fertile

are you ripe to plant the seeds of Love?


to live the life of balance?


to nurture these things,


help them grow 


and send them out into the world?

simple

'everything should be made as simple as possible,

but not simpler.'

~ albert einstein

we had a family function this weekend and my mama needed jewelry... she is fair with red hair - i love her in copper... isn't it funny how you can do lots of things to a piece of metal and have it look so simple? 

decided here to put the color in the leather rather than the focal... 

and having just purchased a bracelet mandrel, i had to make something round... i wear a bracelet that i bought from barbara lewis that my mom has been eye-balling since i got it... so now she has one... have a feeling i will be playing with the mandrel for a while... see that gorgeous raku bead? that was made by mak of maku studio... 

we saw 2 movies last week - 'inception' and 'scott pilgrim vs. the world' at midnight... 

trying now to focus and settle my brain - i have entirely too many things swirling around and need to pick a place to start... 

duality

'every one is a moon,

and has a dark side he never shows to anybody.'

- mark twain

this 'duality' necklace started with the raven bead from mak of maku studios... it had a mythical feel to me, as the raven has been surrounded by legends for centuries and from all over the globe... even carl jung wrote about this bird... unfortunately, the raven often gets a bad rap due to its superior job performance in the natural world as a scavenger... 

the norse god odin had two ravens that accompanied  him at all times... in welsh lore the raven is associated with wisdom... but i love the stories about how the raven brought light when it left the darkness of the cosmos... the light of understanding... and from this, jung came up with his teachings of the raven representing the shadow self, or dark side of the psyche... our dark sides must be acknowledged and examined in the light of our conscious selves... there we find balance...  

the center two rings of the pendant represent coming full circle in understanding... the spiral of the infinite, a beautiful bead by mary ann at linden avenue designs (all glass in this piece by mary ann) & a shimmering piece of labradorite which is thought to enhance clarity of thought... from there we find another glass bead by mary ann that you can see into the depths of ... a white crackle raku bead to counter the dark raku disc and glass on the other side... and a hammered, antiqued sterling blank with 'self' imprinted upon it... reminding us that all facets of the self must be acknowledged to be complete...

a breast cancer awareness bracelet made in sterling with rhodonite and ceramic... the words hope, love and believe are stamped on sterling discs... believe has a fluttering butterfly on it, representing the growth & change that only a struggle can provide us with...