Deepsea Diver

November 2016
Paua shell, black pearl

I have these beautiful paua shell beads in my collection, and I kept thinking that I would do something with them like set them in a bezel to cover the string holes. Finally one day I thought "why not just string them?" I had some black pearls left over from another project and the deep, slightly iridescent quality of the pearls really sets off the variegations of the paua shell. The nacre of two deep-water bivalves coming together beautifully.