*Finally* Finished My Four-Fold Breath Strand

[qos]

A month (or more?) ago, I decided to create a very traditional kind of bead strand: one to help me keep track of my meditation. Part of my practice is to do four-fold breathing for five minutes to start and end my sessions -- but trying to keep track of the time isn't conducive to actual meditation. So I created a bead strand with twenty sets of three semi-precious stones and one hematite, with a medallion and a focus bead to mark the start and the halfway point.

My first attempt gave me fits because I kept cutting the wire to the wrong length and so was not able to actually secure the crimp beads. When I finally got the crimp beads secure, I found I'd left too much slack, so there was almost an inch of space between the beads. I put it away for what turned out to be a month, and when I picked it up again I did not like my original color scheme. What was supposed to have been brightly elemental looked like Mardi Gras beads.

So this evening I re-did the entire strand. The colors are tiger eye, subdued green-brown, and a dark purple, still with hematite. The brightly-colored halfway point stone has been replaced with a large black rose bead. The spiral medallion is the same. This one finally feels right.

Unfortunately, because of the dark colors, it doesn't photograph well, but people asked for a photo the last time I wrote about this.

Comments

[oakmouse]

Oh, very nice work! *admires*

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh, VERY nice!!!

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

I like. Does it work for you? I always feel awkward running a strange like through my hands, like I need a separator bead between each one.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

There's just enough slack in the strand to allow maybe a quarter of an inch between the beads, allowing me to 'move' them between my fingers. We'll see how that works. The strand is already about a foot long, and adding spacer beads, even small ones, would make it pretty long. I'm going to try it for a few nights -- but if it feels awkward, then I'll probably do a test strand with spacers.

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

So, after another book telling me that the four-fold breath is an excellent centering exercise, I have totally nicked your idea. Don't hate me because I'm a copycat. Seriously, though, it's a brilliant idea and, I have to say, the strand I came up with is beautiful, so I thank you for the inspiration!

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see your strand sometime!

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

Here you go! http://watcher457.livejournal.com/143052.html#cutid1

[rainstardragon.livejournal.com]

You call that not photographing well?

I absolutely love how the darker colors flow into each other. Very... flowing. I honestly can't come up with any other word in this case, except maybe serpentine... or undulating. But those don't quite fit either. Not for just ONE word anyway.

[margoeve.livejournal.com]

BEAUTIFUL!