This is My Town

We live in the sight of the mountain;
We live in the shade of the tree.
We trade today for tomorrow,
Making bets on destiny –

We take our turns on the altar.
We take our wages in sin.
We build our homes on the water,
And wonder why the flood rolls in.

…

Find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck,
But the streets are bare and my pockets are empty.
Pay the piper, pay your dues — I don’t have that much left to lose,
‘Cause I’m all alone, and I think someone left me.
– Seanan McGuire, This is My Town

I’ll admit I made this necklace before I named it. I picked up the ceramic beads only because the booth I bought them from had a $20 credit card minimum. I was there for something totally different, but I’ve done more with the ‘make the minimum’ beads I bought than I did with the ones I went there for…

I had no idea what to do with the things. I played with contrast; I set them next to most of the beads in my collection. But it wasn’t until I picked up a handful of beads while cleaning up and looked down to see the ceramic beads next to the lapis ones that I began to get a glimmering.

I still played with contrast. Red coral beads, amethyst, silver and gold. Nothing really wanted to look right. (Really, someday I need to take pictures of the process…). I finally realized that as the lapis went with the blue in the ceramic beads, so I needed something white to go with the white. I tried them out, and the large freshwater pearls were perfect.

It almost seemed too simple, still. I decided to add one of my drops — the one I originally worked out on Letter to Eve. That seemed about right — added just a bit of complexity. I also did my signature handmade clasp.

…then came the thought of a name. The ceramic beads made me think of 50s housewives — all that Wedgewood and pearls and ‘everything just so’. But the drop, and the clasp…they made it a little different. Almost a little off.

…but still pretty.

I settled down today to listen to one of my favourite artists — Seanan McGuire. I love her music, it’s beautiful and haunting and occasionally downright twisted. She’s written songs about falling in love with mad scientists, about dinosaurs, about TV series that have never aired. And she wrote This is My Town.

It’s a 50s girl in a 50s world who just…doesn’t quite fit in. She’s different. A little off.

It was perfect.