Matawhero in Maori, Earth’s neighbour Mars is named after the Roman god of war. The bead has small grains of sand representing the Earth-origin explorer vehicles abandoned on the surface,.

The lampwork beads are made, one by one, in my Christchurch, New Zealand, workspace at XCHC, a shared maker space. They are made by melting coloured glass in a gas/oxygen flame and manipulating the surface so they resemble the NASA images of the planets.

The bead is strung on a 45cm sterling silver chain with sterling silver wire setting and bead caps.