August/September BJP

For August/September I have chosen to celebrate the sea deities throughout the world - particularly Iemanja and Aphrodite.  I got this glass shell bead awhile back and was inspired by the idea of a shell washed up onshore filled with seawater, bits of seaweed, pebbles, and other ocean bits.  I used some fibers threaded through the shell bead, tied off at the ends with various small beads.  I used a mix of glass seed beads, amazonite chips, freshwater pearls, and larimar chips.  So there's my oceanic shell on the shore pendant! (posted for Jillian)

June/July BJP

For the months of June and July I decided to create a bracelet inspired by the Aztec goddess Chalchiuhtlicue - "She of the Jade Petticoats"  Quite a few technical difficulties were encountered in crafting this bracelet.  Though it's more-or-less wearable I will probably redo it at some point in the future.  At any rate, I used hemp cord in blue and green, various colors of various beading thread, size 08 glass seed beads, rectangular jade beads, and a couple of turquoise nuggets.  I added the turquoise because "chalchiuh" in Nahuatl refers to any bluish-green stone - jade, turquoise, or serpentine.  In "Bancroft's Works"  her name is defined as meaning "petticoat of water, of a shade between green and blue"  So in my bead and fiber choice I used green, blue, and turquoise shades.  In one picture I posed the bracelet next to a somewhat battered Talavera frog, since Chalchiuhtlicue was associated with frogs! (Posted for Jillian Texeira)

May !

For May I have made the Fairy Queen's Herb Pouch!  This little bag is stitched from batik fabric and adorned with glass beads, Swarovski crystal, prehnite, and peridot.  The fringe on the bottom is meant to be representative of a creek running through a mossy woodland lit by unfolding Spring leaves.  I added browns to the creek beads because I realized most creeks here have brown shades from the stones and soil underneath the water.  The blues and greens are reflections of the leaves and sky, and of course some clear ones as well for the ripples of water.  For this project I was influenced by some of the embellishments in Laura McCabe's "Embellished Beadweaving" book.  I used the branched fringe, and spiral rope with drop beads on the top hanger part.  The rest I sort of made up, but I think the book inspired me in those!  To give an idea of scale the matte seed beads in the moss fringe are size 11s.

March/April BJP

With Spring upon me I was unable to choose just one Springtime deity, so I decided that this project would be for all Spring goddesses and gods! Since it also took longer I made it for both March and April. It's a multistrand necklace with colors inspired by the many green shades of this season, accented by occasional wildflower hues. I used different sizes of glass seed beads, from 11 to 6, small Swarovski crystals, and gemstone beads of jade, peridot, serpentine, green kyanite, seraphinite, prehnite, citrine, and green tourmaline. Included in one of the pictures is the Pestemon heterophyllus that inspired the combination of purple and blue in one part of my necklace!
(posted for Jill)

Bridget's Mantle

For February I chose to represent Bridget's Mantle.  I wasn't going to use this Goddess, since She featured in last year's February project, but here She is anyway!  Since Her mantle is an important part of both Her Christian and Pagan mythology I chose to just render it.  I used some of the batik fabrics left over from last year's projects.  I even left the inner lining fabric out on Imbolc Eve to be blessed by Her!  The beads I used are almost all glass, except for the peridot chips on the front, and the metal knot bead that is used for the clasp.  I used some branched fringe (one of my first attempts!) on the front  and I was happy with the way it looked.  The design on the back depicts a manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.) branch with flowers.  Many manzanitas bloom at this time of year and I associate their honey-scented white to pink blossoms with Bridget.  This one probably won't work as a pendant, but it might work on an altar!

2011 Bookmark Challenge

From March 17 - April 28, you can join in the Needle & Thread: Stitching for Literacy challenge and stitch a bookmark that will be donated to a library or school during Children's Book Week. Read the details here to find out where to submit your bookmarks.

I thought this was pretty cool! I have bunches of patterns for stitched bookmarks. I'm going to dig some out this weekend and stitch a couple. I haven't done any cross stitch for so long I'm afraid I might have forgotten how!

Woden in Winter

This year I've decided to create smallish (probably no more than about 3"x3") little beaded things that can be made into pendants if I so desire.  That's kind of vague, I know, but I think I'll really enjoy this kind of loose format.  The theme of these objects will be to represent a goddess or god from some belief system (probably mostly Celtic and Germanic Pagan, but certainly not limited to such!)  Sometimes the representations will be more literal than others (an actual figure) but sometimes not.  I'll just have to see where the shiny beads inspire me to go!

So, for January I've chosen to represent Woden (called Odin in Scandinavia) I used a small (about 2 1/2" long) piece of an ash tree (Fraxinus latifolia) as a base for my image. I was inspired by the rather rough unhewn types of images the Northern European tribes were supposed to have used to represent their gods. Woden's shamanic aspects are emphasized here with his fringed cloak and ornaments. I also made a sort of hood on the upper part of the figure. The cloak is peyote stitched from size 11 seed beads and the stones I used are black onyx, larvikite, and labradorite.