Holiday Showcase: 12/15/12 Luna-Black Crocheted Necklace with Frosted Crackled Quartz and Black Crystals

  Today I want to show you all a piece that I made a while ago. It's a crocheted necklace made of black cotton, accented with sparkly faceted black czech crystals, and it features something quite unique as a center piece. I call this necklace LUNA.

LUNA- Black Cotton Crocheted Necklace w/ Black Crystals and Frosted Crackled Quartz

So why LUNA?

Well, first let me start with that center bead that I simply adore! What is it? Natural semi-precious stone-clear crackled quartz that has been given a frosted matte finish. I remember when I first stumbled upon this, while shopping for material, and I knew from the start that I had to use these in my jewelry!

A piece for my daughter

       A new year, a new beginning, new strength, new hopes and the list can go on and on...
Every single piece of jewelry that I create has a certain symbolism and meaning; stones, crystals, and fibers are paired to create a meaningful piece with its own special power. Each year I dedicate the first piece I make to my daughter-- she is my first customer, I please her, I please the world.

   For my new design I was inspired by the ivy plant. Its everlasting vitality, strengths and survival perseverance is to be admired. The snake-like design of the cord enhances the symbolic power of the ivy. The round shape of this choker makes you think of the continuity of the life cycle and infinite possibilities. I sprinkled 12 crystals (each representing a month of the year), AB (aurora borealis) fire-polished, that are of the icy blue reflections of the polar skies. The deep ultramarine ribbon color reminds me of something we both love, the ocean, and of our enchanting vacations out in the Outer Banks, NC.

Another Feature!

Thank you Audrey for the wonderful treasury! All items featured are made by very talented people who are part of the Etsy Team Promoting Creative Friends. Go team!

Margica featured here:
       ^



Visit Audrey's shop on etsy www.etsy.com/shop/thechristmascorner

Aegean Blue

    It's summer in New York, it's hot, humid, sticky and I love it. For me it's wonderful to sit outside and enjoy a cold drink at one of my favorite places in colorful Astoria, Taverna Cyclades! I said enjoy a cold drink, because to get a table at this wonderful restaurant usually takes an hour or so....no reservations. However, this place has the best grilled seafood in this part of the Atlantic. While waiting you feel transported to a small village somewhere in the Aegean Islands....here you can take your pick. Could be Mikonos, or Paras, or the enchanted Santorini, as you please, feel free to dream.  I have a dilemma however, was the Aegean Sea named after Aegea the Queen of the Amazons? Or could it be after Aegeus, Theseus' father? Not even the Greeks can tell.
     Anyway I had time to explain to my daughter that the Aegean Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off southeast Europe between Greece and Turkey. This sea is dotted with thousands of islands, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, and the Sporades. The Cyclades group have around 2,200 islands of which only 33 are inhabited. By the time my geographic lesson was given, our table was ready and our Greek feast began. Mmmmm.....what a treat!....The grilled fresh seafood is indeed food for the Gods!
   Returning home I couldn't break the magic I felt. I needed to create something that would seal in a tangible manner our Aegean night out. The blue italian silky yarn, the white shell beads, and the gorgeous spiral blue glass beads have been put together to materialize a necklace fit for a queen. I chose these spiral blue glass beads to symbolize the sea waves. After all the Turkish Shores of the Aegean Sea are named EGE DENIZI (means 'waves' in the Turkish language).  With this said, before posting this I made myself a cup of coffee as my mom always made it. My Greek friends call it Greek coffee and my Turkish friends call it Turkish coffee. Nonetheless it is the same coffee as Aegean and EGE DENIZI are one and the same sea. Yep...it is time to post this...have fun and meet you on a beautiful summer evening for a Greek feast at the Taverna Cyclades!




http://www.etsy.com/listing/77959969/aegean-blue

Margica's Crocheted Strand Necklace Featured!

    One of my Crocheted Strand Necklaces has been featured in a treasury list created by Roxanne Brown on Etsy! I wrote a blog post on these necklaces a while back. Learn more about them here: http://margicasnotebook.blogspot.com/2011/04/fiber-chic.html



                             My necklace is listed here ^.

  Visit Roxanne's Etsy shop RoxanneBrownHandbags with this link: http://www.roxannebrownhandbags.etsy.com/

Thanks Roxanne!

Tangerine Twist---Dreaming of Havana

  Oh! Frustration equals creativity's seed! This July, everything came to a standstill situation, financially I mean---awful, no? But hey, our government...is playing "cowboys and aliens". We all know the story. With everything going up, up, and up, and our incomes going down, down, and down, there is only one thing left to do. Tighten up your belt to the last hole and work harder to reinvent the wheel. That is the only way you can move things again. If the Egyptians were able to build the pyramids, I know that I can survive this one too.
   True to my spirit I began to experiment with different materials, textures, as well as colors to make something beautiful, original to please the inner goddesses in all of us. I really need to create something new and special to promote my business to a new level.
  So.... I made myself a cool mojito and I listened to Harry Bellafonte's songs. When I am trying to come up with new ideas I always listen to music, and I mean MUSIC not noise.... Its a way to let my imagination float freely into the realm of creativity. I turned to this pretty and feminine tangerine ribbon, and thought to myself---why not? As I was listening to "Guantanamera" and sipping my mojito, with fresh mint and a slice of lime no beach umbrella, I imagined myself in Old Havana and my little light bulb went....blinngg! And here it is my....bliiinnngg!



        
       Tangerine Twist
Made of ribbon, natural white shell beads, and  dyed coral howlite.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/78768357/tangerine-twist-crocheted-ribbon

Little Blue Chip

"Look, look under that rock, in the water is something blue, do you see it?" My daughter was pointing into the wave. I reach and here it is, a chip of porcelain with a beautiful cobalt blue glaze. Now this is interesting, and I smirked because I knew that this was special.
"What do you think it is mom?" My daughter asks me.
"Well," flipping the piece in my hands and turning it towards the sun to have a better look at it, "why don't you try to feel it first? This is not a piece of bone china, but it is light as a feather, chalky white on the back, and to me this looks like a fine quality piece of porcelain. It looks very old. Let's see. Who used cobalt blue glaze in the old days? This chip is not made recently obviously. It could be a piece of Dutch china, after all they did colonize this part of the world and brought here plenty of Delft pottery. It also could be English too. They began to use blue cobalt glaze in the 1800s, or it could be Chinese. However, I tend to believe that it was manufactured in Delft. This cobalt blue color is very special. As you can see the chip is flat, and it could be from some sort of a plate, not a vase, or a cup. Anyway, think of it as a tiny token of history. What you have now in your hand, is a true conversation piece, and you and your girlfriends could play Nancy Drew to figure out it's history and origins. Isn't it mindblowing to figure out who were the people that manufactured it, who were the people who used it in their daily lives, and of how it came to end up here in the Atlantic waters, on the New York Gold Coast."
  Some time ago, I listened to the New York City leading hurricane historian Nicholas Coch, a professor of coastal geology at Queens College, discussing about the beach findings at Rockaway beach with a team of students. With that occasion, he realized that the artifacts washed ashore were coming from the only island that had been swallowed by the ocean on the night of August 23, 1893. That night a devastating category 2 hurricane made landfall close to the NYC. The following morning, August 24, Hog Island had dissapeared. Now you have to know that a large sand barrier island began to raise during the Civil War times, and that barrier island was named Hog Island. It seems that the Native Americans used the island to raise pigs, and later people had built inns, hotels, and used the island for sunbathing like a resort area. Now what if that little chip was part of a plate somewhere on Hog Island. Its not impossible, no?
 "As a matter of fact, you and the girls can research further on the history of Hog Island as well as the surrounding area. You can learn from this little blue porcelain chip; more about the history of these shores than I can tell you now. Think about it, very few New Yorkers know about the existance of Hog Island, and many more when asked about it will just shrug their shoulders and say, 'Why should I know? I wasn't born then', and sadly enough not many are interested in learning the history..a chip of what?"

 To make it even more interesting I mounted this little blue chip on a piece of mother of pearl, and secured it with a crocheted silver wire. That's how the little blue porcelain chip became a beautiful piece of jewelry, a true conversation piece that will spark many interesting discussions. It is a piece that long after I will move to the Rainbow, it will help my daughter to teach her children how to keep an open eye and mind for precious treasures like this and spark the imagination.
 

                                                                

     

High Five

    I arrived from work today, parked my car, took out my groceries, and wrestled to find my keys to open the front door to the apartment building. As I was talking aloud to myself, and yes using my tush to actually push myself in, I heard, "Hey!" a shy voice sounding from the mailbox area, "It's a hot day, no?". Oops! I was caught in the act talking to myself by one of my neighbors.
   "Oh hi! Yeah that's summer in NYC. Hot and sticky."
   "You know..." Her voice continues, "I just mailed you an invitation, did you get it?"
    "An invitation?" For a moment I froze in thought. My lettuce escaped from one of my bags, and here come the tomatoes rolling down the lobby floor. What a mess.
    "No, no I didn't. Not yet." I picked up the bruised vegetables, carefully put them back in my grocery bag, and I entered the mailbox area.  "What invitation did you send me?"
     The voice suddenly had a head too. A pretty freckled face with two vivid hazel eyes.
    "To my wedding, of course!"
    "To your wedding? Congratulations! When is the happy event?" I asked. Well, you have no idea how light I suddenly felt. A wedding? No kidding. That's good news!
  
     I met this girl a few times before in the elevator, she moved into the building last year, and we exchanged the usual morning and evening greetings. In December the first snow arrived, and I helped her to shovel her car out of the largest heap of snow you can imagine. Later that day she knocked at my door, and brought a beautiful assortment of herbal teas, with a cute 'thank you' note. My daughter was back from college for the weekend, and we invited her to join us for dinner. That's how we got to know her better.
    She moved here from Cleveland, OH and works as a dental assistant in the city. As a young girl, she was eager to meet new people and make new friends. I invited her to also join us the following day to go shopping at the best place in Forest Hills: Austin Street. We shopped at Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, and the girls had their hair cut at one of the hair salons. In other words we had a great day!
    Just before Valentine's Day she knocked at the door again, and asked for my advice. She had a new date and wanted to look special and beautiful.
   "As a present for the occasion, a good luck piece, here is a necklace that I made. Hope it will bring you joy, and don't forget, invite me to your wedding." I finished with a joke. We both laughed, and as I gave it to her she gazed in awe and appeared touched by the gesture.

   Well, as you can see she will get married and it so happens that it will be with the very date she had that Valentine's Day. I made just one other, and named it Valentine. I told my daughter the news, and she just smiled and said, "High five mom!"



http://www.etsy.com/listing/66571534/valentine-black-lace-heart-necklace

River Pebble

    Recently at a sale event, watching women come and go as they looked at our pieces, I realized that most of them were not looking in fact for that special OOAK (one of a kind) piece. They were just browsing for a bargain. With today's economy it is understandable. If it were otherwise, it would be different. However I noticed that, although they looked for a great bargain, many didn't really have a clue as to what they were looking at. I pride in myself  of using quality materials such as semi precious stones, silver, and swarovski crystals. But to some of these women, they could have been looking at plastic, cheap metal, and glass for all they knew! It struck me really hard, and I had the compulsive need to shout out and say, "Hello! May I have your attention please! This piece is..."
  Yes you are looking at necklaces, earrings, and so forth, but you are also looking at the manual labor that was put in to make them. Hours of toiling with a few beads, as well as coming up with the concept that would please a woman's eye. What you are looking at is also made of love, imagination, and dedication, for not saying the many years behind learning the trade. They are unique as are women individually. Only one piece of that concept exists for only one woman to have in the world.
  Sometime last fall, somewhere on a river bank, just before sunset I packed up our picnic stuff and called out to my daughter, and pooch Muffy. Funny enough, Muffy came running to me holding a pebble in her mouth! I love collecting stones and as a joke I said, "Thanks Muffy you have great taste!". I spent that night playing with that pebble in my hand, and suddenly a light bulb lit up! And that is how the "Fisherman's Daughter" came to be created! I crocheted silver wire into a delicate mesh that framed Muffy's pebble. Like the pebble, this piece is unique, and only one woman can have it.
   Sure the pebble is just a pebble, but I made the piece in such a way that the pebble is not just a pebble anymore.  It is now a piece of jewelry. One woman thought so and she bought it. Bonne chance my little pebble!!

Fisherman's Daughter

Oh Starry Night!!

  Travel back in time and cherish those moments when love encompass you with freedom wings. Once a year, for a week I pack my red Volvo station wagon with our beach gear (including our fishing poles), my dog Muffy, my cat Miss Minnie, and of course my daughter, and head on for Route 12 South.......HA HA I bet you have no idea where we are heading. Well I'll give you a hint, think about Blackbeard's hideaway, or if you know where the "lost colony" was abandoned by Sir Raleigh.
   Yes we spend our magical week in the barrier islands of North Carolina, the famous Cape Hatteras Island, Outer Banks. This is already for all of us home away from home even if it is only for a week.
    The magical sky of the Outer Banks inspired me to create a necklace called Starry Night. Imagine the clearest night sky, where the Milky Way is so vivid that you can touch it with your fingers; where the stars allow you to see the endless depth of the universe. Spending nights on the beach around the bonfire, trying my luck for a catch, munching on a well burnt marshmallow, and counting the shooting stars for not saying telling pirate stories make our time in the Outer Banks so, so precious!
  This necklace Starry Night is much more than just another piece of jewelry. It is created with those very precious moments in the Outer Banks in mind. The beautiful starry nights, the bonfires, the magical stories of pirate adventures, the mystical aura of the "lost colony", all helped to inspire me as I created this necklace.


Starry Night
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67505093/organic-black-crocheted-necklace-oh

Fiber Chic

       If you haven't noticed lately, my newest intrigue rests with using a special kind of Italian yarn for my latest designs. With today's economic state I believe that creativity is the key ingredient for coming up with an innovative, unique and interesting spin on what is already traditional. Although I continue to use sterling silver for my jewelry pieces, I have been experimenting a lot with fibers. The result is that I have come up with a unique spin on a  'must have' accessory: Long Strand Necklaces.
        With a very special Italian yarn I crocheted long strand necklaces, and paired them up with different accents: fire polished crystals, mother of pearl, and jade. This yarn comes in many colors.

 Silver Blue and Grey Italian Yarn Crocheted Necklace with Jade, Mother of Pearl, and Fire Polished Czech Crystals
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69413571/silver-blue-grey-italian-yarn-necklace


Gold Moss Italian Yarn Crocheted Necklace with Jade, Mother of Pearl, and Fire Polished Crystals
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69467540/gold-moss-italian-yarn-necklace-with


Forest Green Italian Yarn  Crocheted Necklace with Jade and Fire Polished Crystals
http://www.etsy.com/listing/69468058/forest-green-italian-yarn-necklace-with?ref=v1_other_1

Lilac Blossom Italian Yarn Crocheted Necklace with Jade, Mother of Pearl, and Fire Polished Crystals

 http://www.etsy.com/listing/69464128/lilac-blossom-italian-yarn-necklace-with


Blue Lagoon Fine Italian Yarn Necklace with Blue Agates, and Fire Polished Czech Crystals
 Rather than Jade, Blue Agates go oh so well with the gorgeous blue yarn.

 These strands can be left long as one strand, or doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled!!! (Length ranges from 120-210 inches).
 What do you think?

Cleo the Adder Girl

     Finally, the lost Egyptian Cobra has been found and is now sssafe and sssound at the Bronx Zoo.
     What a commotion and story for New Yorkers!!! It seemed that everyone took a part, by either tweeting, blogging, and/or even selling merchandise inspired by the cobra. The New York Post challenged New Yorkers to come up with a name for her! I myself thought that Cleo would be neat, after all she is an Egyptian; and who else other than Cleopatra would it be perfect to be named after?
     With this in mind I decided to name a piece of mine "Cleo the Adder Girl". A slithery necklace, it is crocheted with fine Italian yarn. Turquoise colored howlite, and Czech crystals in teal and peridot (which FYI it is said that peridot was one of Cleopatra's favorite gems) accent the necklace with blue fire agates.  It is finished with a silky Italian blue ribbon cord.
      Only one lucky girl will have a chance to wear Cleo the Adder Girl necklace. Now would that be?....

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70188773/cleo-the-adder-girlitalian-yarn

A Token of Friendship

   A couple of days ago my daughter had let me know that she is going to study abroad this summer in the Mediterranean area. Remembering some movies that we had seen a while back, "Mamma Mia!", and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", we both envisioned  clear blue skies, and the sparkling cerulean mediterranean sea. When she asked me what little knick-knacks she should bring to give to the new friends she might make there, I made something for her. It's a Friendship Necklace made of a fine Italian multi-colored ribbon that is crocheted, and holds a blue howlite as a pendant. The colors of the rainbow represent harmony, and peace; two elements that are essential to maintaining lasting friendships.  Howlite is said to be a calming stone, and helps to bring ourselves in tune to our intuitions and inner peace. The round shape of the stone also symbolizes continuity; so to be sure that the friendship will be lasting.
                                             
Check it out in my Etsy shop, Margica!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70187141/friendship-necklace-rainbow-crocheted

Behind "A Rose For You"

  Before my daughter went back to college for her second semester, I made this bracelet as a token of my motherly love for her, and as a reminder that she is the rose in my life. This is her first year in college, and naturally it was a dramatic change to our rhythm of life. She loved my present so much that she wore this bracelet everyday as her connection to home, and me. So many of her friends were taken with the bracelet that I decided to make more for them to send to their mothers. Of course, each girl had chosen a different color for their rose, thus producing a rainbow of roses.  I listed one on my online shop, and hopefully other mothers will have a chance to order this token of motherly love for their daughters.

                               

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66042453/a-rose-for-you-crocheted-bracelet