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.

More jewelry.

I had a necklace that I made up a couple of years back...it was alright...I liked it and all, but when I went to relist it, I felt that it needed something else...but what...
https://www.etsy.com/listing/55463317/multicolor-autumn-leaf-necklace

I dragged out my favourite skein of yarn...oooo...yeah, that might do it.  This yarn is my favourite one EVAH!! It has wine and rust and pine and it's just really wonderful and fall-ish.

Then how to attach it...I wrapped, didn't like that, then tried a few more things..nothing was doing it for me. Then I was like AHA!!


I make Dream Catchers! Duh!! I can try THAT!! It worked perfectly, except for me wrapping myself, the wire, the table, the gluegun, basically anything within a 5 mile radius. I cut the yarn long enough that I wouldn't hafta stop half way through and add more cuz that would screwed me up even more...As it WAS, it took me HOURS to get it right, at least right for ME!

This is what it looks like now:

I really like it now even better. What do you all think?

My actual NEWEST necklace is more, I guess, springy, but it would be fine for any season too.

So it looks like the Irish Flag...deal...

I AM an Orangeman...well, I would be if I was a Christian anyways. I just liked the Colours together. I actually bought the orange beads to go with some Snowflake Obsidian focals I bought. But DS didn't like it together...I think he said something like too Halloween-y. pfft.

I had a bitch of a time finding Snowflake Obsidian beads! I actually bought some off Etsy. The gal's name is Oceanbeads. Nice things too. I got Turquoise Hearts, Hematite Stars, Dalmation Agate Orbs, Snowflake and Regular Orbs so I'm happy...Now I hafta sit and make something with them. Got plenty of ideas rolling about in my empty cranium.

We'll speak again soon...

Still on a Jewelry Binge...

It's me again...yeah, it's been quite a while...so sorry bout dat. 


Still having the Jewelry Bug nibbling at my brain stem like Mynocks chewing on power cables.

Aren't they too cute? Ahggoooo!!! Ummm...right moving right along...


This one is a Collaborative Effort with SageHealer. I got the Clay Thunderbird Focal, the BlueLaced Agate and the "Turquoise" from her.  She was going to use the Pendant for something but it didn't quite do it. So I snagged it. The whole thing came out pretty good, I think. I used fake leather to macrame the  beads into the necklace. 

Then there was the Native American Forum Team Challenge. It was the Circle of the Year, of Life etc.

The Focal in this one was Black Lipped Abalone that I snagged from Aneurythm's shop. It's carved with Circles in a Spiral Pattern. It also has AB Glass and Clear Glass Beads along with Shell Beads and some sort of clay/resin beads with teeny itty bitty beads in em. This is a really beautiful piece too.

DH actually thought I had bought it, which is high praise indeed.

I also actually found the focal for the Cobalt and Copper Cathedral Beads that I had gotten from Diana of LunaEssence. I actually bought it off Ebay (boo hiss)This has Navy Blue Ceramic Beads also.

These are the same Amber Glass Beads that I used in the Contradiction in Terms necklace. Just a complete difference between the two using basically the same beads. Amazing isn't it?

I got the Rhodonite Focal from Diana at the same time as I got the Kambaba Jasper and the Cathedral Beads. I found the Purple Ceramic Beads at one of the craft stores and they went really well, I think.
There's also Green AB Bicones, and Sterling Spacers. I made earrings and a bracelet also.

There's plenty more things I've done, but I'll stop here...There'll be plenty of time to show more goodies...

I've been on a jewelry kick...

Last time I was here I was bitching about my lack of headpins...well, I took care of that matter and finished up the bracelet/anklet/necklace. It could be any of those...I used a silver chain with a black coating which was then diamond cut, adding sterling findings for the end. The bears are a resin, with black glass seed beads, silver headpins, and silver spacers and silver crimps.

This is the end result:

Artaios: The Bear King:

And I got the focal for this necklace as an extra goodie when I ordered from Luna Essentials on Etsy.

The focal is ceramic, the beads are pearl and Keltic style plastic beads and glass seed beads. I named it Mefusen, the Welsh name for Strawberry. Because that's what the colours reminded me of.

And I made earrings to match with the beads that I had left over:

I also made THIS one for the Pagan Team Spring Challenge. I bought a couple of Bone Arrowhead and didn't know what I was going to do with them, until then.
It's called Mitakuye Oyasin which is Lakota for "Everything is Related."
I also made a bracelet to go along with it and it hasn't really left my arm since I made it.
They're made of cowries, buri nuts, lava rocks, and wood beads.
I made a similar necklace which I posted on my new Artfire shop...this one had an adjustable piece of wood for the main part of the necklace, which came from Aneurythm's Etsy shop. You can even see my brand new pacemaker scar in this one...
This was my first Artfire sale and it went to a gal in Washington, DC who was going to wear it doing tribal dances...way cool.

Then I went and got some Kambaba (Crocodile) Jasper from Luna Essence...it was different, but I had no idea what I was going to use it with...this seems to be a major feature of this adventure...

Then I found some neat black glass twist beads on clearance at Michael's, green and black dyed Buri nuts, and gold spacers. It came out really nice. I named it Osiris in Khemet. Because Osiris (Ausur) was known as a Fertility God and was pictured with a green face. Khemet is the Egyptian name for the country. I made a set out of this bunch of odds and ends also.

I sold the matching earrings and the earrings to Mefusen to the same customer. She was waiting patiently for me to make them.

This one is made with Blue Tiger's Eye, black pearls and dark metal findings. I bought the Blue Tiger's Eye from Luna Essence. I had to go back and buy more because I fell in love with this necklace. And thank the Gods, she had more.

This one I made about the same time as the Circle Challenge one. I had bought a choker when I had gone to Disney way the Hades back in 86. I added a pair of sterling turtles, and a carved shell turtle. It's lovely actually.
My most recent piece is glass and more glass in Amber and Silver.

Another project sponsored by Luna Essence.

Right now I'm waiting on some items from Aneurythm and from Blue Rose Beads and another one from Ebay...I've been trying to match some Gold and Cobalt/Navy blue Window beads that i got from Luna Essence and have not been having an easy time of it.

This little tiki guy from BlueRose and the little shells from Aneurythm will make up part of my Metaphysical Team Summer Challenge piece.

This is for the blue glass windows.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=360196150496&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_1510wt_922

I couldn't get the picture to come up, but at least you have the idea...I THINK I do...hehe

Trying to be a good doobie.

I'm helping a friend out with a hand up. I met her on a Cowboys Prayer, an EZBoard/YUKU site I've been on since forever...I'm the resident Pagan and there's an Atheist too...but we all have fun, get along and try and help each other out.

Her husband died in May of last year. And since I allegedly sell on Etsy, she asked if I could try and sell some of her husband's chokers. I said sure. I only have 20 cents to lose.

My Gods. John did beautiful work.

I got a bit of information about him so that I could better understand him and his work. He was 1/4 Choctaw Indian. His grandmother was 1/2. But all the papers were lost in a fire. Dang. Way back when interbreeding was frowned upon. But still!

He was a Swabbie. He was sent off to the lovely jungle playground called Viet Nam where he got to play with that wonderfully carcinogenic delight Agent Orange. He died from diabetes probably caught from that silly chemical...pfft.
He managed 3 years over there without getting his ass shot off. Hoorah!

Came home and became a smoke eater at Fort Hood. When he retired, the family moved to Macon Georgia. I did a bit of snooping to get some of this information. I had his first name, last name from FB, and address from his wife's package. But I wanted a bit more...so I did a google search. And I came across this...

http://marinemajorone.blogspot.com/2010/05/john-julius-irwin-iii-us-navy-veteran.html

By the end of it I was bawling. I am proud of all of our fighting men and women.

These are his goodies that I want to share with folks:

All of them:

Turquoise and Bone Hair Pipes with Silver

Unakite Chips with Bone Hair Pipes

Faceted Garnet, Black Jasper and Tea Dyed Bone Hair Pipe

Rose Quartz, Silver, Black Buffalo Hair Pipe

Carnelian, Brass Beads, Black Buffalo Hair Pipe

Turquoise, Silver, Black Buffalo Hair Pipe
Carnelian, Brass, Dyed Blue Bone Hair Pipe

Turquoise, Carnelian, Bone Hair Pipe and Black Buffalo Hair Pipe
My fave. Lapis Lazuli and Silver:
According to Tradition, the amount of strands the choker each had meaning also:
1=One God
2=Affirmation
3=Completeness
4=Earthly Situations/Seasons/The Four Directions.
5=God On Top
6=Human Accomplishment
7=Spiritual Perfection
8=New Beginning

George Catlin, the Painter famous for his Native American portraits did one of a chief way back in the 1840's who was wearing a 4 strand hair pipe choker.

Hair pipes were supposedly originally made from bird bones because they're hollow. Ewww. I know some tribes used to make flutes out of bird leg bones so what can I say...

Hair pipe beads can be found in coastal shell middens. And were made of bone or shell, now you can find them in the crafts stores made of plastic, or resin.

Chokers were supposed to protect the warrior's throat from knives and arrows and also if worn during a meeting, it was to show that the person would speak truly...

These days they're made from lots of different materials and styles like these by a couple of my Tsunali: Sweet Grass Valley, Dream Weaver Spirit, Lakota Witko, and Sirocco.

Lakota Witko
Lakota Witko
Sweet Grass Valley
Sirocco
Dream Weaver Spirit
Sweet Grass Valley Dream Weaver Spirit
Sirocco
If you do an Etsy Search for HairPipe Choker you come up with 3 pages...

Enjoy your looking.