Posts Tagged ‘jewelry’

I’ve been thinking about making a beaded necklace for my akhu for a while now. One night, a week or so back, I got the compulsion and started digging through my stock to see what felt right. All I knew is that I wanted beads of roughly the same size.

I wound up with no bead repeated, beads “the color of laughter,” and some of my most treasured: lapis lazuli and turquoise. There are beads for my mom’s fiancé’s heritage and an amethyst and a grey-black stone bead as a nod to Nebt-het and Yinepu, as well as glass, painted wood, various other stone beads, cloisonne, and tiger’s eye.

It had turned into a bracelet, with even the gold and silver of the magnetic clasp alternating. And I love it.

Dua akhu!

(I know I’ve missed like three posts, but I’m going to hop in here and make up for the others later. :D)

I have talked about writing music and painting with and for gods before, but at the time, I had never set foot in the seductive manse of beadwork. I think it’s definitely time for me to discuss making sacred jewelry with and for my beloved Netjeru (Egyptian deities).

Myself, I adore the concept of religious and/or spiritual jewelry, especially of the daily-wear variety. I like having something on me to touch and see that reminds me of and connects me with my gods (or a particular ideal or myth or animal or… you get the point). My love gave me a necklace he made and had worn for years before we met, and I wear it every day; it’s a link to him and a representation of us together.

Currently, I also wear a silver lion’s-head ring (for Ma’ahes) every day, a single amethyst earring (for Nebt-het), and most days, either my scorpion talisman or the new scorpion necklace (for Serqet), as well as a pewter Sekhmet pendant. My sacred jewelry is very important to me, and so, it’s not a huge surprise that, once I figured out I might actually be able to craft things that did not look like a middle-schooler made them at summer camp, I wanted to make jewelry for my gods.

To date, I have made six pieces of a spiritual bend:

And I’ve got to say, this is really addictive, guys.

Much like writing a song or doing a painting for a deity, I get the same intuitive nudges on what fits and what doesn’t, the same instinctive yes/no reaction when I ask a question of “want this?” or “how about this?” that helps me flesh out and finish a piece. I have gone shopping in our local bead store and sent out an open invitation to my gods to let me know if They spot something They’d like. It’s an amazing and admittedly strange sensation, to know that I’ll get a very firm answer without having to trance, meditate, or be in ritual space. I couldn’t explain it if I tried, but I can’t complain: so far it’s resulted in a well-received finished piece of jewelry every time!

For my newfound love of beading, and also my slightly-less-new-but-still-immense love of paintings, I decided to open a wee Etsy shoppe to sell sigils, mythological paintings, and hand-made jewelry. My lovely partner, who has been making jewelry for far longer than I, has also contributed his time and craft to the somewhat thrilling project that we’re calling Mythic Curios. I even made a small website to explain the process of making the sigils and the magic behind them. Right now, my favorite part of that site is our Curio Archive, which has a running photographic list of all of our projects, including the ones that won’t appear on Etsy (such as personal projects and gifts).

I can’t wait for Mythic Curios to become a little more well-known – I’m really looking forward to folks wanting custom pieces for their specific gods (or just themselves!), because I adore making items to request! It’s a challenge and an adventure and a chance for me to interact with a new deity– or one I already know in a new way.

To encourage some conversation here, tell me about your own crafting or wearing of spiritual or otherwise meaningful jewelry! I’d love to hear stories and see photos if you’ve got ’em. :)

This post brought to you as part of the Pagan Blog Project.

Guys, this whole making-jewelry thing is kind of addictive. Just sayin’.

Necklace for Ma’ahes, the Living Lion, with a nod towards His Nubian Name of Apedemak:

Necklace for Serqet, Our Lady of Scorpions:

Dua Ma’ahes! Dua Serqet!

So, I don’t bead, right, but I sort of beaded, and this happened, and I pretty much adore it:

It’s for Hethert-Nut, the Gold of the Gods, the Starry Sky. The pendant is Blue John, a special kind of fluorite only found in Derbyshire in the UK, and was a gift from British friends years ago.

As a result of this necklace, I think I’ll be trying my hand at a lot more jewelry… =3

Dua Hethert-Nut!

I like doing art for my gods; I like being creative and listening until I can feel Their input. This weekend was particularly productive in terms of offerings for my Mothers.

For Nebt-het, I did a painting – this makes a complete set of paintings for the gods of my RPD! (Sekhmet is next, though I don’t yet have the skill to do what She wants done.) It’s a simple painting, and as usual, photographing metallics is a terrible idea; the colors and especially the backgrounds are much more subtle and dark in person, but this is the best I can do. I do like how it came out. (There’s a shinier version here if you’re curious!)

The symbols belong to Her other aspects; the red is Nit’s symbol, and the yellow is Seshat’s. Once I’ve gotten some face time with both of those deities, I’d like to do another painting with Them more fully present, but I need to know Them before I can paint them, so this will suffice for now. :)

…

For Hethert-Nut, I wanted something wearable. I love having jewelry that reminds me of my gods – I have a lion ring for Ma’ahes, a silver pendant for Sekhmet, and Serqet’s scorpion necklace. But I don’t have anything for Hethert-Nut or Nebt-het. With the help of my partner, who is both talented and experienced with making jewelry, I’m going to turn a rosary I got for Nebt-het into a wearable necklace, but that still leaves me lacking something for Hethert-Nut.

So, having no idea what I was getting into, I decided to create a pendant out of sculpey. Long story short, my partner helped me with the wire “skeleton” and was entirely responsible for weaving the cord and doing the beadwork (though I did pick out which beads to use with Hethert-Nut’s guidance). And I created and painted the pendant. It’s considerably larger than I expected, so it’ll only get ritual wear, not daily wear. And since I never quit while ahead, I’m already planning a much smaller pendant for daily wear that can be traded out on the necklace.

I love how this came out. I am, quite frankly, awed at how well the paint colors (chosen by Hethert-Nut in the store weeks ago) and the beads (picked from our existing stock) go together. They exemplify Her.

Dua Nebt-het! Dua Hethert-Nut!