Jewelry: Borealis Spiral
So, about a month ago, I headed with elenuial, jingsaw, and buddhagrrl to the Scituate Art Festival, where they had a flea market. I scoured the jewelry section for vintage finds and things to cannibalize when I stumbled upon a triple strand Aurora Borealis-stone necklace, which is a goldmine of my favorite beads to work with. When I picked them up and felt their weight and looked at the fastenings, I asked the seller how much he wanted for them. I got him down to $20, then scurried off happily with my find.
Pssh. Not my fault he didn't know that the necklace was almost a hundred years old.
Eh, they still make borealis stones at beading companies nowadays, but they're not good quality or even well-cut. Usually they're just some combination of glass and plastic coated on half of the bead with iridescent paint. They're not real Borealis, just pretty fakes. So whenever I see the real deal, I get excited.
So, rather than let myself go crazy using all of the beads the very day I got them home, I made myself wait for a little over a month so that I'd be less "ZOMG USE THEM IN EV'RYTHANG" and broke them out for the first time yesterday.
I love this piece. It's the stones I love (in the center is a Swarovski), a shade of silver I love, and sits at the base of the neck beautifully. It's also so bright that the stones kept blowing out half the pictures I took, and those few little stones cast rainbows around the room. =)