Saturday, February 6, 2010

New Challenge at the PaganTeam Blog - Please Vote!



Entries are in and awaiting your votes at the PaganTeam blog. Quite the variety of Magickal items to choose from - I'll take one of each, please! See them all at:

Pagan Team Blog


The Challenge was to envision a piece that honors and celebrates the turning of the Wheel. My entry pictured above, is called Wheel of the Sky Colorwheel Necklace set. For the longest time, I was drawing a blank when I thought about what to do for this challenge. The Wheel of the Year encompasses so much - everything, in fact! How can that be distilled down to one piece?

Soooo... I started looking through my stash of pendant pieces. I thought I'd use up some stuff I already had, so the husband wouldn't tell me how many more pounds o'new stones I've brought into the house! Those of you are addicted to stones know exactly what I mean.

I had two possibilities, one a Tree of Life, one a sun/Zodiac with moon/stars on the reverse. I went through my beads, hoping for inspiration..... nothing for the challenge, but I managed to get sidetracked making the Love Collection and the Amethyst creations.

Finally, I decided that I wouldn't enter the Challenge. They'd do fine without me, right? Loads of creative people on that PaganTeam. Just look through the shop, if you need proof! http://www.etsy.com/shop/paganteam

Entries were due on Friday by midnight EST. I had a flash of creative inspiration while in the shower on Thursday morning(running water does that to me!). I sat down and started digging through my bead stash to find exactly what I needed. Had it all except cone bead caps. Started putting it all together - figured I could bead some cone-shaped caps if I had the need. A day of stringing & beading. The creation process went so smoothly - the worst problem was finding a needle to fit through all of the seed beads! My mind loved it, but my back didn't.

Finished the long necklace & decided it needed a companion to layer - or wear separately. So, I created that! Got my bead caps at Micheal's. Photographed & uploaded, cropped, wrote the description and listed on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=40127642

I think I had a couple minutes to spare! Had to edit, as I forgot the Paganteam blog link.

I'll try to get a better pic of the necklaces as worn, but I might have to wait for a day with better lighting.

Description from the Esty listing:

"The morninin sun is risin'
It's kissin' the day
Oh, the wheel in the sky keeps on turning,
Don't know where I'll be tomorrow."

~From the song: "Wheel in the Sky" by Journey

While free-associating for ideas for the Turning of the Wheel challenge, I kept hearing this song in my head. When I think of wheels turning, I think of moving forward in life, the Wheel of Fortune in tarot, a color wheel, the celebrations on the wheel of the year, and the dance of the stars overhead.

This pair of necklaces is my interpretation of those ideas. It's a blending of glass and natural stones, many shapes and textures blended through the spectrum on the color wheel. The colors of glass and natural stones are believed to give a variety of properties including protection, transmuting negativity, balance, the ability to see and prosper from new opportunites, and the ability to navigate changes with grace.

The longer necklace is 31" long with a variety of shapes of glass seed beads. It has a 1/2" woven seed bead bail attaching an antiqued silver Sun and Zodiac charm (charm is 3/4"). The reverse of the charm has a moon and stars. The clasp is a platinum plated lobster claw.

The shorter necklace is 22" long, with glass seed beads and Carnelian, Agate, Citrine, Peridot, Malachite, Fluorite, Turquoise dyed Howlite, dyed Chalcedony, Iolite, amethyst, Rose Quartz, Pink Tourmaline, Garnet, Glow-in-the-dark red/white glass heart, red velvet dyed quartz, yellow opal, lapis dyed howlite, dyed shell, red coral, and cherry quartz.The necklace is finished off with a silver-toned clasp in a sun/moon motif.

Check out other Paganteam items at: www.PaganTeam.Etsy.com
Search for other challenge pieces on Etsy with the tag 'turningchallenge'
Please vote for your favorite on our blog beginning February 6: http://paganteam.blogspot.com/

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