A Little More Necklace Symbolism

Yesterday I talked about the process for the Talisman of the necklace. To me it makes even more sense when you consider it with the necklace top.

A speckled ceramic bead seemed, at first, to round out the top of the design…but as these things go one new addition leads to the thought of the next. Speckled? – why that brings to mind a bird. A perfect possible addition to the large ring I was sent.


My usual bird of choice is the Raven. A Raven did not seem to suit my theme but I knew what would. Again, I am a Michigander (LOL – don’t you just love that unique reference to my state of origin?). Robin’s are our state bird. But, better yet, they are a very spiritual bird. Native Plains Tribes attribute the return of the sun (the inception of Spring) with Robins. Now if that isn’t how I feel when the first robin of Spring shows up around here nothing is. Omaha Tribes believed the sun rose and set on the wings of the Robin. Iroquois and Shoshone lore indicates that the white ring around the Robin’s eye was a symbol of prophetic vision, clarity and great wisdom. Yup, that’s me! (wink, wink).

Now that I have the bird – what about the feather? Well, hell yes feathers. I pick feathers up all over the place…my grandfather and I used to do that in the yard. I have them tucked here and there around the house so finding some evening winter was easy. They represent new beginnings to the Celtic. It invokes the sky god. In Christianity feathers represent the three virtues and there are many rings and signs with three feathers for faith, charity, and hope. Dreaming of feathers can represent a desire to move more freely in life. Again, for me, all of the above struck a definite heart string. I stacked three symbolic feathers together for extra strength before I began the tether for them.


And all of that brought me back around to the leaf and the general theme of what I was doing. Another look at the top of the necklace brought about the solution. The leaf, the tree, the branch. I work with sticks quite a bit. I cast them into silver all of the time. This wasn’t the place for a cast branch. My branches are in a small wash tub on top of my bead stashes. Perfect! An oak twig. Robin’s make their nests in the oak trees around the yard. The oak in the yard I grew up in takes three people to circle…all kind of like the red wool thread. It’s all interrelated – past, present, future.

Thank You Lori – It’s like Bead Soup was my own little personal coming back party and thank you Rebecca for providing the stimulus for the fruitfulness of all of it.

Don't forget - coming up in the next posts: Where to find your personal symbolism/and tailsman meanings. Plus, a tutorial on how to make the Bead Soup disc earrings and how to do that without the discs slopping around. And, "New Work Wednesday".