Just a few months ago I had never heard the name Swarovski. I did not know this was a Austrian high quality brand of glass beads in various sizes and shapes. Nor did I know that the Czech republic had a long history making glass beads either. What I did know was that glass from Venice was beautiful with a long tradition, but was not aware that this also included glass beads.

On the other hand I knew a lot about semi precious gemstones, and had been since I was 15 years old. For me – glass beads had no real place in “real jewelry” – and whenever I bought some jewelry that included that, it cheapened the whole experience for me. It became the norwegian word “juggel”.  It might have been at the time – teenagers do not have so much money to buy jewelry with and most of those purchases are long gone anyway.

The notion that glass beads are “cheap” is still there I think in many peoples eyes. They, like me, do not know the history.

When I needed something to accentuate the colour of the amethysts in this necklace, I searched through all my beads – and found some Czech beads. The heart is a Murano made glass. I think it all came lovely together, and this necklace is now one of my favourites. Even with glass.

Now – the 15 year old did not know the cost of some of these glass beads. If I had at the time, I think I would have called it “real jewelry” even then 🙂