new stuff

Lots of new stuff to share.  I am way behind in photography and listing on Etsy and all the things I think I should be doing.  Just indulging in the pleasures of creating.

For a while now, I've just assumed that blogging was pretty much passe'.  People I was following are now using Instagram and Twitter and I have enough trouble trying to keep up on FaceBook.  But last night I checked out my blogger account and found to my great surprise that I am still getting hits.  Lots of them actually.  So for anyone who is still along for the ride with me, here is a lengthy update.

I originally had a large labyrinth pendant on this necklace, but I wasn't completely happy with it.  I had tried out something different for a bail and only realized after it had come out of the kiln and I was polishing it, that it looks just like the Trilithons of Stonehenge.  I think the shape and size work much better.  I used the second pendant with red jasper, carnelian, horn, and red tiger eye.

This one had been incomplete for ages.  It features an old silver and turquoise pendant from Tibet along with silver and turquoise, a jade cicada, old silver earring orphan, Scorched Earth spike, Thai amulet and Whitby jet beads.  Jet is a cousin to both amber and coal - very popular in Victorian times for mourning jewelry.

The weather hasn't be cooperating with my intent to photograph pieces outside - all the damp and dank has put a layer of green on my slate and whalebone props so I've had to look for some new backgrounds.  The one above is the inside covers of a book I've had since I was a child - Sir Richard Burton's translation of "The Arabian Nights".  I love the aged look of the paper.  Some of the other photos are taken on the back cover, but it's not big enough to show an entire necklace.

This piece is kind of minimalist for me.  It showcases an unusual pendant of green Prehnite.  The photos don't begin to do it justice.  I love that it's not clear and perfect.  The inclusions and irregularities and color shifts within the stone are fascinating.  Prehnite is sometimes described on New Agey crystal websites as "the stone that heals the healer".  It's supposed to help release a person's natural psychic abilities and deepen meditative states.  I just know that I am drawn to work with it on an aesthetic level if nothing else.

 Rutilated quartz.  Another favorite stone of mine.  I love the threads of golden rutile running through the beads.  Encased in time and space.

Gorgeous porcelain spikes by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth on Etsy.  I-Ching coins, old African cowrie shells, bone Buddhist mala beads, Kuchi coins, and Czrch glass talhakimt amulets.  A little raw.  A little wild and tribal.  Steel wire was called for here.

 Faceted chalcedony beads with my hand made bronze clay discs.  A twisted copper jump ring and vintage gold washed brass "raised dot" Yoruba beads from Africa.  

Another shield amulet with impressions of the dancing ladies inspired by North African cave paintings on both sides.  A large smokey quartz crystal, recycled amber colored glass Krobo beads from Africa and tiny ones from Indonesia.  I like to squish the clay out with my fingertips rather than rolling it out.  I want to see the marks of my hands and leave no doubt that these pieces have been a labor of the heart and soul.

Another spike from Petra Carpreau.  The colors are glorious!  A rough faceted carnelian, a Thai amulet of a Kalachakra Wheel in sandstone, a bone spike incised with an Ohmmmm, a little wooden skull from a Nepalese or Tibetan prayer mala, and one of my bronze hands - open to repel negativity and receive blessings.  Suspended from a bronze ring on a leather choker.  I had sent this one along to Belle Armoire for consideration, so it will be listed as soon as I get it back.

And these two.  I need to take some better photos so I can list them.  The first one makes me think of woodlands - of Spring shoots poking through damp autumn leaves.  Renewal and promise.  Green garnets, wooden disc beads, and seed beads in many shades of green.

The last one is golden - sun shining through dew drops.  Sparkling with faceted citrines, amber, and Peruvian opals.  It's going to be very hard to part with these two.