LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
To say I have fallen in love with “Pools of Light” Jewelry, would be a understatement. I discovered my new obsession quite by accident. I have always been a collector of crystals, rocks and all things bright and beautiful!
I think it started when I was scrolling the Internet regarding one of my favourite periods of jewelry, Art Deco. The original “Pools of Light” (Art Deco) are not glass orbs, they are pure quartz crystal. The supply of “Pools of Light” seemed to exhaust itself around the 1930’s. This is why the originals are so very expensive. They are rare and highly sought after.
During the 20’s and 30’s “Flapper Style Jewelry” was all the craze. Back then extremely long “Pools of Light” necklaces were produced and they were glamourous, to say the least. Wrapped in intricately pure silver, and some gold settings reaching lengths to the knee and beyond. Not very practical at this length, but certainly eye catching. Of course they could be wrapped around the neck several times, which made them safer and even more stunning. It was not uncommon to see rings, earrings and even bracelets. In my research I find stunning examples of all of these, genuine in all their glory.
WHERE DID THEY GO?
I have been searching to find the answer to the question, why did the supply of pure crystal orbs dry up? To date, no answers. I’m led to the conclusion that something happened to the Chinese connection, which is where all of the pure crystal orbs came from. I suspect it’s because China in the 1920s – 1930s was in ferment with competing Warlords controlling their fiefdoms, the Nationalists fighting the Communists for control in the Civil War, and Japan invading and seizing a significant portion of China. Not conducive to trade.
When you look at something through a crystal sphere, what you see will be upside down. This is because it is a spherical shape which acts like a convex lens and “flips” the light coming from, and thus the image of, what you are looking at. Some people claim that only rock crystal orbs will show things upside down and glass ones will not, but that’s not necessarily true although crystal will do the job better simply because of its internal structure.
HOW CRYSTAL ORBS WORK
When you place a crystal orb on top of something, instead of looking through it, the light going into the orb from its surroundings still experiences that same lens-based refractive effect and so the light that comes out is diffused but it is also somewhat focused. Thus a “pool of light” appears on whatever surface is immediately adjacent to the orb.
Because so much depends on the action of the light within the orb, it logically follows that there should be nothing inside it that might interfere with this. Normally when creating a necklace of beads, pearls. etc., a hole is drilled through them to accommodate a chain or string. That’s not a nice thing to do to a clear crystal orb that likes to play with light; it mucks up the works and the resulting “pool” effect will be altered and/or reduced, That is why undrilled “pools of light” necklaces are much preferred and more expensive. There is also a mythical component to having undrilled spheres. In Chinese tradition, each crystal orb contains a bit of chi (good energy) within it, which would escape and be lost if the orb were to be drilled or otherwise damaged.
Naturally, it’s best to be wearing as much good chi as one possibly can!
BACK IN PRODUCTION AT PYECREATIVE.CA
Because the pool of genuine “pools of light” jewelry is dwindling, I decided to start producing my own. I’m fortunate to have a supplier of pure crystal orbs, in varying sizes. The only way to manufacture the orbs without drilling, is to wrap the orbs in order to keep the orbs intact. I took courses in wire wrapping to perfect my skills, and use pure sterling silver, which to my eye marries best with the crystal orbs. I will be displaying my goods very soon on pye.animisglobal.com under a new category “BRENDA PYE’S NEW ‘RETRO’ POOLS OF LIGHT JEWELS”
Branda Pye
