"Indonesians living under a bridge in Jakarta fish for floating plastic debris. It takes about a week for one person to collect 5 kilograms of plastic worth 10,000 rupiah - the equivalent of one dollar."
Couldn't resist. These big o' tasty chartreuse green beads practically screamed out at me from the website I saw them on, so I had to buy them. The beads are 22mm - just under 1" round. I've paired them here with two small square glass beads and a length of oxidized chain. They dangle a shoulder-dusting 3.25" total. Tasty, no? I call them (cleverly enough) Chartreuse Orbs and they are available in my Etsy shop.
I don't usually make little, tiny things. Most of what I make leans toward the chunky, dangly, bigger side. (Guess it's because I'm big.) I had a smaller piece of some heavy square stock and thought how cute it would be to saw off little squares of it and make little posted studs. Voilà! 
While vending at the Portland Saturday Market a couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a family to see if I could make a bracelet for the girl, a teenager. She was graduating from high school and her parents said they would have a special bracelet made for her. She pulled out a baggie with several pebbles in it and described the sort of thing she wanted. These weren't precious stone pebbles, these were just your basic run-of-the-mill pebbles, but apparently they were precious to her. Her mother explained that they had a whole heap of sentimental value for her, that they were from someplace very special.
When I got home, I sketched out a design and after a few back and forth emails, we settled on something. I created hewn, fine silver "pebble" discs and bezel set three of the little stones. The discs were then riveted together with lengths of wire. I hustled to get it done in time for her graduation and did. She was thrilled with the results.
Another version of my Festival earrings. These lovelies with a forest green malachite. Festival Malachite Earrings are available in my Etsy shop.
