Harlequin Drop Earrings

Featuring Czech Glass Beads in Shades of:

• Red

• Mint green

• Lemon yellow

• Vanilla

• Black

On bright sterling silver lever backs.

• The most comfortable lever back sin the world.

• For hours of effortless wear.

What’s special about these earrings?

• How different colors come into view when you move.

• The gem-like quality of the beads, which are faceted along the edges. I don’t know how the facets were made, but their irregularity suggests they were finished by hand with great care - instead of by machine.

• I found these beads in the early 1990s at Harman Imports, a bead shop on 37th street in New York City. While the walls were full of Czech glass beads on strands, the front window ledge held loose beads in bags. The Harlequin beads came from the window.

  Bead love struck the moment I saw them. I bought all that my budget would allow, which was not nearly enough. On my next trip to Harman, the beads had sold out. The Czechs make similar beads to this day - but not in this shape, nor in these colors.

  If memory serves, Harman had several upper floors too, whose aisles featured shelves stuffed with beads. All of the beads were vintage or antique, packed in old plastic bags. Tiny paper tags inside the bags read “Made in Czech-Slovakia,” “Made in Austria,” “Made in Germany” or, best of all, “Made in Occupied Japan” - meaning, between 1945-1951, when Western forces occupied Japan.

  I shopped those floors too, agonizing over how much to buy of each type, not knowing whether the next floor would bring something even more amazing.

  The elderly sales clerk who accompanied me never seemed bored. In fact, she marveled at some of the beads I picked out. She’d never seen them before, despite having worked there for years.

  “Just get them!” she used to say to me, “you’ll be so glad you did!”

  And she was right.

Dimensions:

• Just under 1 1/2” tall by about 3/4” wide.

Weight:

• Fairly light.