Simply Healing: My New Line of Healing Jewelry

I’ve gone a while without posting anything jewelry related. I wonder if anyone’s beginning to think I don’t make jewelry anymore?

(I know… doubtful, right?)

Well, I have. I’ve been making simpler pieces, though… not the extraordinarily colorful pieces like Sherbert Supreme… which has sold, by the way! While I adore that piece, and am so glad it’s happy in its new home… I’ve turned to a quieter, more centered side for the moment to create some jewelry with healing stones.

The healing jewelry thing is a bandwagon that I’ve been watching for a while now. Not watching closely, mind you—more like, from the sidelines, peeking over the fence and shielding my eyes from the sun. “Over there I think I see this ‘healing jewelry’ stuff”. That sort of “watching”. 

But healing jewelry is far from a new concept. Certain stones have been worn for literally thousands of years to derive and nurture specific feelings.

For many years, I’ve felt the power of stones when I wear them. Certain stones—certain types of stone as well as just certain pieces (this piece of kyanite versus that other one, for example) can give off a strong feeling.

In other words, they make themselves known.

Whenever I buy stones, I much prefer to buy them in person if I can. It’s hard to know if the stones will have good or bad “juju” until you hold them in your hands.

The first stone I experienced this with was carnelian. I found a pendant and found myself wearing it when I was having a particularly rough day and needed to get back on center. As it turns out, carnelian is one of the pillar healing stones. I didn’t know that at the time, I just felt like wearing it whenever I needed a little healing.

The next stone? Kyanite. This one’s still one of my very favorites, and I often find myself creating outfits just so I can wear kyanite—especially when I need to be level-headed or restore balance in my mind.

And? That’s what kyanite does… it restores balance.

I have this amazingly gorgeous charoite pendant that my husband bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago. This particular pendant really, really struck me when I came across it in a lapidary artist's booth at a craft show. I picked it up and instantly knew it had history, and I instantly wanted to know more about it. 

When I wear that pendant, I inevitably feel a pureness in my heart and I can freely tap into the power within my soul. I’m not sure whether or not it’s psychological, but I found myself gravitating towards wearing that pendant when I needed to feel powerful and particularly strong, but also from a place of purity and honesty.

So, when I looked up the meaning and discovered that it’s a stone you should wear when you want to feel powerful yet pure… well, yeah. That made sense!

I think you get the idea. I don’t know how much stock to put into all of it, I just try to go with it and create combinations that make sense, especially combinations of stones that I've personally found to be very powerful.

The thing is... for most healing stones to really pack a punch, they need to be of a relatively good size and quality. The problem I find with a lot of healing jewelry is that the stones are so dang small, I’m not sure how much good they’ll really do.

And yet, I didn’t want to create a healing line with elaborate designs, because that’s not what healing jewelry is really about.

(Besides, I already create enough jewelry with fairly elaborate designs.)

So, I went the opposite route. I went simple. It feels right to me, that healing jewelry should be simple. It should feel like you’re simplifying things… thus the name of the line: Simply Healing. They’re attractive clusters of stones that are of high enough quality and large enough size that they’ll be impactful, yet they’re also on lightweight silk cord (most of them) and can be worn with anything in your wardrobe.

Now, my question for you is… what type of healing jewelry are you looking for? I’d like to create some necklaces that will help you achieve a specific feeling, but to best do that, I’d really like your input.

So... I need your help! 

What would you like to feel when you're wearing healing jewelry? 

Hope? Trust? Love? Passion? Creativity? Please tell me in comments! 

And, by the way, I have a few of the first batch left, for sale on Etsy. Many, many more to come!

Some recent work, and BEADS!!!

Hey there everyone! I hope your new year has started off right. Mine certainly has!

I've been working a lot, but I haven't really minded (I've been remarkably calm!), because I've been very centered lately. Volunteering with Pathways is the reason... I never feel more centered and spiritually whole than when I'm in that training room, doing whatever I can to help people shed the weight of pain they've been walking with-- some people, for a lifetime... it's an amazing process, and one that I am proud to be a part of.

On the jewelry front, I haven't been making any jewelry lately. There just hasn't been time. I am hoping to make some tonight, actually... but I do have some pictures to share of some recent pieces. That counts, right?

Without furture ado... 

First, a goddess necklace. I love this goddess. She's so beautiful and earthy! Love the way this turned out. I am tempted to keep it, but it isn't really my style. It's a little too chunky for me.

Next, we have a pretty little Carribbean number. Really great mix of types of beads here, in my opinion (and I need to get this posted to my shop asap!!)...

Ok... that's it for sale. Now on to stuff I'm keeping. I love the beads in the following necklace... I've tried several times to make a necklace that would do them justice, and I ended up ripping it apart every time. Finally, I am happy with the results. Unfortunately you can't see how the necklace hangs in this photo... but there is a clasp on each end, so I can fasten it however I like. I wear it as a super long necklace with a little doubled-over part so it looks like 2 strands. I LOVE it and get compliments on it every time I wear it! I think it's a winner...

Next... this is a remake. It's exactly the same as it was before, only this time... it's... better. Haha!! When I first started wire wrapping, I admit that I wasn't that great at it. I *thought* I was, but wow... was I ever wrong! This is one of the first necklaces I made after I started selling the pieces I was making using wire wrapping. I sold another necklace similar to this one, and I wish I could get it back and remake it for the person! 

I wear this necklace often... and I always get compliments on it. It's almost impossible to get good photos of it (well, impossible for ME, anyway)... because it's kyanite, which is ridiculously hard to photograph accurately. Kyanite, smoky quartz, and czech glass beads. I love love love this set and I'm so glad I finally took the time to redo it!! Now with perfect wire wraps! 

Next up is a necklace that I was SO excited to make! It's an interesting color combination, I think... carnelian with black onyx and Swarovski crystals. I love the focal... how I *got* this focal is a rather interesting story-- I wanted it but someone "sniped" it from me on Ebay. So, a few months ago I was looking at a Flickr contact's photos, and I noticed that she had this focal and a few others. She came upon some hard times and offered to sell some of the beads to me. I got this one and several others that I was bummed to miss out on the first time. Yay!

Last of the jewelry... a GORGEOUS pendant. The stone is charoite, and it's only found along a riverbed in Russia. It's extremely difficult to find good quality charoite that doesn't have any cloudiness or black inclusions, and unfortunately there is an abundance of fake charoite that comes out of China. I had my eye on this pendant (as well as a few others the lapidary artist had) at a craft show I did last fall... and my husband got it for me for Christmas! Sneaky man. I love him. ;-) Isn't it gorgeous? The photo doesn't do it justice, either. I decided to wear it on a simple chain...

Last but not least... I haven't been making jewelry for over a month now... but I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things soon. I think I needed a break from it. In that break I've done a lot of thinking about where I want to go next with my designs. I have finally succumbed to the charm and beauty of briolettes. I've found a supplier in Thailand and can get awesome deals from her. Here are a few of my recent purchases (well, recent, as in over the past few months)... 

From front to back, we have: natural pink ruby briolettes, yellow tourmaline pear briolettes, natural pink rubies, natural emerald, citrine (love these!), lapis, prehnite (a lovely pale sage green), and peridot. I am anxious to play with these!