In This Sea

“I’ve always loved the lily-maids, the lighthouse keepers’ daughters,
The children of the river and the keepers of the waves.
I take them to my bed and let them take me to the waters,
To the mysteries and silences no hero ever saves.

I’ve always loved what’s best unloved, the ones bound fast to leave me,
The empty-handed maidens who have placed their swords in stones.
I take them to my bed, although I know that they’ll deceive me;
It’s better to be lost at sea than found, but all alone.”
In This Sea, Seanan McGuire

It’s a classic Seanan song — beautiful, haunting, and once you’ve listened closely enough to catch all the words, packing a helluva twist.

This song hearkens back to another song, originally by Talis Kimberley but covered by Seanan on Stars Fall Home, her second album. Still Catch the Tide is a song about a selkie, and the man who loved and lost her. In This Sea tells the same story — but this time, he goes in knowing in the end he’ll lose his heart.

It’s delicate, it’s graceful, it’s shades of green. It has a drop in front carefully placed to sit right there. It’s snowflake obsidian, amazonite, quartz, and tiny green and silver beads.

It’s the sort of necklace a selkie might wear, a lily-maid, a lighthousekeeper’s daughter.

Southland in the Springtime

“And there’s something ’bout the Southland in the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I’m gone it won’t ever be too long
Till I’m home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin’
There’s no place like home and none more pleasin’
Than the Southland in the springtime”
Southland in the Springtime, Indigo Girls

One of my favourite Indigo Girls songs — it reminds me of an SCA event I used to go to every year, one held in March in Mississippi. I’d drive the long road down I-81 from the barest beginnings of spring in the north — at times it was still snowing — to full-on, burgeoning, riotous southland spring. The scents, the green, the softness of the air…I loved it.

I can’t say that it’s my favourite place and season — Colorado in the fall is truly gorgeous — but it’s a good memory.

I stopped into my local bead shop to chat while my local used book store (which, alas, has no web site!) was looking over a passel of used books I’d brought them. I brought Loiosh — he was an immediate hit and eventually fell asleep on the counter in a small ball. I did not, I wish to point out, intend to actually purchase anything.

I am a fool.

The price they were charging for the jade was irresistable, so I didn’t bother resisting it. And when I saw the quartz ovals — yes, those are quartz — I had to have them. I’d never seen anything like them. The inclusions were beautiful and the price quite reasonable. I immediately snatched up a strand.

At the counter I looked at the beads I held — and immediately knew I’d be using them together.

I mean, look at them.

That was Thursday — the next day I left for Nebraska for the weekend. While there I found a fellow jewelry maker to chat with. She just happened to have some beads she didn’t want, and I happened to have some herbal things she did, and among the beads I traded for were the pale, pale green amazonite rounds.

I knew without even having to check that they would go with the beads I’d already chosen. And the pale green told me what song I was putting into bead form.

It’s sure pretty, isn’t it?

Broadsword

I see a dark sail on the horizon
set under a black cloud that hides the sun.
Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.
Get up to the roundhouse on the cliff-top standing.
Take women and children and bed them down.

Bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.
Bless with a hard heart those who surround me.
Bless the women and children who firm our hands.
Put our backs to the north wind. Hold fast by the river.
Sweet memories to drive us on for the motherland.

I see a dark sail on the horizon
set under a black cloud that hides the sun.
So, bring me my broadsword and clear understanding.
Bring me my cross of gold as a talisman.
So bring me my broadsword
And a cross of gold as a talisman.
– Broadsword, Jethro Tull

I bought a whole bunch of lampwork glass beads at the Bead Lounge a while ago, and then they sat…and sat…and sat. I’d thought to use them sparingly, as befits their total awesomeness, but somehow I could never come up with a design I liked.

So I decided to just use nearly all of them in one fell swoop.

I’d had the white beads for probably years — I have no recollection of getting them, so it was quite a while ago. They looked cheap and awful in every context I tried, which was a shame, because in they’re own subtle way they’re also very cool. Their very irregularity proclaims that, like the brighter beads, they too are handmade.

I put the two together, and boy, did it work.

It’s 26 inches long, plenty long enough to hang well on its own or from a pair of brooches with your Viking garb. Which is what directed my thinking when it came to a song.

Most of the sings I know about Vikings are kinda silly, and whie I enjoy them in their place, they didn’t suit this piece. I Googled things like ‘Viking song treasure’ and ‘plunder Viking lyrics’ and got nowhere much for a while until a song I’ve long known and loved came into my head — Broadsword, by Jethro Tull.

It’s simple and powerful. Have a listen if you like. Go ahead; I can wait.

See what I mean?

Like a gleaming hoard of treasure.

Boob challenge!

I posted a bit previously about the Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge being run by a couple of folks — the idea is to create something boob-related, or at least something pink, and all proceeds from all of these pink things go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

I knew I wanted to make something for this. I wish I could knit and make a knitted boob like several people have done, but alas, yarn and I don’t get along that way. So I figured I’d pick up some pink beads and make a necklace. Not particularly exciting, I know, but it would work.

And then I got thinking. I’ve been contemplating a design with the clasp in the front anyway…

…so why not just make the entire necklace a pink ribbon?

I picked up the beads — rose quartz and lampwork glass with pink flowers — at the bead show last week, about which more later. Getting the strand to cross itself properly in front took a lot of fighting and I had to redo the clasp several times. I’m pleased with the beads, though, and I’m pleased with how the whole thing turned out.

Because of the challenge, I’ve only posted this necklace to my Etsy shop. I normally don’t do this — I post everything everywhere — but in a good cause…

Purchase this necklace, and you get a lovely symbol of breast cancer awareness (and the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research gets thirty bucks). And if this piece doesn’t appeal to you, check out this Etsy forum thread for a listing of all the other entries in this challenge — just check the last couple pages for the latest listing of those who’ve created a piece for this worthy cause.

Big Damn Crafters’ Big Damn Challenge

Another piece inspired by Firefly, this one by the necklace Inara’s wearing during the duel at the end of the episode Shindig.

I went about this as if I were researching a piece for the SCA. First I looked at the originals:

Those were the best shots I could find on Can’t Take the Sky From Me, one of the best places I’ve found for Firefly screencaps and an all-around great site for Firefly fans. Not a lot to work with for the actual beads, but you can get a good idea of the general layout of the piece itself.

My choice of beads was dictated partly by my feel for Inara’s fashion preferences in general and partly by which beads I actually had available. She wears a lot of purple and in fact you can see amethyst used in other pieces of hers, and I had some really awesome amethyst around so that was an easy choice. The smaller quartz beads I used as separators mostly because I had them available and they were unobtrusive enough that they didn’t look wrong.

When all you’ve got to work with is a pair of pretty blurry photos, sometimes ‘not wrong’ is about as close as you can get.

The hard part was the bells. I’m not really sure that’s what they are in the original though after a lot of close examination they sure looked like it. Listening carefully to the scene in which she wears the piece I don’t hear any bells, but then I wouldn’t have, unless they were a part of the plot.

The bells I used aren’t actually shaped like the originals (if that’s indeed what they are) — the ones on Inara’s necklace appear to be acorn-shaped, whereas mine have a ring at the top. A tiny cutout barely visible in one of them, though, tells me that bells are as good a guess as any. And they really do look good in the finished piece.

…I think I did okay, don’t you?

Yes, that’s me wearing it. I did also get a shot on the stand, but I felt that I needed a picture of it being worn to really get the full effect.

I’m awfully pleased with how it came out. The beads I had were perfect and I do like how they look with the bells. The bells chime gently when you move, not obtrusive at all. I’m sure it’d get loud if you were doing jumping jacks, but who’d do jumping jacks in a piece like this?

The one thing I changed was partly a mistake, partly deliberate. In one of the shots it looked like the center drop had only three beads, like the two on either side of it, and that the hang on the necklace made it look a little longer. When I looked at the other photo I realized that that wasn’t the case — the original has four beads there, not three — but I’d have been short a bead if I’d made the center drop longer and I wanted to use the 10mm amethyst along the main part of the necklace as well, at least in the front.

I did use smaller amethyst beads for the rest of the necklace. You can’t see that part in any of the shots I’ve seen of the original, and it makes sense that smaller, less valuable beads would have been used there, where they’re less visible anyway.

I’ll admit I’m completely smug about this piece. It took a long time, between researching the original, planning out the layout, and assembly. But, if I may say this about a piece of mine, it looks good. Damn good.

Also, kitten.

Back in the saddle…

…because I still have three cats to feed.

I knew the whole time I was making this one that I didn’t have the right song in mind. Rather disconcerting, I have to say; as if the music in my head were out of tune. I finished it anyway, and took a couple of pictures, and set it aside.

Which was a shame. It’s a pretty piece, simple but dramatic: Red coral, white pearls, black hematite. Done in a style that’ll work for both modern and renaissance wear, quite deliberately; I’m making enough money at SCA events that it makes sense to tailor things to that audience.

And that’s what helped me figure out what it was.

Skin white as snow, lips red as coral, hair black as night. And I have been poking around at Shakespeare.

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Shakespeare, sonnet CXXX, and one of my favourites. Because really, who can live up to the legends? It’s better to be loved for who you are.

…but if you want a piece of the legend, there’s always this necklace.

Down by the River

I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy O Brother Where Art Thou as much as the people I watched it with — I simply haven’t the familiarity with Southern culture to really get it. (I had the same problem with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.)

But I found Allison Krauss’s haunting rendition of Down by the River simply beautiful. It’s been months since I saw the movie and it’s the part that stuck most firmly in my head.

What I’m not sure about is why this is the song that came to mind while I was making this necklace. There’s nothing obvious — there’s not a cross hanging from it, nor any of the stones traditionally used in rosaries or paternosters. It doesn’t even follow any of the usual patterns for prayer beads.

The more I thought about it, though, the more it made sense. Lapis is a water stone to me — inevitable, with that blue. Perhaps it’s not a shade you normally see in a river, but it’s still water. It was considered holy by many ancient cultures and is said to bring peacefulness and self-acceptance.

Tigerseye looks like a streambed stirred up by moving water — the streaks and stripes represent the ever-changing character of the earth beneath the water. It also brings clarity of thought and foresight.

I don’t normally talk about the more esoteric properties of my stones here, but it seemed appropriate for this piece.

On to the more mundane stuff — you see above the beautiful focal bead, and the foundation of this piece. Here’s a secret — it started life as one of a pair of earrings. I lost the other one, and spent about a month cursing about the fact every time I set out my jewelry, because they were awesome earrings.

Ahh, well. I finally gave up and stuck the earring in my bead box, and forgot about it until Friday. That’s when I bought a whole bunch of beads, including a strand of tigerseye tubes. And had an inspiration — here’s something I could do with that pesky round!

I’d used lapis beads in the earrings as well, so I figured I might as well just go with that. Pulled out the rest of the oval lapis beads (you can just see the two which were in the original earring on the sides of the photo above) and discovered that I didn’t have any more of the ovals — what I had were rounds (see below). Oh well, I thought, I’ll use both!

I had another strand of lapis rounds, but these were drilled the short way rather than the long way — along with tiny silver seed beads these became my spacers. An odd effect — frequently with both lapis and tigerseye I’ll use gold but the silver just kind of looks right. Back to the water theme here?

In any case, I strung it up — on the first of a new spool of wire, which is black and more flexible than the old — both of which properties I find I enjoy working with. One of my clasps and poofa! Done.

…the photos also tell me that I need to get the cat hair off of my background fabrics. Ah well! That’s what dryers are for.

Jill’s New Flat

So my friend Jill over at the Creative Cafe has been moving house. It’s been a lot of work and she’s been pretty stressed — though dealing with it well! One of the things we’ve all heard about is her new yellow walls, which she’s been worried would clash with her red living room furniture. Well, in an attmpt to allay her fears (and in honour of her new flat) I present Jill’s New Flat.

I’d had the red coral kicking around for a while and just had to find the right yellow to go with it. The Bead Lounge had a trunk sale yesterday, so I wandered in to take a look. I’d been looking for a bright sun-yellow but the best I could find was this somewhat pale-but-pretty shade, so I picked up a strand.

Funnily enough, it turns out it’s almost exactly the right colour.

I added the pearls and glass (nope, those aren’t hematite, though they sure look like it) just to add a little more BRIGHT and CONTRAST to the piece. Now that I see the picture above, I sort of wish I’d tossed in a bit of turquoise as well.

…well, maybe not.

Anyway, this one’s for you, Jill!

Come to the Green Wood

In the green wood you know anything that you see
Could be ancient gods in some disguise;
In the green wood you touch on the last mystery,
And you can’t put your trust in your eyes.
In the green wood surrender the things that you know,
Let your heart tell you just what it sees.
In the green wood take all that you are, and let go;
Put your faith and your light in the trees.
Seanan McGuire, Come to the Green Wood

I picked up these lovely carved stone beads at my favourite local bead shop, The Bead Lounge. They were tagged as ‘crazy stone’, which as far as I can tell is their way of saying ‘we’re not quite sure what it is, but isn’t it awesome?’. And I’m not sure either, but they’re awesome.

And a few weeks ago — perhaps as long as a month, now — I read the lyrics to a new song by Seanan McGuire, filker extraordinaire. And as I read them, a necklace took shape in my mind.

It was a while before I actually got the chance to let it come out properly, but today as I worked it made its slow way to the forefront.

Before I started the necklace I made a couple of paternosters (about which more later). During that process I happened to lay the carved beads next to the few jade beads I had left and voila! Yeah, those look good together.

I needed more — I only had seven of the jade beads left, and it was still not quite right anyway — so I dug around until I found the gold-dyed pearls. There were just enough of those left, too, proving that this necklace is a truly karmic piece!

…okay, that might be laying it on a little thick.

I’ve had these wood beads for a while and never found the right piece to use them with — well, this was the right one. That’s when I realized which piece I was making, and which song it was for. The tiny gold-coloured seed beads added the perfect finishing touch, just enough to brighten the necklace and set everything else off.

It’s a good long piece, too, at twenty-six inches. Luxurious, one might say. Or at least, well, long. I’m pleased with it.

If you’re interested (and you should be!) the rest of the lyrics to the song are at Seanan’s LiveJournal. Amusingly enough, it’s part of a group of songs she’s written to prompts from yet more jewelry — pendants with bits and snatches of quotes on them, made by the brilliant Chimera Fancies. I can’t find the post where the pendant this is based on (if indirectly) appeared, but have a look here and here to see some of her lovely work.

Kitten not included.

Jewelry, Jewelry Everywhere

In my Copious Spare Time lately I’ve been making a lot of jewelry. I’ve been much slower about putting it online — my jewelry moves slowly online so it makes more sense to focus on the herbal stuff. I had some spare time recently, though, so I thought I’d take a bit of it to post a few more pieces.

This one’s called Bartender’s Blues. It’s my second piece made with these lovely ceramic beads and I was pretty worried it would wind up too similar to the first one. I simply cannot get anything but more blue and white to work with those beads.

Well, it’s reminiscent. I’ll admit to that. But it’s still pretty different, and I’m okay with that.

It’s my third piece that incorporates chips (see my first here) and I’m still not entirely confident with them. They’re irregular in shape, colour and size and somehow this offends my sense of order. I have to follow a pattern, you see; I can’t do ‘random’ jewelry like many people can. It simply doesn’t work. Working with chips is a stretch for me.

I’m pretty pleased with the results, though. It’s a full set — necklace, bracelet, earrings — everything you’d need.

The second is called Calling the Moon and I’ve got to say it’s one of my favourites. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have favourites among my own babies but we all fail in one way or another. And I simply cannot resist the bright contrast between the turquoise and coral.

I mean, just look at that.

It’s simple and striking. With beads like that there’s not a lot I have to do. I did choose tiny silver seed beads just to set off the colours a little more, and I suppose I might have chosen gold instead but it just wasn’t right.

Clean, simple. Necklace and earrings.