"A few pieces of my ritual jewelry needed to be restrung and I wanted to find more skull beads for spirit vessels so off I went to Bead Freaks in Vancouver where I found delicious carved beads of wood, stone, and bone for future creations.
The owner Kayla is amazing and travels around the world buying her beads from the actual craftsmen and so has the most gorgeous and rare beads you’ve ever seen as a result. The shop is one part bead store and one part museum.
The strand of bone skulls will be used for plant and animal spirit vessels. I have little corked vials that will be perfection paired with them. The more finely carved antler skulls will be used for large spirit vessels and maybe an underworld rosary or two… I haven’t decided what to create with the serpent, ram, horse, and toad ojime beads yet — either spirit vessels, witch’s cords, or ritual necklaces for working with familiars.
My precious beads
I found a perfect fat little black goddess carved of black bone and I just couldn’t leave her behind so I purchased some gorgeous blue tiger’s eye and black silk thread to turn her into a ritual necklace for the dark goddess of the earth. I just love me a black Venus.
The little pointed breasts are perfection. I added some jet beads to compliment the darkly coloured bone and to further connect the necklace to the earth and trees. This one’s mine! I already wore her out to lunch with the May Queen for some witchy chatter about gods’ penises over ambrosial local cider.
The Black Goddess ritual necklace alongside rowan and bone beads
While in full beading mode I restrung the rowan wood beads I carved years ago onto some red silk with a simple, tiny silver lobster claw clasp. I realized I like my rowan beads best naked with no pendants or other beads strung with them. That way they compliment fancier necklaces well and I can wear the rowan beads on a daily basis.
The White Bone Mother's ritual necklace
The last necklace to be restrung was the White Bone Mother’s ritual necklace. She told me to make it in a dream with bone beads so smooth they looked like porcelain. Bone does not photograph well; I had to take the above photo in the dark with no flash! This necklace has been through a few incarnations, but this one I like best.
The antler tip was switched for a gorgeous deer antler pendant hand carved with a crow and ram and set with a black star sapphire (nope, I didn’t carve it!). The beads are moose antler, cow bone, and a pair of tiny carved deer antler skulls. The clasp is a circle of deer leg bone with a cross-bar of a crow’s leg bone.
This necklace is worn during spirit work and necromancy and for me the crow and ram represent the King and Queen of Elphame.
Fossilized Amber & Whitby Jet Necklace
I need to go back to the bead shop and get some more black silk thread as my amber and Whitby jet necklace I purchased from a lovely witch at the Shamanic Conference stretched and needs to be restrung. I don’t use it in the BTW sense as I’m not an initiated Wiccan. I use my amber and jet beads to connect with the ancient ancestors of trees as amber is fossilized tree resin and jet is the pressurized remains of 200 million year old decayed trees.
In other happy news, all of my supply orders have come in so once I’ve finished making and packaging a few things, taking loads of photos, and updating the new website, the new Stang and Cauldron shop should be up and running this week!"
Source
http://sarahannelawless.com/2011/08/29/amber-jet-rowan-bone-and-stone/
