Re-Making the Strand
Feb. 17th, 2009 08:25 pmI've re-made the prayer bead strand that broke.
It's not quite the same as it was before (aside from the fact that my finishing is never quite as elegant as my teacher's work).
The original strand had rose quartz to represent Inanna -- and while it worked within the artistic and energetic integrity of the piece, it didn't feel entirely right to me as a representation of Inanna. Her stone is lapis -- and she's far more fierce than rose quartz feels to me.
As it happens, I have a strand of lapis beads which my ex-husband gave me for Christmas years ago. It's been sitting on my Inanna altar since I put it up a few months ago, but not actually used. As I looked at the rose quartz beads this evening I realized that the lapis beads were about the same size. I brought them down, and yes -- they fit.
So I re-did the strand with lapis instead of rose quartz.
Except that I cut the tiger tail off too short to be able to double it back through the crimp beads to finish it, requiring me to cut another length and re-string the strand.
That's when I realized that the row of lapis seemed too intense, and the dark shade combined with the skulls and the wood beads to make the overall tone of the strand too dark. So I swapped out half the lapis for half the original rose quartz, alternating them. The contrasting colors seemed more Inanna-like than either solid color, and seemed to represent both the intense and the light energies better than either stone alone.
When I re-strung it this time, everything went together well. It still has all the elements my teacher included, as well as a bit more to make it fully mine.
I'll try to post a photo in the next day or so.
It's not quite the same as it was before (aside from the fact that my finishing is never quite as elegant as my teacher's work).
The original strand had rose quartz to represent Inanna -- and while it worked within the artistic and energetic integrity of the piece, it didn't feel entirely right to me as a representation of Inanna. Her stone is lapis -- and she's far more fierce than rose quartz feels to me.
As it happens, I have a strand of lapis beads which my ex-husband gave me for Christmas years ago. It's been sitting on my Inanna altar since I put it up a few months ago, but not actually used. As I looked at the rose quartz beads this evening I realized that the lapis beads were about the same size. I brought them down, and yes -- they fit.
So I re-did the strand with lapis instead of rose quartz.
Except that I cut the tiger tail off too short to be able to double it back through the crimp beads to finish it, requiring me to cut another length and re-string the strand.
That's when I realized that the row of lapis seemed too intense, and the dark shade combined with the skulls and the wood beads to make the overall tone of the strand too dark. So I swapped out half the lapis for half the original rose quartz, alternating them. The contrasting colors seemed more Inanna-like than either solid color, and seemed to represent both the intense and the light energies better than either stone alone.
When I re-strung it this time, everything went together well. It still has all the elements my teacher included, as well as a bit more to make it fully mine.
I'll try to post a photo in the next day or so.