Lustre-glazing is a 1200-year-old artform that has its roots in the Middle East and has made its journey through North Africa to Europe to the BabetteBeads collection. Reduction-fire lustre techniques, which are highly prized and equally secret, allow ceramics to take on wonderful metallic luminescence depending on light and other environmental catalysts. Lustre-glazed jewelry and decorative housewares had long been the favored look of royalty. Now it can be a key element of your own personal style.

The last ceramic artist able to create similar multicolored, luminescent glazes was Beatrice Wood, who died in 1999 at the age of 105. She left without divulging her prized process.