Marilyn's Horn of Plenty!

Paterkillar Beaded Beads Necklace - $80.00
Eight beaded beads strung on a 32-inch leather string, each approximately 1 1/2 inches long. Interspaced between us are moonstone beads (13). This piece can be worn as a longer necklace, a choker, a bracelet. 2 blue and white, 2 turquoises and orange, 2 red and yellow and 2 purple and white- all on a black base.

Marilyn G of cigarboxbeads is a retired home Ec teacher from Seal Beach, California, with twins and a husband. Her retirement only makes it easier for her creative ideas to flow. She loves to knit, crochet, and do bead-weaving to create upscale elegant jewelry.

Her style of jewelry has abundance written all over it, from her caterpillar-like beaded necklace shown above, to multi-layered pieces such as this one called; Cottage Garden Bracelet.

Cottage Garden Bracelet - $85.00
Woven with a square stitch base and a vintage mauve-purple flower button, with loops on the other end of the bracelet, to accommodate a small wrist or a medium sized one. The bracelet measures 8 inches from one end to the other, with 2 loops of tiny gem chips, will fit a wrist of 6 1/2-8 inches.

To this elegantly netted piece below (this is an absolute steal for $85.00)! This is another piece you collectors should grab quickly. I have seen similar items made by other artists that are selling for about 2-3 times that price!

Chocolate Mocha Truffle Netted Choker - $85.00
15 inches long, except for the clasp. Choker is entirely netted into a cloth-like mesh.

To see more of Marilyn’s beautiful bead-woven jewelry, check out her Etsy store;
http://cigarboxbeads.etsy.com

To learn more about the artist and her current activities, make sure not to miss her blog;
http://cigarboxbeads.blogspot.com

A Tender Strength

Eek A Spider - $24.00
Made of white waxed linen “wedding knot” macramé; measures 22 inches (56cm) long. It features one 25mm snowflake obsidian donut and one 8mm Snowflake Obsidian bead to represent the spider. Includes twelve 6mm Tourmalinated Quartz beads, and twelve 3mm Snowflake Obsidian beads.

Kirsten of earthcharms makes jewelry intended to have a positive effect upon the wearer. When you peruse her Etsy store you will notice that each piece in her shop has a little statement underneath about the metaphysical properties of the stones used in the design; even the numerology behind them.

Her specialty is macramé using waxed linen cord, incorporating natural gemstone beads, and she uses a lot of Hematite, Prehnite, and Fluorite, each of these gemstones having a special meaning.

My favorite pieces of hers are the elaborately knotted chokers which have a lovely, lacy style and very polished and elegant upscale look yet without any hint of pretentiousness. One can look at the work and sense the path each hand has taken from beginning to end of the making imprinted upon the finished piece. Unlike a lot of the macramé you see out there her ends are nice and neat and inconspicuous, and they have a svelte braided taper as they transition from the body of the piece to the beaded closure, graceful as the neck of a swan.

I have always had a special place in my heart for buds on branches, and the way she places her beads on the cord reminds me of the way a bud nestles ever so gently to its stalk. It looks deceptively fragile, yet is quite firmly attached. Many of her descriptions touch on the concept of centeredness and staying or becoming grounded, and this is a recurrent theme in her work. Perhaps the symbolism of the beads perched seemingly precariously on their stem is a metaphor for the delicate balancing act between reaching out to take a risk for positive change while at the same time being cautious not to lose her footing in the process of her forays out into an uncertain world. We are sometimes stronger than we know. Should catastrophe befall us and we are tested, we often discover that another day passes and we wake up intact the following morning, surprised maybe, but relieved and a little proud for not having “fallen off our tree” so to speak, despite the killing frost.

Polarity - Prehnite and Hematite choker - $22.00
Twenty two 6mm Prehnite beads and 6 hematite beads macramed onto waxed cotton;
19 inches / 48 cm long, with a hoop and Prehnite nugget closure.

Deep Sea - choker with Hematite and Quartz - $24.00
Made with blue waxed linen and measures a total of 26 inches long, so it may also be draped along the collar bones. It features one 2.5 cm hematite donut, eight 6mm hematite round beads, and twelve 8mm quartz cubes.


Insight - earrings with Prehnite and Fluorite - $12.00
These earrings hang about 3/4 an inch (2cm) from their surgical steel French hooks.

For a gift your loved ones will really appreciate, go to her online store:
http://earthcharms.etsy.com

and to read more about the artist and her current news, take a look through her blog:
http://www.earth-charms.blogspot.com