The Mermaid's Den

I got some very pretty vintage rhinestones on ebay awhile ago, and as per usual, I put them in with my bead stash and occasionally I would get them out and turn them every which way while admiring how sparkly they were. And then I would put them back, because when you have something really cool, you have to make a piece of jewelry worthy of its coolness. And when I have a limited supply of beads (or rhinestones) that I really like, I tend to use them sparingly when I do use them. But one day when I was looking at these, I decided that they needed to be used together, decadently, in the true ostentatious fashion of the costume jewelry era from which they came. But I didn't have the metal findings that would normally go with vintage rhinestone costume jewelry, so I decided to bead around them instead. It was hard to find the exact size of the base I needed, so it took a few tries. These were my failed attempts. The rhinestones didn't sit quite right in them. Most of these picture