sadly the pictures didn't come out so great. I'll have to try again if/when the sun ever comes out and I can do it without a flash.
I've been working on this thing on and off for months and finally finished it today since power was out and I couldn't do much else. It started with the sun bead in the center which I think is porcelain? It is hand made and cost me $25 and I thought it was lampwork, but now that I am making lampwork myself, it doesn't look like lampwork. Anyhooo... it's got 9 planets - all natural stones - mom wanted some natural stone energy in this thing - and it's made with at least 5 different colors of blue seed beads from a very pale shimmery blue to a deep deep deep almost black blue. It also has some bugle beads and some pony beads and some glass disks... The planets with rings have rings of seed beads and I tried to put in the moons (silver and gold) for each planet, though I did not get all 22 in for whatever planet supposedly had 22 in whatever the year my reference book was written in... since I know new things get discovered all the time I figured it didn't matter if I wasn't exact, it would be wrong in time anyway... and the clasp is a button clasp of this beautiful sparkly material that I pulled out of a bin of natural stone beads. I should be better and know what all these stones are, but it's hard enough as it is finding the right stuff with a 3 year old in tow so I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself after all, hu?! I'm not sure if I love it or hate it... and since I was so unsure I brought it home with me at thanksgiving to see Mom's reaction to it and she loved it and said to finish it... so I did. Hope she still loves it!
So here are the bad pictures: