The Grass is Greener...Right Here

Okay, I’m supposed to be doing something else. But I’m thinking of beads…confession! As my mind wanders from work, I think of what a great life I have, and how lovely the view is from here. Just take these amazing gold and green tiger beads from Milan. They were costly- too expensive for a necklace to sell, really, but just right for one to give to a dear friend. The kind who deserves the best and rarest things you can find. It was my Muse who found the first green and gold luxe beauty, in a bead shop we don’t often get to. [The best thing about that bead shop is the great Café on the way home from there: you can drool over your new beads with a latte to disguise the real reason.] Okay- so Muse made me purchase ONE green glass bead- for a hefty $7.00. I thought it was too much to spend, but the Muse chooses, and that’s it!

It only took a glance on the way home to know we'd never be able to live (or finish a necklace) without more of those magical Italian tiger-stripe beads. If you hold a bead up to the light, you can see the world reflected in brilliant emerald. It the glossiest, greenest glass imaginable. So the necklace has to be simple. Let the beads shine on their own, and let the wearer delight in those little worlds of perfection.

Collar of the Shaman

I see some powerful ancient seer wearing this- the pebble-shaped beads painted with the elements of the universe- sky, sea, soil, soul.

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2009: This piece was stolen from a shop in Avon, CT. It is one of a kind. If you see some one wearing it, you will know that it was not gotten honorably and that it's power to bring good fortune will have been voided by the disgrace of its possessor. The only decent thing to do is to give it away to someone and hope that the generosity of that act will redeem your taking it.

The [Blue] Sky's the Limit!

You know what it feels like to wake up in the morning, see that deep cloudless blue sky and feel like the possibilities are endless? That your head is clear and your ideas are ready to take off into that ocean of air? This is that wonderful, empowered feeling in a necklace.

Take me To Your Beader

Alien Beadings' First Creation

I've had it with Humans lately. Greed, war, cruelty, etc. Those aren't behaviors which I think should inform any endeavor. So why should I call my work "Human Beadings"?

If Aliens could bead, I'm sure they'd be fascinated with the good hearts some humans have. And wear them around their necks.

Ice is Nice

There are a lot of people who love spring, warm weather, bright sun. Not me. I’m more of a snow-loving, grey skies kind of person. This is how I hold onto winter and the crystalline cold, with color-changing silvery cubes that go from purple-y pink to ice cube blue in different light.

December Messenger

I’ve had the dichroic pendant that forms the centerpiece of this necklace for a long time. Dichroic is one of the only manmade substances that does magic color-shifting tricks that are reserved for the special creatures of the natural world. Only the rarest butterfly wings, dragonflies, and peacock feathers can change their appearance in the shimmering dance of sunlight. So it was fitting that I waited a while to collect the perfect companions for the pressed glass and dichroic flake pendant: lovely gold Venetian foil patties, little Venetian grape-beads, etched mulberry rectangles, and some special lavender Czech faceted beads. A lovely entourage to carry my “Happy Winter” message to it’s new owner!

Heart of Winter

The last days of December, after Christmas, are the heart of winter. After the Winter Solstice, these are the epagomenal* days- the days that fall in a secret space of the year- between the old lunar calendar and the new solar calendar. They are magic, these days which we spend with family and loved ones, remembering the old year and celebrating our hope for the year to come. The berry reds and brilliant sterling are the contrast of the warmth of our feelings in the icy weather.

*"The Epagomenal Days are the Days Upon the Year which were highly celebrated by the Ancient Egyptians. It was the transitional days between the old year and the upcoming New Year. It was during this time that great change occurred, and it was not unusual for lives to become somewhat chaotic during this period." [from Per-ankh.org]

Healing Holly Berries

As I was devising this necklace, all I could think of was whether it would please the wearer. Holly and Ivy colors of the season in which we warm ourselves with our friendship and the strength of colors in the cold snowy months.

But today, on presenting it, I realized something more important: that jewelry is not merely for adornment. It’s original purpose was talismanic: to protect the wearer and bring her strength of spirit. To heal those who look to her. When you assemble the polished bits of earth that make these beads, you imbue them with patience and care that transfers to the wearer.

The Amazing Color-Changing Beads

There are some amazing berries outside the wonderful café where we go- I’ve never seen berries change colors as they mature the way these did. In a few weeks in late October, they traversed the spectrum from green to purple to red.

Just like those berries, the little flower beads in this necklace are “color change” beads: in daylight- they reflect green, and in incandescent light, they reflect red, changing like the ripening berries. And those round green agate beads are the precise bayberry color of the new berries.

Now, my friend made a sad confession: necklaces give her claustrophobia.

How sad- not to be able to bedeck onself. Jewelry is, above all, a proclamation of one’s unique spirit. Inner beauty worn outwardly. I hope for my friend that she will conquer her fear, change like the berries, and take on the color of her own beauty.

Secret Sequence

Beads teach us things. Patience, for one thing. The pendant in this necklace was once a lovely pin, given to me by The Muse (everyone should have one- but no one has a Muse as fine as mine!) years ago. It stopped being a pin after much fond wear, when it’s pinback fell off. Fortunately, it was not lost; I saved it as a flat object for a long time deciding whether to repair it. I never repaired it, because in time it came to me that it would be happy as a pendant if only I could find the right beads. This all happened years before I was able to bead- I was gathering elements for this piece a long time.

What happened when I finally came to the making of the necklace is it’s own story. Three times I strung the multi-strand necklace, and each time something went awry. It was like a tale from the Brothers Grimm- first the strands tangled so badly I couldn’t find the ends when it came to stringing the clasp. I re-strung it a second time and strands broke at the last moment, after crimping and trimming. On the third attempt, true to legend, I found success.

Is there magic in the third try? Perhaps. Or maybe it is that by the third time you do something, you’ve learned to adjust to the trials you’re about to meet.

For me, this was discovering that there is a sequence in which each step must be done. Beading is a linear process. You cannot reach the middle before you secure the beginning. The order in which beads come together is partly design, and partly fortune. You keep repeating it until you get it right.

Tre Corazon

Beads teach us about life: we think we know what we want. [We don't always.] We think we know what's beautiful. [Not till we see it usually.]
We think we're in control. [We're not...we just have to go with the flow and enjoy the ride.]

Summer's End Wreath

Seasons come and go. Celebrate them.

Ivy Spiral

This pendant was picked out a long time ago- almost at the beginning of my bead obsession. But because of its auspicious history, it was going to have to wait a long time till the right beads came along. For one thing- the colors are a bit unusual- a very crisp green and a deep bluish purple- like the colors of ivy with intertwined morning glories. Come to think of it, the climbing tendrils of ivy are certainly the natural inspiration of our love of spirals- a metaphor of delicate strength that grows by inverting and inserting itself into the difficult and rocky places. That’s what this necklace of icy green bracket-shaped table-cuts and intense cobalt coins means: passion and perseverance.

Healing Blue Light

This Dichroic pendant changes color dependent on the angle of incoming light. It’s predominantly a deep meditative cobalt with metallic highlights, just the right color for eliciting one’s inner gift of healing. It celebrates good health news for the loved one who will wear it.