Ancient Roman glass fragments are transformed into beads, here combined with volcanic rock and faceted pyrite. Each glass shard has its own personality, including color, patina and shape. The granulation on the sterling earwires echoes a popular design style in ancient Roman influenced jewelry.
A note on ancient Roman glass beads: These ancient fragments are found all over the ancient Roman world, and today the most plentiful sources seem to be Israel and Afghanistan. The glass has been buried for many centuries- some of it even more than 2,000 years. They've been drilled and shaped recently, but retain the gorgeous iridescence that has developed through centuries of chemical reaction to the environment. The climate in the Middle East combines hot temperatures and flash flooding; the centuries of this exposure caused chemical changes in the glass in conjunction with the minerals present in the soil. The iridescence produced is simply stunning, and these shards absolutely become jewels the way they refract the light and change colors.