Cougar with Tektites Necklace and Earrings

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Perhaps I went a little overboard on this necklace.. the lion is so dramatic I couldn't seem to help myself. He has a beautiful coral and turquoise heartline on the left side and inlaid turquoise eyes. The natural colors in the zebra marble give him a very striking appearance. Karen's beads (in the drop below the blackbird) add just a bit of color, as do the snail shells worked into the beadwork. The huge sterling beads are beautifully embellished.

Finding the tektite beads was an incredible stroke of good fortune! Tektites are natural glassy objects which are believed to form when a large meteorite strikes the earth. The theory is that they are composed of material from the impact site which is melted by the impact and hurled upwards, solidifying into these interesting shapes. Tektites are known from only four strewnfields, three of which are known to be associated with impact sites. Tektites are fascinating in that even though the known impact sites were under water, their moisture content averages about 0.005% making them the "driest" rocks on earth. Given the black color of these tektites, they probably originated in one of the strewnfields other than the European one which is known for its green moldavite.