Reunion
This 61 cm long necklace in soothing milky white, grey and pale beige, with bright silver beads feature three types of semi-precious stone beads – agate, lodolite and rock crystal. 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: 61 cm (24”)
Weight: 102 gms
Oval shaped tabular agate pieces, with centrepiece, 38 mm long & 21 mm widest
Small rock crystal discs
Lodolite: 14 mm
Heart shaped rock crystal: 19.6 mm long & wide
Small metal spacers
Bean shaped striped silver beads
Gold filled crimp tubes
Silver trigger clasp with metal base
I really miss Mumbai Se, the Indian emporium that was in Palais Renaissance in Orchard Road, (in the early 2000s, I think). A beautiful store, rather like an Aladdin’s cave, with rich furnishings, beautiful jewellery, and best of all for me, strings of semi-precious stone beads. Alas, it closed after a few years. But before it did, I acquired some lovely stones, all presumably from India. The beautiful almost oval tabular agate pieces in this necklace are from Mumbai Se, one of my star buys. Look at the lovely swirls and lines of milky white and faint grey in these stones!
To contrast these agate beads, I picked out 14 mm lodolite rounds, and heart-shaped rock crystal beads. I had forgotten about the two strings of lodolite that I acquired a long time back and was now delighted to have these pale beige translucent stones with brownish inclusions to work with. I have a lot of rock crystal in different shapes although I do not use the heart shaped ones much. In addition to the slightly opaque rock crystal disc, I added the shiny striped bean-shaped silver beads (which could have been from the trip to the States in ’96). I love the charming paleness of this necklace, light, but not stark.
I was working on this necklace in March of 2022, and along with so many people all over the world, had not seen various members of my family since Christmas of 2019. Then I heard that my elder brother would be coming to Singapore for the weekend. I was overjoyed, and somehow, this necklace with its soothing colours seemed appropriately symbolic of the Reunion, which is what I am calling it. Strange coincidence too, that I happened to have included heart shaped rock crystal beads. Reunion looks good against beige, not so great against ivory (as it makes the beige of the lodolite too beige somehow), good with brights such as turquoise, emerald, and fine with the darker colours including navy, black. Experiment and have fun!
