Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-born inventor who made major contributions to the development of the AC electricity system that we use today. His experiments to learn of the effect that lightning storms had on the earth revealed evidence of terrestrial stationary waves which indicated that planet earth was an excellent conductor of electricity. And this is the basis of wireless technology. (The Internet is full of information on this topic if you care to read more about it.)
In 1899, Tesla conducted an experiment at his laboratory in Colorado Springs that was reported to have produced 100 foot long lightning bolts before it blew a dynamo at the El Paso Electric Company. Not shabby.
What does that have to do with beads or me? Well may you ask. When I made the polymer clay beads, you see below, some of them reminded me of lightning and electric waves. And I took the pictures with an iPad which is a wonderful example of wireless technology. Tesla is known in some quarters as the “Master of Lightning” so I call these “Tesla Beads” despite the fact that my Italian American father was fond of reminding me that Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio-another example of wireless technology.
You’ll have to admit that the name “Marconi Beads” does not evoke the same kind of image. It just reminds me of pasta and then I get hungry.
Here are some pictures. The round beads are hollow and I formed the cores on marbles up to 40mm. I described the technique in this post.
Ornamento 
Love the beads and the history! However, I need to point out that after years in court, Tesla was awarded the patent for the radio in 1943, when Marconi’s patents were deemed invalid. Tesla had patented and demonstrated a radio-controlled boat in 1898. See http://www.teslasociety.com/radio.htm for more information. All of us who work in polymer clay owe Teslaj–AC powers our ovens!
I think it’s safe to say that Marconi did not invent the radio even though that’s one battle in which I would not choose to engage with my father. And Tesla made enormous contributions and came up with some of the earliest revelations and ideas that were scoffed at In his day but are being rethought. He held a ton of patents but was not a businessman by any means. He was a visionary, for sure. But he stood on the shoulders of giants just as many more will stand on his shoulders. Check our http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla and
http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/
for some interesting observations.
Well, my friend, you’ve done it again. The beads are lovely; the bracelets are wearable and beautiful. I loved your little history lesson.
Why thank you maam!