Lucky Talisman Necklace

 This month, I received a lucky horseshoe pendant from Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio for the design team challenge. I love this cute pendant! It has a horseshoe symbol on the front and the word "lucky" inscribed on the back. I knew right away I wanted to create a charm talisman necklace for myself. A special totem piece to remind me of important things in my day to day life. The idea of creating jewelry with powerful symbolic meaning really speaks to me. I chose a fairly simple design because I wanted the necklace to be a universal piece I would wear with everything.

  Originally, I thought I would buy some charms and hand pick specific ones for this necklace. I don't have as many charms as I would like, but I dug through my stash and I found these three. A feather, a heart-in-hand, and a dragonfly. I decided to just use what I had. After I finished my necklace, I decided to do a little research and find out the meanings of each symbol and charm. Here's what I found:

The Horseshoe - Horseshoes are a symbol of good luck in many cultures. Especially, Ireland and European countries. Legend has it that a horseshoe pointing upwards will gather your luck and hold it like a vessel. If the horseshoe is pointing downward, your luck will pour out and you will be showered with it.

The Feather - Feathers are a powerful symbol, especially in Native American cultures. They usually symbolize a higher spiritual path.

Heart-in-Hand - This symbol represents compassion, charity or helping others in some way. It also symbolizes putting ones love, heart and soul into the things one makes with their hands.

The Dragonfly - As a creature of the wind, the dragonfly represents change. As a creature of the water, they represent emotions, the subconscious and/or dreams. These symbolic meanings are particularly found in Asian and Native American cultures. Some of the other symbolic meanings for dragonflies are prosperity, good luck, strength, peace and harmony.

I'm wondering what all this could mean for me? Yes, I do think there are some important messages here for me to think about. After all, it was my intention to make a lucky talisman/totem necklace for myself.

I will leave you while I ponder the deeper meanings of life....

  Oh, and if you know of any other meanings for the symbols in the necklace, please let me know in the comments! Or leave me any comment you like...I love your comments! :)

A Jewelry Accord: Making of a jewelry book: Tools, Materials and Fin...

 Hey, Everyone!

Check out my post on A Jewelry Accord blog. There's a little sneak peak and an update on our book!

A Jewelry Accord: Making of a jewelry book: Tools, Materials and Fin...: "Today, I'm going to give you a little update and a behind-the-scenes peek at the making of our upcoming jewelry instruction book due out in ..."

Zinnia

I love bright, vivid colors for Summer. Doesn't this cheery yellow just make you smile? :) Yellow isn't usually in my normal color palette to work with even though I like the color. I've seen it popping up everywhere in fashion the past few years, so I've been more attracted to it lately.

This happy, sunny color is in the inspirational artwork for the current Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge. The perfect opportunity to work with some yellow in a jewelry piece! I love these lemony agate beads paired with this gorgeous Zinnia connector by Mellisa of Chinook Jewelry. The yellow beads really pop with the complimentary deep purple silk beading cord. I added a bit of purple dupioni silk from Ornamentea to accent the connector. I frayed the silk to add a little texture and interest; the perfect finishing touch!

Path of Life

I made a new bracelet design a few nights ago in the studio. I really like it! Here, I strung some blue crazy lace agate ovals, blue agate rounds, some Czech glass spacers that almost have the look of sterling silver, a copper "Path of Life" charm, and a few art beads from some of my favorite artisans: A copper raku ceramic pinch bead by Duane Collins of Elements Pottery and a "Soul Sister" lampwork bead by Kelley Wenzel of Kelley's Beads.

Instead of attaching a traditional clasp, I made an adjustable slide closure with a strand of soft suede lace and a large-hole copper bead. Can you see how I did that there? It's really simple to do. I ended my beading with two sterling rings that I fed the suede lace through. Then, I strung the large hole bead onto both ends of the suede. Lastly, I made sure I could slip my hand through the bracelet before finishing the suede off with a couple of knots.

Summer Bliss

When I received my ice cream cone pendant from Melanie of Earthenwood Studio for the design team challenge, it immediately brought to mind fun outdoor activities, laughter and happy times. It made me think of all my favorite things to do in the Summertime. For me, the best part of Summer is enjoying the warm weather and doing fun things like going to the beach, walking along the boardwalk eating ice cream, playing carnival games at a Summer fair, riding a roller coaster or two, eating an ice cream cone....that's after the roller coaster, and maybe a few rounds of mini golf! And...did I mention eating ice cream on a cone? Somehow, you can NOT do any of these Summer activities without ice cream being involved. It's the epitome of Summer and fun times. I love Summer and I love ice cream and who doesn't, right? It's pure bliss!

Here is the necklace I made with Melanie's pendant. I call it "Summer Bliss" and I would totally wear this doing the above mentioned activities and have a ball doing it.

"Summer Bliss"

Ice Cream Cone Pendant: Earthenwood Studio.

Ceramic Mermaid Beads: Gaea.

Happy Summer! 

Now, check out what the rest of the design team did with their ice cream...



Andrew ThorntonGaea Cannaday Denise Yezbak MooreErin Prais-Hintz Heather PowersLorelei Eurto Lori AndersonJean Yates Marie Dodd Guest Designers:   Michelle Mach and Amy Sprite   

Nora

Just wanted to share some cute pictures we took of Nora today. We often find her in her crib like this in the morning for the past few weeks. She's getting good at rolling over from her back to her belly now and holding her upper body up. She didn't used to like being on her stomach at all, but now she seems to enjoy it. Oh, she's also sitting up on her own, too! It's exciting watching her develop...