Well that resolution certainly fell by the wayside...pfft.

But what can I say?! The best laid plans of Mice and Men soon go awry...sounds like it could be the right old saw...of course, there's always this one too.

I had said that I had wanted to advertise one item a week, yeah, well...obviously didn't happen.

But I'll jump right back in again...

So!!

Shall I get started??

Because it was around the Chinese New Year when I made this necklace, I named it "The Water Serpent."

2013's correspondence is the Black Water Snake and it's gonna be an Up and Down one. In Feng Shui, Water is a Female Element, but Snake is mostly Fire with a touch of Metal and Earth.

The Focal is a blown Glass Snake in Gold, Green and Clear.

The Beads are African Jade and  Dyed Freshwater Pearls.

The Colours are all wonderful and it came together like a dream.

Snakes have been symbols of Wisdom and Change for a very long time, even since before they were labelled "evil."

Until Mother's Day, next week, this item will be on sale in the HowlingCaterpillars shop on Etsy for 20% off with the coupon code blog1.

Now for something completely different...

I am gonna try something new. I'm going to pick an item from either of my shops and write about it. It could be a piece of Jewelry or a DreamWeb or something Vintage.

It will be on sale for a week, until it's the next item's turn. I'm hoping that it will showcase my work and that more folks will get to see and enjoy it and learn a little more about me also.

So! Here we go!!

This is the first item:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/66280997/circle-challenge-necklace-ooak-abalone

Our elder, our brother, our friend, who crossed the Veil just last month, one of the members of the Native American Forum thread on Etsy, used to give us "Challenges" to promote our creativity and to inspire us. This was one of the first Challenges and it was about the Sacred Circle.

This is what he said about it:

The Sacred Circle of life begins with the fire in the center, the birth, that spirals into the direction of the East for the protection of family while developing. Then life spirals to the direction of the South to learn how to play and to learn of the fairness of games in nature. Then we start our spiral to the direction of the West, where we learn competition and endurance for work and play.We then spiral to the direction of the North, where we learn the skills and knowledge to be a teacher and master of our abilities or trade. We continue to spiral until we reach our elder years as we return to the sacred fire of life, to begin again in the spirit world as ancestors.
This is the Sacred Circle of life that brings us the understanding and our connections with all things within the Circle.

There are all kinds of circles and spirals found in nature, from a raindrop to a shell, from the earth itself to the Fibonacci Sequence.

 

I found the focal pendant in Merry (Aneurythm's shop) and KNEW that was going to be part of my particular Challenge piece.

It's a Black lipped Abalone shell carved with what seems to me to be Moon Phases, Concentric Rings and a Spiral in the centre.

What a pretty creature. Abalones are used for their meat and for their beautiful shells. They're called Black Lipped or Brown Lipped because of the colour of the edges of their feet. They live in Australia (lucky things), from New South Wales to Western Australia and in the waters off Tasmania.  They stick to rocks and lurk in caves and crevices on reefs, hanging out and eating algae.

Most of the beads were in my stash. The only ones I actually bought especially for it were the Glass and the Shell ones.  It all came together so wonderfully. It's soothing like the ocean. I actually grew up on a  beach, and miss it a lot.
BB

For now until next Sunday, this necklace will be on sale for 20% off using the coupon code blog1.

Until then, have a great week.