Twice as Nice Bloghop

Welcome! It’s the 14th Bead Soup Café blogger/non blogger challenge and the first one I’ve joined. this one is sponsored by Toltec Jewels. We’ve got 2 palettes to design from for a not so typical Christmas in July hop.   Check them out.  I love both of them!

I’m not crazy about Christmas.  As a pagan, YULE is my winter celebration.   For pagans, Yule is one of the lesser holidays, not at all like Christmas which is a HUGE deal!   Even so, it has a lot of meaning.   Yule celebrates the longest night of the year, a turning point.   We know that even though the coldest part of the winter is yet to come, after Yule, the Long Night,  the nights begin to get shorter and the days begin to get longer, a few minutes every day.  It marks the beginning of the end of the “dark season” and it’s a time of great hope and the promise of spring to come.

In older times, the choicest of the winter stores would be taken out and used for the winter feast as a token of faith that the Lord and Lady would see you through the lean times ahead, a symbol of your belief in the promise of the spring and summer to come, when once again fresh food would be in abundance for all.  Even though your winter stores were getting lower and the game animals were finding it hard to feed themselves and becoming scarcer, that feast would happen.   These days, we don’t have to worry about such things but we still celebrate Yule.  It marks our faith that through any dark times, we will be sustained.   Yule is a happy festival and besides having good food and gathering with good friends, you want to give a special gift to those you care about…….one gift, not a shower of presents like Christmas…..one gift that means something.

First, how about a little mood music?   Here’s a tune that has been used hundreds of times to represent witchery in all kinds of movies and television scores……Carmina Burana.   The video is pretty cool also.  If you have time to watch and not just listen while you scroll.   It has a joy about it that reflects the season.  It’s a beautiful rendition of Carmina Burana and by far my favorite “Flashmob” video!

 

I really was drawn to that first palette.   I like that nature theme and while I like the colors in both palettes, the nature theme seems more wintery to me.  I pulled some colors from that first picture for most of my pieces.   I like the fact that is not all red and green like the usual Christmas colors.  There are browns and greys and blues and lots of white/silver for the snow.  And the red and green are more natural, not the glaring brights of the ho ho ho Christmas.   I did take that red color a couple of shades darker but I still think it works.   If you don’t agree…………well there’s plenty of snow to pelt me with a few snowballs.

First up, I made this locker hook bracelet  cuff.   I do love a cuff and the sari silk I had on hand seemed a good match.  I sewed on a a copper filigree then attached a piece of dichroic glass that I made way back when I first learned to make dichroics.  The gold in the sari silk is a bit festive and the copper has an earthy look I love.

 

 

Now for a necklace to go with that sari silk.   I had fallen in love with Badger Beads on Artfire.    The artist, Jayne LaRette is a fabulous and friendly lady of great talent.   This beautiful focal bead is the perfect match to the green in that palette AND, it came with 2 matching beads that would give me a pair of earrings.  Woot woot!   I made a faux four-in-one chain, used a copper  disc I hammered out and a bit of sari silk.   The bead can stand alone, it’s so pretty.   I makes a happy little tinkle sound against the disc.

 

copper necklace

 

I have to show you the bead up close

and the chain with the sari silk

and let’s not forget the earrings……

 

 

I was so excited about the beads I saw in Jayne’s shop, I wrote her a note with the order.  We are guild sisters on Artfire and I like to share my guild sister’s work.   I told her in the note that the bead was going to be my focal and I was so excited about this hop and blabbered on.  I guess I got her excited also because she sent me another bead as a gift and told me to play with it.   PLAY with it!   My favorite words!  And gift!   What a wonderful gesture!   If you get a chance, check out her studio on Artfire or visit her Facebook page and say hello.

This focal bead is such a deep beautiful midnight blue, its perfect to symbolize the Long Night.  I do hope you can see the swirls of antique gold in   I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it until I was listening to some Celtic music that just happened to have a lot of bagpipes.  Well, what is a festival without music and bagpipes?   EH?  (that’s the cue for some more mood music folks, get ready!)

 

While the colors in this piece are not in this palette, I still needed a Yule gift, so thought I was justified in digressing just a little.   I used antique brwass wire.   Trying to get over my Fear of Fiber, I thought I would add some plaid fabric for a woodsy tartan………just a bit.  This called for a some simple work to really focus on the beauty of the bead.   I almost think this could be a unisex piece with the leather cord.

bagpipe necklace

 

and let’s take a closer look at that bead with its gorgeous deep blue and swirls of gold and iridescence……woooooot  I’m having fun now!!!

 

 

Okay, I’m back to the palette on this next piece.   I pulled out the grey and blue from the wolves and shadows, used a bit of silver for the sparkle of the snow and that woodsy reddish brown.   My little goddess is the focal.   She is Sister Red Star, made from red tiger’s eye and red jasper.   Jasper is a protective and nurturing stone and tiger’s eye helps you make right decisions.   Her energy is the sparkle of a red star in the dark night sky…..a beacon, urging you to forge ahead, the Road is clear.  Trust in the protection of your guides and your instincts.  Her beads are pietersite, a playful stone that helps you pull a childlike quality from deep within.  The energy of the piece is perfect to see you through the rest of a dark cold winter or the dark cold times of your life.

that is a lousy picture of those beautiful beads of brown and bluish grey but it’s too late now…..sigh……

Oh, I’m getting way too deep here, let’s lighten up a bit.    I did want to make something in the second palette with all those beautiful colors.   I found some perfect beads from Spawn of Flame on Artfire.   Look at these beauties!   They are lampwork in that beautiful watery blue green with rivers of silver running through them.   Rosemarie calls them Little Sirona.  Sirona was a Celtic goddess of healing springs who had numerous shrines around sulphur springs and wells .  I thought she would be a perfect “woodsy” goddess for this palette so I created these little “rain chain” earrings.  What a perfect gift for someone in need of healing energy or who wants some bubbly energy from flowing springs.

I think I like the shorter pair the best

 

 

Almost as an afterthought, I made these wreaths, pulling only the green and red from the first palette.   They are traditional Christmasy, yes?

 

Okay, that’s all for me today.   Please stop by and see Rita from Toltec Jewels who is our hostess for this hop!  Thanks Rita fir such a fun challenge!

 

1. Toltec Jewels
2. Renetha Stanziano – www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com
3. Dini Bruinsma –  http://angazabychanges.blogspot.nl
4. Tammy Adams – http://www.paisleylizard.com/blog.html
5. Blanca Medina – http://www.peru-medesigns.com
6. Chris Eisenberg – www.wanderware.blogspot.com
7. Krafty Max – http://kraftymax.blogspot.com
8. Robin Kae Reed www.willowdragon.blogspot.com
9. Kathy Lindemer  – Bay Moon Design
10. Marde Lowe – www.fancimardesigns.blogspot.com
11. Andrea Glick- http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/
12. Lee Koopman  http://stregajewlley.wordpress.com
13. Natalie Davidson — NorthShoreDays.com
14. LiliKrist – http://pcbylik.blogspot.com/
15. Lori Anderson  www.PrettyThings.com
16. Tami Norris
17. Klaudete Koon
18. Ginger Hammond www.facebook.com/lynnleighdesigns
19. Kathleen A Breeding http://99bobotw.blogspot.com/
20. Veralynne Malone www.veradesigns.blogspot.com
21. Shalini Austin – http://jewellerybyshalini.co.uk
22. Sheila Prose-http://catswithbeads.blogspot.com