Beltane Jewelry Pictures!

Finally finished with class for the day, and I’m not sure if I’ll get to posting too much the rest of this week. I have to finish two more term papers by Friday afternoon, and both are on the Cuban Missile Crisis. One is approaching it from a negotiation standpoint for my Conflict Analysis/Resolution/Negotiation course, and the other paper approaches from a security decision standpoint for my National Security Seminar course. Thus, I’ll know a LOT about the Cuban Missile Crisis and President Kennedy’s decision-making process by the end of the week. Let the sleepless nights commence! In the meantime, I’ve added lots of fun updates to the blog, especially in the music section, and finally set up some new links to organize the lyrics in case you can’t understand what I’m saying, or just want to take a gander at the CD insert that accompanied Old World back in the day. I’ve been practicing some of the newer songs I’ve written—many of which have been entries on this blog—and I plan on recording some of the new ones this summer so I can finally release the second CD I’ve been working on, and maybe even a third, before going to Air Assault school. Anyway, if you’re bored, go check it out!

As promised, below are some pictures of the jewelry I made this weekend in honor of Beltane. First, the necklace I made Saturday night, titled Venus Spring. I used pearlized white glass seed beads, silver wire, silver chain, tiger tail, pink freshwater rice pearls, clear faceted crystal beads, clear stone, and plastic sew-on rhinestones in various shapes and colors (I know, plastic gets a bad rap, but come on—they’re adorable). It’s a double-strap lariat tassel necklace, so it fastens in the front by threading the chains and stone drop through the beaded loop:

Next, we have a pair of earrings fashioned Sunday evening, which I’ve titled Fires of Beltane for their flame-like inspiration. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a very high quality photo, but I can’t wait to wear them out somewhere this week. I used orange glass seed beads, dark brown mother of pearl, amber-colored faceted crystal beads, copper wire, and gold and red Czech glass beads:

I made the bracelet next, inspired by the jingle dance and the healing powers of water. I used bright turquoise thread, pearlized sky-blue glass seed beads, blue Czech glass beads in sapphire and cerulean, and a little blue plastic sew-on rhinestone heart. It’s also a front-fastening toggle similar to the Venus Spring necklace, threading the big blue spherical bead on the one end through the beaded loop on the other. I call the bracelet Rain Heart:

Finally, allow me to present the choker I made late Sunday night when I should have been writing a paragraph on common radioisotopes present in nuclear fallout. This one is titled Black Rose, for the center piece is a black metal rose, which I added purple sparkles along the edges to accent. The choker is asymmetric in design, as you can tell from the photos. It fastens in the back with a bead toggle through a leather loop. I used purple, blue, and green suede cord as well as turquoise thread, pearlized colorless, sapphire, and sky-blue glass seed beads, sapphire Czech glass beads, a tiny shell, and a bit of silver fabric paint to coat the exposed thread and prevent breaking. It’s funky, it’s a little weird, and I adore it: