fusion

I work in a very small space and it had gotten rather disheveled while I jumped from one project to another.  I was having trouble finding things.  There were piles on the floor I was tripping over. Beads everywhere.  Time to clean.  You've gotta have good feng shui to keep the energy flowing and clutter and dust are enemies of that flow.

When a cleaning gets to be needed that desperately, it becomes something like an archaeological dig: There are various strata you have to work your way through to let the work surface see the light of day.  With my short memory and even shorter attention span, there were a lot of things turning up that I had forgotten all about.

When I began to make amulet jewelry, I was in love with Tibetan "beeswax" beads.  I made quite a few pieces using them and I wear several of those pieces regularly.  In organizing my stuff, I came across a box with pieces I had begun and gotten stuck with.  I mean stuck in a design context.  There was a collection of Tibetan beads and they seemed so sad to be relegated to a zip-lock bag in a Valentine candy box.  Like World Music combines rhythms and instruments from cultures all over the planet and fusion cooking combines flavors, this necklace brings together crusty glass beads from the Czech Republic, amber colored horn beads from the U.S., silvery beads from Turkey, coins from the Middle East and those fabulous Tibetan amber "beeswax" beads.  I think they're all happy to be together.