'Iris' magatama necklace, sun

(I promise not to repeat this entire description in the other pix. But since I spent such a ridiculous amount of time composing it, here we go

"Iris" is a word with many meanings: the Greek goddess of the rainbow, a family of flowers with elongated threefold petals, and the colored part of the eye that controls the variable access of light. All of these meanings are reflected in some way by this ~25" necklace, whose delicate colors and long curving shapes constantly shift their appearance, depending on how you control the angle and light in which you view it.

Its centerpiece is a magatama gemstone pendant carved from rainbow fluorite. Unlike the modern oval drop beads that've borrowed the name, this magatama is the traditional "curved jewel" amulet associated with the necklace of the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu; depending on its orientation, the shape can resemble a drop of water, a tongue of flame, or a sprouting seed. Its pale, translucent body is finely striped with alternating narrow bands of green and violet, which seem to spread out or disappear as you turn it back and forth. Since rainbows are created by the refraction of sunlight through flowing raindrops (and fluorite itself derives its name from the Latin verb for "flow"), this adds more bonus semiosis for those so inclined.

The magatama is suspended from a three-petalled floral motif, with a total drop length of ~3" from the main strand to the magatama's tailtip. (And I will never forget the diabolical crossword puzzle in which the clue "flower" actually indicated a waterfall: something that flows, hence a flow-er. Grrr.) The flower's delicate colors are partially matched in the rest of the necklace strand by some beads, but not others-- and not always, either.

The colors of the rectangular prisms, frosted bicones, and some of the faceted rounds are almost always very similar to the three flower petals: a sunrise rosy-peach pastel, subtly blended with pale yellow/green. And the three green faceted rounds between the petals are similarly matched by the smaller green faceted rounds along the strand.

However, the small faceted bicones and the other faceted rounds have an elusive range of colors in different lights. In natural daylight, they tend to be clear silvery grey that's close to the fluorite's cloudy violet at certain angles. Under incandescent light, they bloom into the rose-peach range. Under fluorescent light, they shift into a "green flash" as if running daybreak backward to the moment just before the sun breaches the horizon.

And under ultraviolet "blacklight" conditions, more visual anomalies emerge: the iris petals, rectangular prisms, and frosted bicones are partially made with uranium glass, which manifests its characteristic lime-green fluorescence in vivid streaks as if burning "through the green fuse" described by Dylan Thomas. The larger green faceted rounds around the flower (but not the otherwise identically-colored smaller ones elsewhere) are made of unmixed uranium glass, as shown by their uniform green glow.

Ironically, I'm not completely certain whether this piece of fluorite really fluoresces, despite the mineral's general genesis in naming the phenomenon. It does have a faint indigo shimmer under UV, but it could plausibly be due to reflecting the visible-wavelength spillover. On the other hand, I also have some uniform green fluorite which definitely fluoresces under UV, with an even brighter glow in the same shade of indigo. Either way, this pendant's fluorescence/reflection isn't nearly as bright as the uranium glass beads. Alas.

Other than the magatama pendant (natural rainbow fluorite) and the triple-colorchange faceted bicones/rounds (Swarovski lead crystal), all of the beads are imported Czech glass. I've hand-strung all of these components onto 20lb-test gel-spun polymer, a high-tech fiber stronger than steel wires. The endcaps and trigger/split-ring clasp are sterling silver.