Baroque Beauties with Green Amethyst

At the end of May, 2008, I again worked the Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association show at the Mirage for four days. Across from Mr. Kameyab's booth was this young Chinese kid who had a table full of very sparkly, faceted beads. Nobody came to his station the first day. This was his first year and the booth was small and slightly off the beaten track. When there was a lull in sales, I went over to look at his merchandize and found these incredible pale, transparent green amethyst beads that were irregular, faceted and fascinating to look at. Strung, they were a jumble of reflective surfaces. I made one complete necklace out of the strand and had a few beads left over which I put with rhinestone roundels, gray iridescent Swarovski crystals and a mixture of stick, baroque and flat-sided pearls in a three-strand torsade or twist necklace. The result is this subtle necklace with surprising zots of flash. I strung it on one of my beautiful three-strand adobe-patterned silver slide clasps from my dealer in California. This is a real beauty and a bargain at $675.