More etching

I should do other things than blog here today, but I just wanted to show you my latest etching experiment. This is a handful of cat's eye or fiber-optic beads. Optical fibers cast i glass and cut into beads with that characteristic optical effect that's supposed to mimic the chatoyance, cat eye effect, in certain gemstones. Top grade cat's eye can look nice and is even used by lapidary artists, lower grade cat's eye is just ugly. With a few exceptions this isn't my favourite material.

But seeing how I like silverfoiled beads better when etched, perhaps this could be the case with cat's eye as well? Had to give it a try. And here's the result. Matte glass with a sublime silky shine. Can't really capture it in a picture. I like it. Now I'm thinking about etching the hold strand. [And as I'm writing this I suddenly realised that I should've taken a pic with the un-etched beads next to these for a comparison. D'oh.]

Goldstone/aventurine and cat's eye -- two types of beads that look better when etched. Don't think anyone sells already etched beads of either kind, or do they?