Fifty Shades of Purple

Purple  is my favourite color, but fifty shades ?  I don't think so. I have actually only a few shades, and mostly amethyst. Some shades mentioned in Wikipedia include the following:

amethyst, eggplant, fuchsia, indigo, lavender, magenta, mauve, orchid, plum, periwinkle, violet, mulberry, wisteria  

 

Being a purple person I have always wanted purple beads to go with my outfits but purple beads that are old and preferably ancient are scarce. So I was mighty pleased to come up with the three bracelets below strung in purply shades.

 



Purply shades

 

The top most bracelet features a large biconical faceted amethyst (maybe fluorite) bead as centerpiece, strung with small faceted biconical crystal beads. The crystal beads are ancient from Indonesia while the amethyst or fluorite is from China of unknown vintage and hopefully its also ancient or at least old.

Real cool beads!



 Bracelet no 2 shown below has another large amethyst (not sure whether its fluorite)bead as centre piece(I bought 3 of these beads at one go, so I still have one more to think up a design) this time strung with dark purple semi round pearls.

 



Dark and light shades of purple



The purple pearls are also from China and I have a feeling they are new and dyed  but they add another shade of purple  and contrast fabulously with the light amethyst bead.

The last  bracelet  uses 3 small amethyst or fluorite beads as accents to enhance the crystal, agate and moonstone beads. The old crystals are from Vietnam and all the rest  from Kashmir.



Amethyst accents light up the ancient crystals



In my purple mood I dug into my bead chest and managed to turn up a few ancient beads in varying shades of purple



Ancient lotus beads from Myanmar, likely Pyu dynasty



 

Amethyst lotus bud from Cambodia more likely vintage than ancient



And my most prized, purply  eyebead  from Warring States period (475-221BC). There are altogether 15 purple dots on this dotty bead!

Dotty eyebead from Warring States

Yet another  eyebead in dark and light shades of lavender.

Ancient glass eyebead

 

The last piece of purply stuff that I show has been handmade by me to celebrate this purple shades post. Its a  kumihimo braided bracelet. It uses an antique jade button (alas not purple jade but green jade) as the clasp and sits well on the wrist.
 

Kumihimo Braided Bracelet

 

 

Of Necks, necklaces and bracelets

Like Nora Ephron I too  'feel bad about my neck'  and that is why, avid bead collector that I am, I seldom wear my beloved beads as necklaces, which are mostly enjoyed as a collector's strand. Instead I choose to wear my beads as bracelets. This also has the advantage of the beads being visible to me as well as drawing the eyes of  any keen onlookers though, sadly this has not often been the case. Guess people here only go for gem stones and don't appreciate "faded beauties" like my age-old beads.

 

More than 2 dozen bracelets



 

Below I will highlight some favorites  in my bead  bracelets wardrobe. First I will show the reds mostly of carnelians strung with some agates and coral spacers. These beads date from 500 to thousands of years old. The etched ones are mostly from Myanmar. 

 

 

Carnelians from Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam

 

Carnelians mixed with crystals and glass is also favoured by me

 

 

Dazzling Reds

 

Top most bracelet features a large hexagonal carnelian bead, faceted crystals and dusky red glass beads all from Vietnam. Bottom left bracelet is Chinese in origin. The carnelian and turquoise disc beads are probably Xizhou (1046-256BC)  while the dogbone shape crystal is also from some early Chinese dynasty. All the faceted carnelians on right bracelet are antique beads from Indonesian.

 

 

Green and shades of green, blue green are also what I collect and wear.

 

 

Greenstone and carnelian



Bracelet on the left composed of greenstone and carnelian beads from Myanmar. On the right, central bead from China, mixed with greenstone beads from Myanmar including 2 elephants.

The mix of stone and glass beads shown below are from Myanmar and neighboring Vietnam.

 

 

Stone and glass beads

 

Yellow is not one of my favorite colors but I have a couple of bracelets in Van Gogh yellows to cheer a dull day.

 

 

Very Van Gogh (I wish!)

 

On the left the central yellow bead with red and green flowers is  Venetian and reminds me of Van Gogh's colors. The two beads with red dots, next to  the central bead,  come from Lhasa, the top of the world  while the small plain yellow disc beads are from Indonesia. Quite an international combination for this bracelet. On the right are African trade beads with fancy names many of which I cant recall except for the two French cross beads.

 

 

French cross beads



The next one is a recent acquisition. I think its made of quartz and carnelian, carved in ribbed segments. Not sure about the age and vintage but comes from Zhejiang, China.

 

 

Barrel shape beads carved in ribbed segments



 

Agates are one of my favourite stones and here are two from Myanmar

 

 

Agates are my favourite stones



 

Kashmir may be famous for its houseboats and picturesque scenery  but it also home to a  large variety of semi precious stones. My next bracelet is composed from amethyst, moonstone, quartz and agates from my long ago trip to Kashmir.

 

 

Semi-precious stones from Kashmir







Beads in my bead bracelet wardrobe, come from all over the globe !
(o that rhymes :))