First Rae Bead
I have done more than a few things in the new studio, all projects finished prior to this project had all or part that had been made in my old studio. The bead below is the first item that has been fabricated entirely in the new studio.

Back in February I posted a computer designed bead “Rae’s bead” well this is the first of for sure four of this style I will be making. I have a friend named Adam that is a green freak when it comes to color, when he saw the Rae bead design he asked if I could do it in Maw Sit Sit (a close cousin to Jadeite and nearly as hard.) I told him yes and below you will see the results.

I will be making a new page on my website for all of my jewelry from 2011 on. When I do this page I will include images I took while doing the silver work, I was going to post that here but got lazy. I can tell you that in order to have the silver base for the stonework it was quite an endeavor. The body of the bead consists of 12 separate pieces of silver that had to be made and the soldered together, I did four beads at once so in essence I needed to put together 48 pieces of silver. It had been many years since I did smithing this intense and was somewhat intimidated but quickly got over it once I started to do the work. All four beads came out great and this first bead with stone in it reminds me of what I have been missing in my twelve year sabbatical ......... Great to be back to what I love doing.

I posted five images of the bead so that you can see that depending on which way the bead is turned you get four distinct looks. I did one image outside in my hand to give an idea of size. The bead measures 37.6 mm 1.48 inch wide and 27 mm 1.06 inch in diameter. Stone used Maw Sit Sit Lemon Chrysoprase (Citron Magnesite) and Sugilite with the Sugilite being the softest.

This project is not yet done, I have to make a removable hanger so that the wearer can wear it either vertical or horizontal. I also have to weave/knit a silver chain for it. When I get this done and have the bead ready to ship I will post it in the complete version.

Thw weird black spots and lines on the silver work are reflections from my light box.

All my best ......... Danny

P.S. The forest fire to our north today became the largest in New Mexico history ........ Over 160,000 acres 0% containment. Looks like a long hot summer ... Another fire started this weekend about eighty miles north of us.