Today, November 1st, is a cluttered black square of type in my calendar… It’s the first day of the month, with all of the financial deadlines and chores that accompany a fresh month…it’s the day after Hallow’een, so we are all just a little groggy from sugar overload and a sleep punctuated with fireworks and firecrackers. It’s also All Saints Day in the Christian calendar, or Samhain in the Celtic Pagan calendar. No matter what your cultural background, here in the Northern Hemishphere there is no questioning the shift in light that accompanies the beginning of November.
Gone are the memories of Summer – we are well and truly into the dark months of the year!
The beginning of November feels like a shift. Suddenly we expect the nights to be long, we expect the days to be cold and we look to the days of Winter ahead. I awake in surreal darkness, convincing my skeptical body that it really is time to get up… and on rainy days it sometimes feels as though it never really gets fully light. Curls of slate coloured clouds catch on the curves of our local mountains and lazily hang there waiting for a breath of wind to push them along. No wonder, then, that just now the veil feels thin between the world of the living and the world of those who have gone before.
So what are we to do? Shiver here in our dim, grey existence? Hardly! We North Westerners have perfected our strategies for warmth and light. We celebrate the contrast of light and dark in thousands of tiny ways. Some examples… You’ll find brilliantly uplit, spectacular trees in most gardens in my neighborhood. That pop of green light is even more beautiful for being embraced by darkness. we light our houses more and more as the very darkest time of year approaches, and by Christmas the entire city is aglow. Inside you’ll find candles and fireplaces are de rigueur to banish the November chill and in the very darkest months I’ll even light candles at the breakfast table!
In the same way, I seem to gravitate to warmth and light in my personal objects and jewellery… a little more warm metal: a touch of bronze, copper and gold just feel wonderful at this time of year. Amber has a natural golden glow that is irresistible, particularly when blended with warm metals and some black or grey for contrast. This leather bracelet is just the thing to have a touch of sunshine that can be carried with me through my day!
C.
Kolton Babych is coming to Tartooful today: 5-9pm, and he’s bringing a fabulous array of his beautiful work for us all to enjoy. Come see the last precious designs from his acclaimed “Heroes and Thieves” collection… and enjoy a privileged first look at his upcoming Luxe collection, featuring gold and precious stones. Bring a friend, treat yourself, plot for the holidays ahead – do you really need more reasons? Do drop by and raise a glass of bubbly with this delightful, talented local artist…
Today we’re playing with the classic palette of deep, lustrous garnet and a royal tone of purple. Inspired by the exceptionally pretty stone on this Fantasy necklace, we decided to tease together a quick and simple necklace, using the elegant “Freedom Feather” silver pendant as a focal point. This useful pendant is designed to frame the droplet at the bottom of a fantasy necklace, and gives a much more substantial and dramatic effect than the droplet alone. It feels like an integrated part of the necklace, not an added “bead”, and could easily be worn completely on its own on a Fantasy necklace.
Casting an eye over our selection of uniques today I noticed that we have an absolutely marvelous collection of raspberry pinks in stock at the moment. I decided to have a bit of a play with them, but thought I’d give the design a little twist and try my hand at a crimson-to-pale pink ombre composition….
together it was bound to be a fantastic bracelet. I really think that with these beads it would be impossible to make the bracelet look anything but gorgeous.
At the two extreme ends of this bracelet design you’ll find some of the opaque unique beads that are such a delight to true collectors. The rich red and glittery one shown above has actually been tempting me for my own collection! So luxe and utterly delicious. At the other end of the bracelet be sure to note the beads that have elegantly formed flowers traced on milk glass backgrounds. These have been such a lovely fresh addition to the design oeuvre of glass Trollbeads uniques. I’d love to see an entire bracelet made up of these delicate beauties.
Clockwise from clasp: “Lace Lock”, All Glass beads uniques. Silvers: “Spiritual Ornament”, “Elderflowers”, “Spiritual Adornment”, “Wine Harvest”.
The time of year when we all dust off our best pumpkin, citrus and cinnamon coloured beads and create combinations to honour Thanksgiving, Fall Equinox, Back to School, Harvest Moon, Halloween and the warm low light of Autumn. Every season has its colour mood, and no question that no matter how you like to celebrate Autumn, with subtle earthy browns or stark ghostly black and white – orange is the queen of the Fall palette.
The arrival of a group of spectacular yellow glitter uniques, as well as a punchy new olive glass colour had me eagerly anticipating this annual ritual even more than usual. Olive has traditionally been a bit of a tricky colour to find in the Trollbeads collection… there have been a few beads with cool, blue-olives, but very few with a true, acid soaked sort of an olive green. I was delighted when we received a few precious uniques with this very fresh colour and immediately resolved to combine them with rich golden yellows and tangy oranges for a fantastic, citrus take on Autumnal orange.
A bracelet with this much texture, rich colour and visual energy needs a few places designed for the weary eye to rest, so I showed restraint, and kept silvers minimal and calm. The silvers in this combination create colour groupings that are meant to be viewed as a whole… then suggest a pause to the eye before moving on to the next group. For that reason I selected simple, abstract silvers of a similar size and shape that would quietly fulfill their role and not demand too much of one’s attention when viewing the bracelet.
tartooful 