ABS Ornament Blog Hop

Art Bead Scene hosts an annual ornament blog hop and I joined the party this year. Art Bead Scene is a blog for jewelry makers who use a lot of “art beads”, hand made beads, that is and there are some fabulous artists who create gorgeous beads of all kinds. Rules of the  hop: create an ornament for Christmas, Kwanza, whatever holiday you celebrate and use either a handmade component or hand made bead.

I’ve been disabled for over a year now and money is tight so I have been experimenting with making my own beads and components. This will be my very first polymer clay bead. eeeeks! But, nobody said the bead had to be perfect.

I’m not a big fan of Christmas and do not do a lot of decorating myself. I’m pagan and frankly, YULE is our holiday and it is one of the lesser celebrations of the year, not the biggest and grandest that Christmas has come to be. Many pagans have Christian family members. In fact, all of my children are Christian and celebrate Christmas. Only my grand daughter Jessie and her husband, Nick, are pagan and celebrate Yule with me. So, I do the gift thing like the rest of the world, for the kids and grands who are Christian,  but I do not get caught up in the madness of shoppin.

I’ll tell you about the reason for celebrating YULE. It’s the Winter Solstice. Most people do not notice, because it marks the season of snow and icy cold, but December 21/23 is the longest night of the year. The days have been progressively longer since the summer solstice and the dark time has taken precedence over the light. Ancient peoples noted this and Yule became a time of hope and promise. They got out the best of their winter stores and had a big feast because after the Solstice, the light would gradually reclaim the daytime hours. Yule was a promise of the return of the sun and after that the spring with its new shoots and new life.  It became a symbol of returning life of rebirth. Special gifts were given and the halls were filled with evergreens (also a symbol of eternal life) and holly and mistletoe with its sacred berries. One gift was given in honor of this birth/rebirth of the Oak King. It was always a special gift.  The lords and ladies of the land feasted the poor. I kept the tradition as my children grew. Their Yule gift was the one gift that would have meaning to them, not just a commercial gift, but one that showed I knew their heart.

Done with the preaching and teaching. On to my ornament experiments. I’ve been working with my grandsons on some clay ornaments that we are giving as gifts for Yule.,

I wanted a special pagan ornament for Nick and Jessie. I used one of the clay snowflake beads I made from polymer, a light blue, dusted with shiny white, and used only two sparkling Swarovski crystals because hope and promises sparkle and shine and drive back the dark.  The bead is not perfect, but  I learned a lot from making it.   I also made a pentagram out of wire. One of the legs is a little shaky but that makes it more dear because my little 3 year old,  Nicholas wanted to “help with the pliers” so there is lots of love there.   For a detailed meaning of the Pentagram, both pagan and Christian (NO, it is NOT a satanic symbol), check out this page.

snowflake bead

,

I’ve also made a special ornament for my daughter, Dawn, who loves to feed the birds even more than I do.   She takes great joy in their antics and that of her favorite squirrel.  Her ornament is a spoon filled with resin. I’m not sure if this fits the criteria because the whole ornament IS the component!    The background is a bird picture and there are letters that say “share with friends”.   There is a bit of bird seed embedded in the resin and a bird charm on the top.   To me, this embodies the true spirit of this season, whether you call it Christmas or Yule.   Sharing your bounty without fear  of the remaining dark days is BELIEF, that the bounty will continue and that your god/goddess  will provide all your sustenance no matter how dark the days to come.  She loves it and I think I will be making some more of them!

bird ornament

I sure had some fun with my “guys”,  making ornaments and thank Art Bead Scene for sponsoring this hop.   Now, I”m going to enjoy myself  even more and visit the other blogs.   I just know I’m going to see some beautiful ornaments.  So, grab a cup of hot chocolate with me and lets go see what the others have made.