Gemstone Hessonite and its Healing Power

I love the honey color hessonite gemstone. It is a rather rare and expensive garnet with all the hues of the yellow orange family. The shades may range from a shy transparent beige all the way to the daring dark crimson. I knew hessonite is auspicious and especially important in India according to Hindu astrology.

I remember one of my uncle was recommended to wear one when he was having a rather bad time in his life. I was then just a child, growing up in India. My folks used to say "He has the bad effect of Rahu and now a gomed (hessonite garnet) is needed to change his fate".

Well, what is this Rahu I thought. I got my answer today, so many years later after some studying, as I finished my necklace with the hessonite garnet.

Astronomically, Rahu is the north lunar node - Rahu and Ketu are the two points of intersection of the paths of the Sun and the Moon as they move in the celestial sphere.

Astrological significance is - the effect of Rahu can cause lethargy, greed, low esteem , bad speech. extreme worldly desire and fame, obsession, dementia and inertia....

Mythological significance:
In Hindu mythology Rahu is the culprit and the reason for solar and lunar eclipses.
Long ago the devatas (gods and goddesses, the deities, I mean) and the danavas (demons) decided to go and obtain amrita - the elixir . It will make them indestructible and immortal. They made a truce that they'll work together. But as soon as it was obtained the danavas rushed to grab the amrita. The devatas prevented them. Narayan (an important god) transformed himself into a female beauty, Mohini and distracted all the danavas with her charm. There was one sly one- Rahu, who could not be fooled. He waited for this opportunity and managed to drink the amrita. He took just one big gulp when the Sun and the Moon spotted this and quickly reported to Narayan. Narayan, using his sudarsan chakra(super disk) cut his head off.
Lo and behold, the head had the amrita and could not be destroyed. So the head of Rahu hangs forever in the celestial universe. Ketu is the other half of his body.
Rahu's vengeance for the Sun and the Moon never changed. He rushes to gulp them whenever he gets a chance and that is when the eclipses happen. But the Sun and the Moon are rescued as soon as they can pass through his throat.

Hessonite can help brings calmness, positive energy and raise self confidence and appreciation for others even in messed up lives.

The Divine Eye

I am all wired up and for the last few days since my last blog I have learned so
much.The Herringbone pattern that I have talked about made me create a set of earrings and a bangle. Though there is room for improvement, I'll show and tell. I call it The Divine Eye

Isn't it interesting that I happen to meet another Etsian from India who also has the same Herringbone pattern in her shop? I say that because this is not a very common pattern and I have never seen it before. She calls it The Eye of Nephthys.

Susmitha, my new friend from Bangalore has awesome creative stuff at artbysusmitha.etsy.com

I have also taken two tutorials from Eni O Kens and came up with some earring designs. The second tutorial, The Netted Cap was pretty darn intricate and I might have deviated from the main pattern at the end, somewhere. Well, I created something my very own.

After a lot of wrestling with the wires at some point the muse take you by your hand to some undiscovered cove, to some side track trails and you get surprised by your
own discovery. You see a very new pattern, that is unique, just very much your own.

I don't mind if it is not the real Netted Cap. I made quite a few earrings with this new pattern. The one I showed in the picture I call it Garnets lost in Sea Foam

To take a break and thinking of a little friend who loves to wear bracelets I made a very simple one with the tiniest hematite hearts and pearl.

Two important things have happened to me also.
1.I joined an organization acronamed SRAJD
Self Representing Artists and Jewelry Designers.
2. I decided to be part of the women for women .org project who helps women entrepreneurs and artisans from Afghanistan, Africa and such places.

I am happy to see that there are like minded people who value hand made products over mass commercial stuff, who respect people who are trying to make a living using their hands and their talent.

Where the hands go there the eyes should follow
Where the eyes go there the mind
Where the mind there the feeling
Where the feeling there the mood.

-An old Sanskrit saying.

The Divine Eye

The last few days I was totally wired up. The Herringbone pattern that I had learned from Eni O Ken kept me pretty busy and I came up with two finished pieces. I'll show the pictures of the earring and the necklace.There is still room for perfection but I am excited to show and tell. I call it "The Divine Eye".

Interestingly recently I came across another fellow Etsian who is also originally from India and sells from Bangalore. She has the same pattern in her store.She called it The Eye of Nephthys.Susmith's work is beautiful. Check it out at artbysusmitha.etsy.com

In the mean time I downloaded two more tutorials and got totally crazy staying up till 2 and 3 am. Sometimes the muse is taking me to a different route and I explore surprises, hidden treasures, side tracks, a totally awesome experience. Through this adventure and wresting with the wires I am creating new designs(which I'll be able to show next time).

To take a break I made a simple bracelet for a young girl who loves bracelet. I hope atleast young girls like my pattern. I named it simplicity.

The Inner Child

There is an inner child inside me.Even though she has a very feeble voice, every now and then she pops her head up and do silly things. Most of the time she is ignored, criticized, scolded, even demeaned by the more mature, reasonable grown up part of me.

The grown up part smirks - where would this silly jewelry business take you, deary? Did you see your competition? There are many many wanna bs like you. Besides, why do you have a masters degree in Education and years and years of experience not to mention all those certificates and couple of awards that you have stacked up with so much care?

She turns to the Job opening list.

The Inner Child could not take it any more. "I don't wannu..." she screams. She wants to play with her beads. Rather, gem stones these days! She leads to a site by the artist Eni O ken. Eni is a fantastic Wire Jewelry artist. Little I.C is totally mesmerized and decides to pick up her free tutorial "The Herringbone" My, that is heavy stuff! She realises that she needs to do some home work before showing up in this class. She needs to practice her basic wrapping skill first.

From that a necklace piece came out whom I'll call "Black cubes with Rhinestones"

Now the Herring Bone thing. It got pretty late by the time the print out job was done and then the pictures didn't turn out clear.So, those had to be hand drawn. This exercise led me visualize the wrapping in my head. (Remember haptic learning in Education theory). Oh no!

All night long I couldn't sleep, at least until 2:30. I was wrapping and wrapping half dozed. In the morning I found that I do have some left over wire, though I had no idea if these match the direction. Any way I started practicing.And I did that for seven whole hours until there was no more wire left.

Grown up me was impressed though with I.C.'s tenacity. She smiled and took I.C to Michael's and bought her few more spools to practice.

The Herring Bone pattern is an old tradition used by the basket weavers of yesteryears -mentions Ms. O Kens in her tutorial. It felt strange and wonderful how I learned an old tradition in a very new way -through the internet, a modern way of learning.

I haven't seen my mentor, I don't know if she is older or younger than me. Yet, I felt she was watching me closely as I learned to perfect the tensions of the wire. Pull a little tight at the top, let go a bit while you wrap the sides. I revived something from the old world and created some thing that is uniquely mine.

I feel so thankful to Eni O Kens and my Etsy friend, Jules who introduced me to O Kens. Jules is a budding Wire Jewelry artist. Check her our at
twistedjules .etsy.com

I found that for me using 24 gauge instead of 20 and for wrapping using 26 and 28 gauge instead of 24 gave a more delicate finish. I'll use that for earrings and the 20/24 will be nice for bracelets or hair jewelry. I haven't done any finished piece with herring bone yet but very ready to use sterling now. For now I can show you my pillars of success and the finished "Black cubes with Rhinestones".

Part of a big neclace

Aren't we just part of a big necklace? Individually we are just small beads, may be nothing exciting,but then in the pattern of the big necklace we all serve our important part. Like a speck of dust, or rather a small star in the gigantic nebula. Oh what a pattern!

Patterns, patterns, patterns. I see them all over, now that I have started beading. What a hobby!
Especially I see them in my garden and took several pictures this morning. Like the little pansy flower. Look at the shades of purple it has, or the lacy subdued green on the dark crimson coleus leaf. I am sure I am going to steal them for my jewelry designs.

Today I uploaded a necklace in my etsy store. alankarshilpa.etsy.com
I'll show you the picture -it's at the top.

Part of a Necklace

Aren't we just part of a big necklace? Like a speck of dust or rather a star in the pattern og a galaxy? That what came to my mind. Individually we are like isolated beads, not that charming. But in a necklace pattern we all serve a reason.
Patterns, patterns, patterns. I see them all over now , now that I am so much into beading. What a hobby!!
I took quite a few picures in the garden today. So many different shades of purple in a pansy. See.

The coleus leaf have such a striking border- the dark crimson laced by subdued green. I think I'll take that into my jewelry.

Support each other

I was reading a book this morning -"The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron where the author says we cannot do it alone. Though the artist's journey is solitary yet we are so connected. I felt I need to connect with a community who feels the same way, who are going with the same self doubt sometimes ( would my art sell?) , and the very next moment may have a brilliant idea about putting together a design and feel great.
The new community has nothing to do with my existing friends. My existing friends from other area and my family may understand and know me for a while, yet may have no clue what I go through as an artist.
I call myself artist? Well, why not? We all are, except most of us , grown ups, do not dare to unleash that. May be I am a mediocre one, but hey, I do get all the artist's bug bite for sure.
To connect, I found a fellow jewelry artist from the Etsy site whose work I liked and hearted her, went to her blog and left a comment. I think that's a pretty good start for me.