My partner is Cindy Cima Edwards and you can see her beautiful designs here:
This is what she sent me.
Quite a beady bag of goodies. The teardrop shape is a cat's eye glass pendant. It's always hard to photograph cat's eye and get all its wonderfulness. This close-up shot helps a little.
There's a strand of mahogany obsidian and a strand of crazy horse stone. Obsidian is a stone that's associated with Pluto ~ the Greek god of the underworld and keeper of hidden treasure.
It's said to be a grounding stone that can impart the strength needed to stand on your own convictions against any enemy (hidden or otherwise). Mahogany obsidian is said to have a gentle energy that grounds and protects its owner. It can be used for strength in times of need, for removing energy blocks, and giving new life to purposes and goals. (You knew I'd go straight for the woo-woo, didn't you??)
There's a legend about the crazy horse stone, which, of course, I must share. Crazy Horse received a black stone from a medicine man named Horn Chips to protect his horse, a black-and-white "paint horse" which he named Inyan (rock or stone). He placed the stone behind the horse's ear, so that the medicine from his vision quest and Horn Chips would combine; he and his horse would be one in battle.
This is not the stone that Inyan wore into battle. It's actually a form of limestone that's been coated with resin. I'm guessing it's called crazy horse stone after Crazy's Horse "paint" horse.
Cindy added some Vintaj brass chain, which I'm showing here with the crazy horse stone. Cool, huh?
She also enclosed a Vintaj brass filigree flower... or perhaps something that grew where the Lakota went to battle? Those are Czech faceted bronze beads below it, next to the cat's eye.
There's the cat's eye teardrop again, and me struggling to catch its luster.
Here's a cool toggle clasp. It's Vintaj brass, and it's resting comfortably beside some Swarovski crystals and fresh water potato pearls.
Here are the pearls and crystals together. Quite a luxurious color.
And there are my faceted beads and the medallion.
And finally, the mahogany obsidian, the crazy horse stone, and the chain.
I loved hearing about the meanings etc behind the beads - looking forward to seeing what you create!
ReplyDeleteVery lovely soup!
ReplyDeleteThat teardrop GLOWS! Love it. And don't forget, you don't have to use all the beads in one piece and can make as many as you like!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful gemstones. So many possibilities here. Have fun.
ReplyDeleteWhile the bead soup is indeed gorgeous, what struck me is how wonderful you wrote about each item! I enjoyed reading your post!
ReplyDeleteVery beautiful! Have fun - Patti is right, you've put so much soul in the description of item... Lovely post. Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteDitto to all the comments. You have brought the beads and charms to life....as always. Can't wait to see what you do with them. Thanks
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely mix, and what wonderful anecdotes about the stones. Especially the story about Crazy Horse.
ReplyDeleteGreat mix and a wonderful blog post. Can't wait to see what you make.
ReplyDeleteWow! I loe the way you presented the beads for the blog hop and can't wait to see what you create. I've just been hopping around to all of the participants. I'll be back.
ReplyDeleteWow! I loe the way you presented the beads for the blog hop and can't wait to see what you create. I've just been hopping around to all of the participants. I'll be back.
ReplyDeleteLove the mix and the stories too. I might need to find a stone for our horses:)
ReplyDeleteYou got some beautiful stones to play with, I'm sure it'll be a breeze coming up with something awesome to do with them. I can't wait to see what you come up with for the BSBP!
ReplyDeleteLove the earthy tones. See ya on blog hop day.
ReplyDeleteA gorgeous soup, I look forward to your reveal :) x
ReplyDelete