Paternosters!

I know I’ve explained paternosters here before but it’s been quite a while. I’ve continued making them, and selling them at SCA events, but up until now I haven’t got round to posting any more.

Well, it turns out that in the Catholic Church October is the Month of the Rosary. Having been so reminded, I figured it was about time to do some posting.

Coral was one of the most popular stones for a paternoster. These gorgeous 12cm coral beads just begged to be made into one, and I chose this simple design to set off their total awesomeness. Because, really, coral this good doesn’t need much to make it look even better.

With a brass bell on one end and a tassel on the other. Perfect for 15th century reenactment, Renaissance Faires, or your SCA persona.

This one’s got coral too but really it’s the jade that makes this one special. Beautiful 10cm jade beads with a single rock crystal bead to finish it off. The whole set off by tiny gold-coloured seed beads.

Either is perfect for an apprenticing gift, a Twelfth Night present, a special bit of largesse. Or just a gift for someone who appreciated a piece of history.

None of them to your taste? Worry not — I’ll be posting more over the next several days.

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.

Doll Down Makeup Remover

So my friend Christine (whom I have mentioned here before) suggested I should create a makeup remover. How does one create a makeup remover, I wondered? I had no idea; in fact didn’t know you were even supposed to use the stuff. The last time I wore makeup (some five years ago, for my sister’s wedding) I removed it with soap, hot water and scrubbing.

Hoo boy, was that the wrong approach.

The skin around your eyes is some of the most delicate skin on your body. Most of the time, you shouldn’t even wash it — even gentle soap has a chance of being too harsh.

A makeup remover should be gentle, moisturizing without being oily, and have some cleansing action without being harsh. I did a bit of research, whipped something up, tested it (once I found my makeup), and voila! Doll Down Makeup Remover, for when you’re all done being all dolled up.

It’s made of a blend of canola and grapeseed oils — moisturizing without leaving you greasy. To this I’ve added a couple of essential oils, but only a touch: your eyes are sensitive.

Tea tree oil provides a cleansing action on its own. It’s antibacterial, antifungal, anti-anything that could get into your eyes and make you unhappy. And geranium oil is renowned for its ability to balance both dry and oily skin. I’d say that covers most of us.

To this I’ve added vitamin E oil, as a natural preservative and for its beneficial effects on skin as a whole.

To use, put a bit of makeup remover on a cottonball or tissue. Wipe the oil onto your eyelids and let it sit there for a moment — long enough to brush your teeth, perhaps. With a clean cottonball or tissue, wipe it back off — your makeup will lift off with it.

That’s the last of my massage and other oils for a while, I think, unless I get another idea (or someone suggests something I can’t resist). Somehow I nearly always wind up with five of whatever I’m doing. There’s something about that I’m sure…

Also, helpful kitten is helpful.

Ma Cobb’s Joint Liniment

I’ve been wrestling, recently, with a pair of conundrums.

The first is the Big Damn Crafters September Challenge, that being Jayne:

Maybe you want to try your hand at a Jayne hat since you’ve never made one. Or maybe you’re gonna make something else that Ma Cobb may have sent her baby boy at some point in his adventures (maybe a gun cozy?). Or maybe you can come up with something that would have caught Jayne’s eye in a market place.

Jayne don’t wear jewelry. Jayne’s mom wouldn’t send him jewelry. I can’t even see Jayne stopping in a marketplace to buy his mother some jewelry. And I can’t knit, so the Jayne Hat was right out.

I had no idea what to do, and was considering bailing on the challenge entirely.

The second was what to call my joint rub. I thought about plain Joint Rub or Arthritis Rub or something but almost everything else has these clever little names, and now I’m stuck with them. Tim thought up Olde Tyme Liniment and I gave that some thought, but it just didn’t seem right. Something liniment…Old Fashioned Liniment…Grandmother’s Recipe Liniment…

Ma Cobb’s Liniment…

I about had to pull over, it was so brilliant.

So today I finally put it together. A grapeseed oil base with a selection of things to ease joint pain — black pepper essential oil, eucalyptus essential oil, rosemary essential oil, lemon essential oil — plus a generous dollop of menthol crystals.

A side note: When opening a previously-sealed bag of menthol crystals, do not stick your nose in for a good hearty whiff.

Not Wise.

But my sinuses are clear now. Heck, I think my drains are clear.

Ma Cobb says, give it a try!

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.

Leanna’s Favourite Massage Oil

Announcing the newest in my Leanna’s Favourite line of herbal products! (There are three of them now; I can call that a line, right?)

I note as I write here that I never actually posted about Leanna’s Favourite Body Spray either — so I suppose I ought to talk about both!

Leanna’s Favourite, of whatever type, is a relaxing blend of lavender and chamomile. Whether as body spray, milk bath or massage oil, it smells great and helps you relax.

The body spray is built on a base of soothing aloe vera juice and witch hazel, an astringent, so it’s good for your skin as well as your mood. Slip a bottle in your purse for when you need a quick calm-down.

If you’ve got more time on your hands and need a real dose of relaxation, a bath with Leanna’s Favourite Milk Bath is what you’re looking for. Powdered milk along with chamomile and lavender flowers make for a luxurious, comforting bath.

And now Leanna’s Favourite Massage Oil — lavender and chamomile in a base of grapeseed oil, moisturizing but light enough that you won’t be greasy afterwards — combine it with a gentle massage and I assure you you’ll sleep well and wake up feeling wonderful. If you give massages, stock up! It’ll be popular.

Get all three — on special! — for only $18! Just leave a comment when you purchase and I’ll refund the extra.

Massage oils

I’ve been promising these for a long time, but rediscovering an old friend from high school has finally provoked me into getting them done.

In all the catching up Christine and I have done I discovered that she’s pregnant. Well, I’ve been planning a Pregnant Momma Belly Rub for months now and have simply failed to get round to it. I had everything I needed, though, so I put it together and sent off a bottle to her for testing.

I use a base of grapeseed oil, which is moisturizing and good for your skin, but also light and easily absorbed so you don’t wind up all greasy. It’s infused with calendula flowers, which are awesome for your skin — good for moisturizing and healing. And I add vitamin E oil and tangerine, vetiver, and lavender essential oils — all of which help with skin elasticity. So a good rub with this stuff will moisturize your growing belly and help prevent stretch marks, too.

Whether you’re fighting to stave off the enemy or fighting to get your friend’s couch up the stairs, this is what you’ll want to use afterwards. This was inevitable, with all the folks I know who fight in the SCA — a complement to my Long Day Working bath salts. It has some of the same ingredients (rosemary and clove essential oil) but adds a number of others.

Arnica and black pepper oil aren’t really a good idea in the tub (as witness my tale here — I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader as to why you don’t want black pepper oil on your exposed bits) but work fine on the skin. (Just don’t rub it onto a cut!) I’ve also infused the grapeseed oil with ginger, calendula, marjoram and fennel seed, as these all have good effect on bruises and aching muscles. NOT TO BE USED INTERNALLY I AM NOT KIDDING.

Sold a bunch last weekend already and I’m looking forward to selling a bunch more of it over the next few weekends at SCA events. Fortunately I already have more grapeseed oil on the way!

Check it out!

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.