Hag-stone for luck and zebras cos I like them

When we were on holiday, we bought a book entitled "Walks on the Northumberland Coast" by David Haffey. One of the walks he details in his book, entitled Newton-by-the-Sea and Football Hole we did on the Thursday. One of the quotes from his narrative on the walk is "The boulder-beach is worth checking for lucky hag-stones (rocks with holes worn through them: a twist of wire through the hole turns a stone into a protection against witches)."

I was absolutely gobsmacked when I found one! As you can see, I have put a twist of wire through the hole ... just in case!
I will NEVER sell this (even though I could turn it into a pendant) as I want to remain lucky and witch-free! However, it did inspire me to make the beads which I picture here with it. They are a mixture of two shades of grey opaque glass which I just mish-mashed together in the flame and pulled out into a thick stringer. I then made the beads with this which gave a marbled grey bead and then I applied dots of ivory which had been rolled in silver leaf, the whole thing was melted and then some extreme gravity swirling. I was wearing a pair of faded black denim jeans this afternoon when I was photographing them and they go perfectly! I might etch these tomorrow before they become jewellery to give an even more organic look.

Here are some Zebra striped beads which I made after becoming inspired by some similar ones in the book I read on holiday about the history of glass beads. I love all animal prints so I couldn't fail to like these:

Last of the photographs taken today are three beads that I will probably go into production with shortly as I was pleased with them: I will be taking photographs tomorrow of the jewellery I made with the green shoots beads from yesterday. They look really good teamed with some labradorite chunks and bali silver bead caps.