Oh, Honey, Honey!

These are in the mail this week for my earrings-of-the-month club members. I picked HONEY as my theme for February's EcoChic Designs creations for a couple of reasons: I love honey; and I am currently working on an article about honey and beekeepers. I have always told my boys that their job of learning and stretching their minds never ends. So, I have to live up to that goal as well. Last month I went to a butchery seminar for an article. I have never had any illusions that meat just appears in the grocery store, headless, legless, and wrapped in paper or plastic. Many of my friends are hunters or fisherman, so deliveries of homemade sausages, cuts of wild boar, and whole fishes and crabs are not out of the ordinary. However, until EcoFarm's 2013 Butchery Skills Seminar, last week, I have never seen a whole carcass broken down into saleable cuts.

But this isn't about meat. This is about honey. Sweet, golden, delectable honey.

These earrings are one-of-a-kind creations, inspired by HONEY. Golden chalcedony, faceted citrine, lemon quartz, recycled yellow glass, and amber are handwired with sterling silver for this month's pieces. They hang from hammered sterling earwires.

MAY EcoChic Designs Earrings-of-the-Month

It's that time again...earrings are packaged up and ready to go, a few days early because my husband's and my birthdays are only a week apart and our next two weekends are jam-packed. It's all fun stuff, to be sure, but it doesn't leave much time for much else, especially not a trip to the post office. So, I am sending the earrings out a little bit early because I will be swamped for the next ten days and don't want to leave earlobes naked for too long.

This month, I picked HONEY as my theme for a couple of reasons - I love honey; I love bees; and I've been reading a book called Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey.

Many countries celebrate women this month. In this country, it's Mothers' Day; in Italy, it's Festa Della Donna (Festival of the Woman). While not all of my club members are mothers, all are women. For my mothers' day/festa della donna offering, I decided to make creations in all the shades of honey because motherhood, for me, has been a sweet - and sometimes sticky - journey. Sticky because, well, I have two boys eighteen months apart.

The pieces were made with faceted honey quartz, lemon quartz, recycled glass in pale and bright yellow, and amber. All one-of-a-kind, all handwired with sterling silver. So, whether the gals are mothers, grandmothers, or beloved aunties - or all of the above - I hope they will wear these and feel celebrated and appreciated.

Honeycomb from my Honey

Yesterday we went to the beach. While the boys frolicked in the surf, I shot some photographs, and - among other beach treasures - Jake found this pocked shell that he tucked into his pocket to give to me...because it looked like a honeycomb. Oh, my sweet husband!

After boiling it a few times, I let it airdry and got to work, making a necklace for myself with the honeycomb from my honey. Okay, so I don't really call him that - honey, I mean - but it goes better for the story.

I handwired the found "honeycomb" shell with sterling silver beads and Kazuri beads in all the shades of honey.

In case you aren't familiar with Kazuri beads, you can click here to read the whole story about them. The short version: these are made by women in Kenya, giving them gainful employment through a marketable handicraft. Kazuri, in Swahili, means "small and beautiful."

Bit O'Honey

I've, sadly, never had a Bit O'Honey candy bar. My mom was a sugar Nazi; so there's no mystery why I am the way I am with my boys - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right? But of all the candies I watched my friends eat, the Bit O'Honey intrigued me the most. I liked the name. I love honey.

When I came across these voluptuous citrine nuggets, they reminded me of bits of honey. So I made a necklace-earring set with them.

This set is comprised of an assymetrical necklace and earrings made with organically-shaped gemstones that remind me of bits of honey.

Citrine nuggets, onyx, recycled clear glass and calcite are handwired with sterling silver to create this one-of-a-kind necklace that closes in the front with a sterling silver lobster clasp; the earrings are made with citrine nuggets and recycled glass and hang from sterling silver French wires.

 

Click here to purchase the piece from my etsy site, or to see more photographs.

"Sweet Motherhood" Bracelet

I wanted to create something both meaningful and useful for a friend who will be a new mom this month.

As for usefulness, in my blissful sleeplessness of during the seemingly endless feeding and diapering cycle, I often forgot which side I was supposed to nurse the baby on next.  So, I swapped a ring from one hand to the other.  I created this piece with a simple toggle clasp so she can use it as a nursing reminder, if she wants, just switching it from one arm to the other.

This one-of-a-kind bracelet features a sterling silver bee charm handwired with recycled yellow glass, recycled clear glass, citrine, white onyx, and calcite.  It closes with a sterling silver flower toggle.Motherhood has been such a sweet adventure for me – sweet as honey – that when I found this sterling silver bee charm, I knew this was it.
I hope she likes it!

Oh, sugar. Oh, honey, honey!

I bought these gorgeous druzy agate nuggets and that song by, The Archies, immediately popped into my head: "Oh, sugar. Oh, honey, honey!" 

The nuggets have pale veins running through the warm, golden stones that reminded me of honeycomb.  Then the dusting of druzy crystals, like sugar, sealed the inspiration.  I created this one-of-a-kind neckace with one large honeycomb druzy agate nugget handwired with recycled glass in two shades of yellow, Dangling below that is a pale calcite teardrop with a sterling silver bee charm.

Healing Words of Honey

"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."

Proverbs 16:24

Last September one of my husband's cousins committed suicide.  Twenty-nine years old.  And as hard as it's been on the entire family, two hearts are particularly broken - those of Sam's mom and his sister.  I wanted to create pieces for them that fosters peace and lets them know that they have our thoughts and prayers...always.  Jessica received a rose quartz necklace with a sterling silver prayer box.  But I struggled with what to make for Aunt Chris. 

So when I read that proverb,  I found a sterling silver bee charm and made this for her.  The sterling silver bee charm is the focal point of this necklace in various shades of honey.  Citrine, calcite, recycled yellow glass, and lemon quartz are all handwired with sterling silver to form this one-of-a-kind necklace.  Nothing can take away the pain of losing a child, but - hopefully - this will remind her that she will heal.