Picture
(snagged from online source) of a large, faceted tigerskin quartz bead.
Dull, bland and totally lacking character. These were
the words going through my head as I inspected my last remaining tigerskin
quartz pendant. It had been on a short strand with seven other
trapezoidal (like a triangle with the top cut off, creating a stone with 4
corners) shaped stones but unlike the other stones that boasted eye-catching
patterns and vivid swirls of fiery reds and rich gold and browns, this one lone
stone was dull, bland and totally lacking any interesting detail.
It was merely a translucent, quartz trapezoid with a small cloud of
white in its middle, along with a smudge or two of brownish tan.
Unfortunately
I did not take a photo of my tigerskin pendant bead but found this photo
online showing some tigerskin beads that have very little pattern and
color - my bead would have been similar to the last bead on the right side of
this picture. Clear and uninteresting.
Back when I purchased this pendant bead I was new to the
game of bead shows and wholesale buying and admit that in those
tenderfoot days I made some bad purchases. Certainly some of the less
honorable vendors could see my inexperience and took advantage of my naiveté
but most were honest and helpful. Even back then I was reluctant about
this purchase but it was a local bead and gem show, small in comparison to most
national shows, and the show was on its last day of a 4 day event.
Naively I roamed the exhibition hall looking for treasures and vaguely aware
that most had been snatched during the show's first couple of days.
What I was now looking at were the dregs, the leftovers.
When I
spotted the Tigerskin pendants they were new to me and I was fascinated
by them and asked the vendor what they were. He replied that they were
Tigerskin Quartz. There where were only 3 strands remaining, 2 of the
strands had pendants that were badly chipped and the 3rd strand had the ugly
duckling bead. Hoping for a discount I pointed out the chipped
pendant beads. The vendor shrugged and indicated that the 3rd strand
didn't have any chipped beads. Obviously he wasn't interested in cutting
me a deal so I was left with 2 choices; walk away and not purchase any of the
strands or opt for the strand with the ugly duckling. You've probably
guessed which option I chose.
The ugly duckling sat in my supplies for several years, all
of its siblings had been used in one or another of my necklace creations.
Reluctantly I took it out and studied it debating if I should just toss
it. Since there was little to lose, I began to experiment with it and
attempted polishing it with my Dremel tool and polishing compound to buff out
any scratches, trying to give it a high, gloss shine. After hours upon hours of
polishing, ugly duckling looked as pathetic as ever. On the verge of
throwing it into my wastebasket I suddenly remembered I had a small assortment
of patinas and glazes. So began another experiment.
Photos above and
below shows my enhanced tigerskin quartz pendant with beaded bezel in progress.
Gold alcohol ink was gently dabbed on the back side of Ugly
Duckling. After the alcohol ink dried, I was impressed with the
transformation but decided to carry it further. The next coat was a light
dabble of copper alcohol ink and then a coat of African bronze patina. The layers of glazes and patinas created wonderful depth to this pendant, which is, unfortunately, hard to perceive in my photos.
To protect this finish I applied a couple of coats of epoxy resin. Once the resin was thoroughly cured, the task of
creating a beaded bezel began. Using dark bronze, metallic glass beads and
Swarovski crystal pearls to create and embellish the bezel. I then fashioned a rope necklace with lush Czech glass
seed beads using a twisted herringbone stitch. The beaded pendant bail is
rich with a fringe of more Swarovski pearls, bronze glass beads, seed beads and
Czech firepolished beads.
I do believe the Ugly Duckling has become a graceful swan or maybe it's a butterfly. What do you think?
.webp)
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