I also randomly popped into her cube and asked what her favorite color was; "purple" she replied. She probably thinks I'm a little nuts, as this question had no real follow up, I simply said "great" and walked back to my office.
It turns out that I had no purples left in the soft glass, having just used them up making the flowers beads, so I reached into my secret "save it till I get more skilled" stash of borosilicate, silver-infused, "striking" glass. This one is called Double Amber Purple and changes color depending on how hot and how much oxygen is in the flame (essentially you control the silver crystal growth rate at the surface of the glass, which in turn affects how your eye perceives the reflected color). Since these are just little, itty bitty beads it wasn't too hard to achieve a purplish color. I love the simplicity of these earrings.
Now I just have to figure out how to give them to her so it doesn't feel weird/creepy. I'm considering an anonymous drop off, but she knows I work with glass, so will probably guess the source. Ok, then I guess my next option would be the awkward, "so, hey, I thought these would look nice on you". Of course, this "how to give them to her" issue is further compounded by my own stupid insecurities, what if I am the only one who thinks these are cool, what if they really look like something from a bad 7th grade art glass? Ok, ok, I just gonna do it and to heck with if she actually likes or ever wears them, that will now be her problem.
These green beads were meant to go with the purple ones above, but just didn't look right, so I made them into another set of super, simple earrings. I am trying out a style of earwire I've seen online a few time, where the wire is long and actually wraps around the back some to become part of the design, sort of like a "Jetson's" version of a hoop.
I really, really like this Italian soft glass color of Transparent Medium Grass Green, yummy, like Sweet and Sour apple candies.