Vintage Japanese Millefiori RARE Aqua Blue Teardrop Glass Beads 1970, Vintage West German Aqua Givre Glass Beads, Vintage German Pearlized Aqua Glass Spacer Beads, Gold Plated Bead Caps, Gold Plated Ear Wires If you love that soft shade of aqua blue that's hard to describe these earrings are for you! Vintage Japanese millefiori teardrop glass beads from the 1970s (that we purchased for a custom piece I did for the Smithsonian Institution's mail order catalog and museum shop), hang beneath very old vintage West German 1950s givre glass beads of the exact same hue! A lovely vintage German 1950s pearlized aqua blue spacer bead adds another texture and helps separate the other two vintage aqua glass beads of different shapes. The teardrop bead which boasts a spray of millefiori 'flowers' measures approximately 5/8" long. No two are alike of course as they were handmade and its quite unusual to find a millefiori glass bead with a matte finish - all the millefiori glass beads I purchased in the 1980s were high gloss . The little German givre glass bead at the top is a dainty 1/8". ◉ "Givre" comes from the French word meaning "frosted" or "covered in frost." Most of the very earliest Givre beads were made in West Germany and consisted of a colored core encased with frosted clear glass. Later years saw these beads made with a clear glass encasing a colored core such as the beads in these earrings. No two beads are ever exactly alike as these were handmade - a process that actually involved two people! ►Millifiori' literally means “thousand flowers”. To make such beads, thin rods of different colors of glass are bundled together, with the ends of the rods forming a design, such as flowers. The bundle is fused together, then cross section slices are cut off, jelly-roll fashion. These slices are applied and melted over a glass core. The resulting bead has a three dimensional look filled with flowers or other patterns.◀ Gold plated pewter bead caps add a bit more detail and these earrings have been finished on gold plated French ear wires. Total length of these old fashioned looking earrings is approximately 2" and they will arrive gift wrapped in a little box tied with a pretty ribbon all ready for gift giving. ◉ FOR MORE VINTAGE MILLEFIORI GLASS BEAD EARRINGS PLEASE USE THE SEARCH BAR IN MY SHOP AS I HAVE MANY DIFFERENT PAIRS OF MILLEFIORI GLASS EARRINGS IN MANY COLORS AND SHAPES◉