Wedding Bells

I was asked recently to participate in the bridal party of a dear friend's wedding.  We have been friends for a long while.  I don't know exactly how long, but it's been a long number of years.  We've been there through good times, bad times, and all of the other times in between.  So to me, the exact number gets lost in all the other important stuff.
As her wedding gift, I offered to make her the necklace for her special day.  She had always been into the Renaissance style; her dress and veil was even as close as she could get!

Being her wedding colors were green and purple (green for the groomsmen and purple for the bridesmaids), I chose amethyst for the main stone.  Some of them are chevrons, some balls, and some little chips.  The two little glass leaves are just a splash of green to bring the colors together, as well as a few silver accents through the piece.  The rest of the necklace is freshwater pearl; which is one of her favorite "stones".

While it's not traditional Renaissance style, I tried to create something to make her feel like a Queen!

Amber and Turquoise

At the 12th Annual Journey Home Powwow of 2010, we started incorporating demonstrations of native crafts.  Not only did I do demonstrations of how to do my feather painting, but how to do some simple sand painting.  Most of the participants were young children, which is wonderful...usually.  This was the first time I had done a demonstration in that kind of atmosphere, and I admit I was a bit unprepared.

The first day was hectic and stressful, so even while I enjoyed it, I had a tendency to want to throttle some small person into submission.  Branden was teaching how to carve soapstone across the way, and he was stressed out just as much as I was.  So after the first night, we met up with two friends who were also demonstrating and vending at the Powwow to relax.  We all kind of vented whatever we needed to and then just commenced working on our own crafts for the next day.


One of the ladies handed me a drop of amber, and said that she would carry it around with her when ever she was under such stress, and hopefully it would help me.  Being as the amber is also my name sake, I was super excited.  Amber is one of the few "stones" that are classified as coming from organic matter, same idea as jet.  It has a deep, warm feeling to it, almost like solidified sunshine on a warm autumn afternoon.  While I've heard people say it's for healing, I find it more to be a stone that is likely to balance things out the way the need to be rather than for healing per say, it's more like a pleasant side-effect.

So, I had the gorgeous piece of amber with a bead hole drilled through the center, and not a clue what to do with it.  I carried it around for a while before I got an image in my head of what I wanted to do with it.  I wanted to do a three strand necklace with turquoise and little amber chips!  Well...easier said than done.  All and all, this took about 6 months to make, if not a little bit longer.  The turquoise chips I found at one of the outlet stores in Nags Head, I purchased a few of them because they were 50% off at the time.  It was a good thing to, because they no longer carry them there.  I couldn't find amber chips for a decent price until I went online.  Fire Mountain Gems was having a sale on a few of their amber strands, so I grabbed a few of the grade and shade I wanted, along with a strand of coconut heishi.

It was well worth the wait though, it's one of my favorite pieces so far.  At least as far as jewelry is concerned.

Memories of Life Long Friends

It can be funny sometimes, the circumstances in which we meet those people that seem destined to be our life-long friends.  The story behind this necklace, always serves as that kind of reminder to me.  I met a woman, I think it was about 2 1/2 years ago now, who was quite distressed.  Her native tribe was lost to her, her dreams were overwhelming, her health was swiftly spiraling downward.  I spent quite a long while talking with the woman, and we exchanged addresses.  I thought that maybe, I could make something to help.  I am no trained medicine woman, I just have a strong intuition that doesn't let me rest.  I made a pouch of sorts, shipped it off, gave her some herbal, meditation, and diet advice, and prayed for the best.

I heard back from her several  months later via a box in the mail.  There were a few little thank you gifts, but the most important thing was a long letter and the photos enclosed.  Her health was improving, she was more active and in considerable less pain.  The best news was that she was coming the next spring to visit.  I made her another pouch, but the best part of the whole experience was being able to see her walk around more freely.  The photos were of her walking around in her yard, or working on it.  And there were honest smiles there!  To be able to see her face to face again with that kind of renewed energy was the best kind of gift anyone can receive.

Before we parted ways on the last evening of her stay, she gave me a bulky letter, and asked me not to open it until she left.  Inside were three shells and a handful of stone chip beads, along with a letter to explain.  She was able to walk on the beach again, and she choose three of the shells that spoke to her our of her collection she was able to pick to give to me.  As for the stones, she always wore an anklet made of those chips, and when she got out of the car the first day she got to the island, the band broke and all the stones fell neatly on the ground.  She felt that their use was done, and that it was time for them to go to me so I could do whatever it was I wanted or needed to do with them.  I have a huge tackle box full of beads from either my mother (who has been kind enough to send me down packages when she see's some sale going on in Pennsylvania) and from when Fire Mountain Gems has some really good sales, so I had a wide heishi to use as the top accents.

We still keep in contact, though, life tends to take its sharp turns to make it difficult at times.  I painted a little yellow warbler on a feather for her recently for Christmas/Yule/Solstice.  She's still doing good, and has a little grandbaby to occupy her time.  The beautiful and amazing thing here isn't that her health improved, or that I was given thank you gifts.  But rather that on what seems like a chance meeting, we have both gained a friendship that has meant so much for each one of us.  I wear the necklace often, it reminds me of her, and how close we can be even though we're several states apart.  It reminds me of how a single meeting can change one's life so drastically and in such a positive way.

Moonlight Serenity

While I haven't taken many photos of my jewelry work, I have found one of the pieces that I'm quite fond of.  There's moonstone, copper colored glass, metal leaves, sodalite, and a lovely clasp at the top.  I was given the large center piece by a friend that just didn't have the dexterity to bead anymore, and I really struggled for a long while with what to do with it.  It was just lovely, and I wanted to make sure that whatever I put with it accented it without overpowering it or making it look out of place.

The finished necklace feels very elegant to me.  The sodalite is a very calming and soothing stone.  While the moonstone can be energizing to some people, it's still a very feminine, silvery type energy.  All and all I'm very pleased with the way that this turned out.