March Zodiac Bottle~~Pisces~~

This picture is a few of them on my back gate. I DO have all twelve in stock.


Here's a bit about the Fishy People:
Pisces goes from about 21 February to about 20 March, depending on Sidereal or Tropical Zodiac.

March's Birthstones can be Bloodstone, a red and green type of Jasper and Semiprecious Gemstone, or Aquamarine, a Precious Gemstone.
Aquamarine is Latin meaning "water from the sea". It's a Blue, Green, Green-Blue or Blue-Green transparent stone. It was said to protect Sailors and to calm the temper.

Bloodstone is a dark Green with Red spots of Iron Oxide.It was used by the Babylonians to make seals and amulets.



Mysterious and alluring individuals, most Pisces are extremely talented, but even though they are gifted in many ways, they still manage to spend most of their lives battling "confusing" conditions.

This mirrors how Pisceans are frequently torn between two pathways in life, or actually do live two very different existences at the same time.
Of all the signs of the zodiac, Pisces are the ones who end up in the most muddles over the years of their lives. They fantasize about situations, people and particularly romance - and because they spend so much time in their own form of 'fantasy land' this can catch them short in other more worldly areas.
One thing that plays havoc with your life is romance. When things romantically are going well for you, you are on cloud nine. When romance turns sour you land in a heap. Pisces often need to take lots of holidays (or time off) to recover from life's many diverse pressures. You are the zodiac's most sensitive sign, so you need to take extra special care of yourself.
Nobody can beat you up, as much as you can beat yourself up within your own mind. In your purest form you are psychic, visionary and a guiding light to all who know you. But, in your "out of tune" state, you become depressed, obsessive and confused.
They are to be found leading the field in many diverse areas of life and many Pisces can be found represented amongst top business millionaires. On the other side of the coin, prisons, reform schools and all kinds of institutions statistically hold a high number of Pisceans too. 

Life Pursuit: To avoid feeling alone and instead feel connected to others and the world at large.
Pisces Secret Desire: To live their dreams and turn fantasies into realities.

This bottle is crammed full of Semiprecious and Precious Gems. The Pisces bottle has Amethyst, Chrysoprase, Fluorite, Green Tourmaline, Labradorite, Moonstone and Opal. 

When I have Aquamarine in stock I will include it as well as Albite, if it's available for less than my Spleen, and Sugilite. Each bottle varies as to the gemstones, but they will all be represented as well as I can. There can be 3MM bicones to chips to larger orbs.

Zodiac Bottles ~~ Pest of the Month

Actually not really a pest, but there's an exterminator service what always has a "Pest of the Month" on it's sign out front and I can't help but cheer when we go by...I mean really how often do Swarming Termites get a cheer?!

Aha! this is them:
http://www.griggsbrowne.com/

And their pest of the month is Tick.

Hooray for Tick!!! See wasn't that easy?!

Ahem... 

Back to our regularly scheduled post...

Zodiac Bottles. There's twelve. One for each sign of the Zodiac from Aries to Pisces.

The below chart shows the Birthstones for each one, both Traditional and Modern.

This is the whole lot of the Zodiac Bottles that are in stock:

I'm going to start with Aquarius because it's the beginning of February. February's Birthstone traditionally is Amethyst.

Amethyst is a lovely purple gemstone that the Greeks used to prevent drunkenness. With Pan, Bacchus and Maenaeds running about I could certainly see why...

They were known to have a wild time...

Here's what I've got to say about Aquarius:

The dates for Aquarius are January 20-ish to February 20-ish, depending on the type of Zodiac you use: Sidereal or Tropical. The Sidereal system uses fixed stars whilst the Tropical uses the Vernal Equinox. There's a difference of  1.4 Arc Degrees per century.

Aquarius is regarded as the Zodiac Leader because ready or not, the New Millenium and the Age of Aquarius (Not going to sing the song from Hair), it is the sign of a Trendsetter for the Future.

Aquarius is a Philanthropic sign and these qualities will be highlighted in the days to come.

"Those born under the sign of Aquarius not only march to a different drummer, they make up new music as they go along. They are 'mind oriented' individuals, whose thoughts never stop tick-tocking over. Because of their high focus on intellectual exploration, many inventors, eccentrics and highly original trailblazers are born under this sign.

most Aquarians are extremely humanitarian and often involved in social programs that assist others. They can also be objective in judgement, for they never let their emotions get in the way. Outgoing and amiable, Aquarians attract friends wherever they go and those whom Aquarians befriend have their unswerving loyalty."

Aquarians are the zodiac's most mysterious and unusual people - and no two are anything alike, like snowflakes. 

Aquarians usually have strong political, environmental or social beliefs which goes right along with their philanthropy. 

An Aquarians Life Pursuit is To understand life's mysteries and their Secret Desire is to be Unique and Original

My Zodiac Bottles are crammed full, at least as much as humanly possible, with gemstones, both precious and semi precious.

Precious Gemstones are Diamond, Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby.Semi precious includes almost everyone else like Amethyst, Tourmaline, Citrine, Garnet, Peridot, Quartz, Fluorite and Moonstone. Some consider real Jade and Opal as precious because of their rarity.

The Aquarius Bottle has Aquamarines, Garnets, Labradorite, Lapis Lazuli, and Opal. They range from 3MM faceted bicones to larger chips and spheres. Each one is different depending on what I have available at the time. 

Also aligned with Aquarius are Fossils, Jet, Chrysoprase. If I can come across these, I would add them too.

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