Symmetry

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: 53 cm (21”)
Weight: 116 gms
Amethyst quartz pieces: approx. 32 mm long, and 18 to 23 mm at its widest (pieces will vary in size)
Purple Czech glass feather bicones from the ‘40s: 17 mm long & 9 mm wide
Oval silver beads: approx. 24 mm long by 12 mm at its widest
Small silver spacers
Sterling silver crimp tubes
Silver toggle clasp

I have a tub of ‘purple’ stone beads. These are mostly amethyst, amethyst quartz, ametrine, as there are not that many other semi-precious stones in purple, though recently I acquired a string of lepidolite, a stone which I had not heard of before.

I wanted to pair my pieces of amethyst quartz with my pre-World War II Czech glass beads, having kept them now for another 29 years since I bought them in New York in ’96 (I wrote about these beads in my write-up for the necklace Tempus Fugit).

To keep the same colour throughout the short necklace, so as not to dilute the purple, I added the flattish almost oval silver beads with slanted panels of ‘dots’ (repousse work) instead. And various silver spacers. This necklace came together without too many challenges initially. More recently however, when I looked at it, I found it somewhat unexciting. My niece Y commented acutely that there was too much ‘sameness’ in the size of the beads. Struck by this comment, I went back to the drawing board and played around with much bigger pieces of amethyst instead. I also lengthened the necklace in the process. Both Y and I were very pleased with the necklace as it is now!

I am naming this necklace Symmetry. You could wear it inside of a shirt, or over a round neck, slash neck dress/top. It would go with quite a range of colours (including black) because the silver keeps the necklace from being too dark.