"Tris-kai-dek-euphoria"
Beads of many shapes and sizes get together and have a party.They burst out of their ordinary personas. They mingle. They make connections you’d never think would work so beautifully.
This neckpiece looks like a party to me- not one of those sanguine, sit on the terrace watching the boys play croquet parties—this is a rip-roaring, bring sparklers and spike the punch fiesta. Some very fancy lampworked beads are mixing with down to earth wooden beads, irregular spool-shaped beads and art glass. You’d never think they’d get along. But it’s the colors of a warm summer evening’s sunset that make them happy to sit side-by-side: that orange-y coral and rich plum magenta that gives way after a long evening to Maxfield Parrish blue- deep and on the edge of purple.
This is a neckpiece for the most powerful person in an ancient village. It brings it’s wearer strength in many settings: there is a fish that symbolizes speed and agility, a fire agate Full Moon bead that symbolizes the fullness of wisdom. These float from an intricately inlaid shell bead shaped like the replica of a small shrine. Two brass boat-shaped beads symbolize a robust body and a vigorous mind to carry one through the difficult waters of life. Above them, encircling the neck, are the ethereal arms of iridescent tube beads, rays of a warming sun.
Like a neckpiece of seafoam, these translucent briolette glisten in the wearer’s peripheral vision. The crystal hangs above the mermaid and rings like a tiny bell.
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.
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.
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"?
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.
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]
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.
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.
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.
