More test beads -- at the top, a couple of alabastro glass beads; in the middle, two aventurina beads with metallic sparkles; and at the bottom, some opalino beads. Alabastro and opalino are translucent glasses. They're beautiful, but tricky to work with because they "shock" easily. You learn just HOW easily the first time you're warming up an alabastro rod in the flame, and you think (based on your experience with normal glass) that it's warm enough, so you put it in the flame, and two inches or so of the end of the rod pops off!
