CELESTE - The FORTUNE TELLER
Starry Night Sky Blue Goldstone Wolf Necklace with Swarovski Crystal Stars
Dark Elf | Space Witch | Third Eye
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Sometimes projects grow by themselves from nothing, other times they arrive in your head fully formed.
Celeste was definitely the second kind (or Third Eye Blind kind)
I have been imagining her for nearly half a year..
Blue Goldstone is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE stones.
The subtle glitter effect is impossible to photograph
Yet profound and fascinating to behold.
Like holding a shard of Midnight sky
or a tiny Galaxy in your hand.
You can (and will)
Stare at it endlessly.
Turning it over and over.
Watching the stars twinkle
Glittering in the dark Night Sky
Shine and wink out as the light changes.
* * *
I've been growing more complex and adventurous with these larger wire wrap pieces.
I knew I HAD to make a celestial star-themed one in Blue Goldstone.
(The Black Magician was basically a warm-up practice piece.
Black is easy to match, as was the Green Queen.
Blue and pale/white for the stars..
= More of a challenge)
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.
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I didn't really know or care about how to deal with the star pendants initially -
(White might be too much of a contrast?)
(Leave that problem aside.. she will sort herself out)
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The next problem: earlier this year Swarovski realeased Crystal Eyes.
(OMG! Must have! I am not an impulsive person, but on sight I knew I had to have them)
I absolutely knew that the Blue Eye would be PERFECT for her.
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Problem: it's a Stone intended for a glued setting. Not a pendant or bead to be sewn.
(I really wish Swarovski would make those versions, but alas they do not).
* * *
(I often joke that Baking is Chemistry, and Jewelry making is prettified Engineering lite, and this was the case in point.
Rule number 1: Know your materials, their properties and limits.
Learn all the "done ways" of using them, then start playing with/testing and learning how they really work.
(Push them to their limits. Make mistakes. Every Almost or failure is a useful lesson, with occasional surprises)
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(To paraphrase Da Vinci, before you can call yourself a painter, you must learn the physics behind how light works, the properties of colour, the chemistry of paint, the anatomy of your subject.. Art is Science and Science is Art.
Study, Practise, Learn all the rules and go forth and playfully break them)
Apply your knowledge but have fun as well..
Eventually steer back to the point
And devise a solution.
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Meandering tangent aside, my problem was this:
How to securely attach a large, deep, curved crystal Eye to a smooth glass surface.
How to minimise the awkward thickness of the Eye (welp, it's SO BIG. But I SO WANT TO USE IT HERE)
..In the centre of her forehead. If the stone was flat, or had holes, no problem.
(But the underside is curved and smooth).
* * *
I already crowned the wolves in many previous necklace, by weaving crystals and wire to attach them to the base.
Something similar was required here.
A setting to hold the stone, but filigree/open so wires could pass through to secure it.
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Several attempts to try out/dismiss potential approaches.
I quickly figured out it would have to be LARGE to both secure and conceal the thickness of the Eye..
..But not *too* large, so as to drown the beautiful central wolf, or draw the eye away from her subtle glitter.
So both a Materials, a Tensile Strength, Anchoring and Aesthetics problem.
(Da Vinci's help would be most welcome here)
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First up: safely secure the stone, into something you CAN work with.
I tried weaving a wire wrap setting, too fiddly, didn't really work.
Twisting some bead wraps then. Better.
Still not secure.
So Glue.
K.
*
We have a Set stone, with filigree brass underneath that can be bent into shapes and sewn into place!
Next up: Hide the width of the (even bulkier) setting I had created.
(It has to sit on her forehead, remember)
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By adding a crown (she wears both a crown AND a Third Eye - Powerful Lady)
In bronze rather than gold, to tone it down.
Then crystals, lots of crystals (*Matrix voice*)
In subtle dark Indigo Blue, to colour-match the Blue Goldstone.
(Almost exactly)
*
This felt right. It was working. A thin twisted wire headpiece, with crystals sewn and woven in throughout.
Some flowers, more variety of colours (black and purple lowlights and higher end glitter to the dark blue).
Ths was growing into something MUCH BIGGER and more complex than planned, but wasn't swamping her.
It felt solid, yet Balanced and Beautiful.
She seemed to approve.
(Go Big, or Go Home?)
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This led to an avalanche of ideas.
I used a lot of flower beads, and they toned down the crystals and "pad" the spaces between them nicely.
But I'd already made a Dark/Floral themed necklace - The Black Magician.
I wanted to steer away from near-duplicating something I'd already done, and in similar colours..
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The original idea had been for something Austere and Celestial: A Star Wolf. A creature of Time and Space.
But the flowers and headpiece made me think of Nature Goddesses again.. we've done Dryads and Cherry Blossoms. What about Mysticism? Victorian Fortune Tellers, Occultists, the Interpretation of Dreams.
The older themes (Greek Mythology and Deities, The Dark Ages, Fairytales, beliefs about witchcraft and legends) that the Victorian Occultism movement was referencing and reviving (As the Romance and the Gothic was doing to Medieval literature, and the Arts and Crafts movement)
* * *
My biggest reference here was a book my Mother had in my childhood - The "Complete Encyclopedia of Fortune Telling" - a compendium of Victorian era texts on everything from Palmistry, (some horribly racist) Phrenology, Folklore and rhymes, reading the tea leaves, Numerology and Dreams..
(I was an omnivorous reader as a child, ever-hungry for books. The thicker and weirder-looking the better.
Child-me consumed that book along with my Father's Meteorology training manuals, 1950's Sci-Fi, Greek Mythology.. everything and anything within grasp).
The cover of that particular book sprang to mind. Starry and dark blue, and covered in random occult-y symbols for topics the book didn't even cover (a cheap bookstore find, obv the designer hadn't bothered to peer inside and just went with "slap a horoscope and a bunch of stars on it, wooo" as a cover design)
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All the strange folklore and Victorian occultism I vaguely remembered from that book surfaced.
The rest, she manifested by herself.
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