) beads, bought in Victoria, Canada in ‘91 when I bravely splurged on a lot of loose beads with the intention of embarking on beading as a new hobby. The patterned ceramic white beads were likely purchased from a shop in Chinatown, also in the ‘90s. The green glass melons were from either the Bead Bar in Takashimaya or from itinerant Nepalese hawkers in Kuala Lumpur.
I was browsing in my bead trolley one day and came upon the cerise red beads and the white, red and green ceramic beads next to each other in their compartments. I sensed the potential for putting them together in a necklace, a long one, I thought. I would need other beads however, and it took some time and several iterations before I could narrow down the field to the bigger green glass melons and the slightly darker green cuboctahedrons (cubes with six square faces and eight triangular ones). I wanted metal beads too, and eventually picked on two pairs of five sided silver bicones and smaller rhomboid-like spacers that are metallised plastic. When the design was coming together, I could feel that this was something ‘different’, perhaps because of the clash of red and green, or the white ceramic beads lending a more folksy character to the whole necklace. But I like it!
When I sent a picture of the necklace to my niece N, she said that it reminded her of cheongsams, and Maggie Cheung’s cheongsams in “In the Mood For Love” movie came to mind. And so, this necklace is called Cheongsam! You wouldn’t want to wear it with a cheongsam, but it would work with a simple shift, or a big shirt, or a black tee, I think. Given the glass and ceramic beads in the necklace, be careful not to drop it on a hard surface!
