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Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Roman Glass Mania

Roman Glass Stacked Earrings

The aged look of Roman glass, with its scaling and irregular shapes, is attractive to me and I have used it often the past year in my earring designs. The aqua and yellow green you see in these earrings are among the most common colors, but every once in awhile I get ahold of some cobalt blue that is more unusual. Much of the Roman glass available for jewelry making is found in excavations along the "Silk Road" trading route through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another major source of Roman glass is Israel, along the Mediterranean shore and in the Judean desert.

My earring design is a simple stack and wrap with tubes of Roman Glass in aqua and yellow green, separated by copper spacers and rusty orange Czech glass accents. I thought they would be more interesting with the colors reversed from one another, so that part was intentional and not a result of my lack of sleep. The wonderful ancient looking ribbed copper metal clay drops that I have wrapped at the bottom are from Kristi Bowman. My handmade oxidized copper ear wires finish off the design.

Images of Roman women always looked so serene. Hard to imagine their survival often depended on their ability to manipulate the people around them. Politics behind the scenes, probably not so different then than it is now?




Gloria Ewing

Chrysalis Too on Etsy
Chrysalis Jewelry on Artfire

8 comments:

  1. These are so beautiful, the contrast between the ancient glass colours and the copper is stunning!

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  2. Oh ya, all that crustiness looks so good together!!

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  3. I love Roman Glass as well - these are gorgeous!

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  4. That Roman glass is amazing! I love it! Great charms from Kristi too! I love her work!

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  5. These beads are such a wonderful cylinder shape, and in such great condition! What a find! I love that you reversed them, I think I would have done the same. Kristi's rustic copper is perfect with them!

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  6. Fabulous! I must get more Roman glass...

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  7. I had never heard of Roman Glass... I'll be on the hunt! These are really beautiful! I love the reverse colors, just perfect!

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  8. I like the reverse colors too. And love the Roman glass paired with the copper!

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