Bead store adventures with Hermes
Yesterday the local bead store began its huge inventory sale. Though that's not normally I place I enjoy hanging out (I swear they must have some you must be at least this obnoxious to work here clause) Renee and I actually braved the remains of Hurricane Hannah (heavy rain and some winds, not too bad though it made walking kind of ... eh, wet) to get down there early.
It was far from a wasted trip. Busy enough that the employees didn't have time to sit around and mindlessly gossip with one another (though the soundtrack was a bit worse than usual, a mixed CD of about ten or twelve tracks featuring the likes of "Give peace a chance," "Good morning Starshine" and Green Day's "Time of your Life;" bad enough that any of this was playing, but they never changed the CD either so we heard all these songs about three times). Also someone ran out the store with a tray full of gemstones hidden in his shirt, while the only employee not in her early twenties (or even thirties really) who had earlier been complaining about being in pain due to some nerve condition, bolted out the door after him; she hadn't come back before we left, I so wanted to know if she caught up to him or not.
But most importantly for me personally, the solution to the Hermes prayer bead finally came to me. I was just literally pulling beads seemingly at random off the racks, about an hour before I stopped to really sort through what I was grabbing or why. In the end it all looked good to me and, perhaps more importantly, according to my far more knowledgeable girlfriend, they all look good together, too.
This is not going to be a prayer necklace per se, there will be no formal prayer to go along with this. This is more something that I'm going to wear (unlike the one I made prior with isn't anywhere near big enough), maybe not all the time but on certain occasions (a new addition to my Hermes attire, along with the black fedora and the black trench coat :-)).
This presents a certain problem in that I need to make the necklace look even better than I had before; it was passable for what it was, not bad considering I fail at art and making pretty things. I am very particular about the jewelry I will wear, if I'm going to be seen in it it has to look a certain way, it has to be acceptable to me. Truth be told, I'm really not sure I'm up to the task.
But either way, the list of beads I ended up with.
First, to use as spacers I found these pearls that had been dyed with an iridescent sheen put on them so they change colors as you look at them in the light; never the same color when you look at them, somehow seemed appropriate for Hermes. As far as that goes, they seemed to be the only unnaturally produced stone I was allowed to pick up; there were others I had my eye on until the wonderful rock nerd I'm dating (and she does love it when I call her that :-P) explained to me that they were dyed or fucked with in some other weird and interesting ways (learn a lot around her) and then I was immediately turned off them. Who knows why, but that is the way it was.
Aside from those, I have labradorite, lapis lazuli (an unusually high quality for the price, according to Renee), emerald, tiger's eye, snowflake obsidian and possibly moonstone.
Possibly moonstone because the strand I first picked up I was less and less impressed with the quality of the beads the more I studied it. They didn't have other moonstone beads of the same cut and the others they did have were more expensive (and even with fifty percent off everything I grabbed, this still cost me a good bit of money, I do hope he is happy). Renee has some chipped moonstone beads at the office and, while I don't usually like chipped beads, these are she says very small so they may be more aesthetically pleasing to me than they usually are. I'm not a hundred percent certain why I grabbed it, but I do feel there is an association here somewhere (give me time, maybe I'll find it).
Labradorite seems to be often associated with trickster deities, and I've seen of people using it for Odin and Loki before. I can easily see that, and can see it with Hermes as well.
Lapis lazuli has small flecks of gold (pyrite) in it when you look at it closely enough. Strikes me as a good representation of Hermes as a god of luck (Hermes' style of luck can be a strange thing and not always easy to recognize for what it is unless you're looking at it closely, looking at it right; I've been writing about this subject lately and have done too much thinking on it).
Emerald, dark green with the black-brown spots, in addition to reminding me of the sort of out on the road scenarios I often see him in my mind, is my birthstone. Green is always a color I have associated with him (one of many) so this one has something to do with both of us.
Tiger's Eye is still one I'm working out in my head. Like the dyed pearls, the design changes when you look at it in the right light, has a strange uncanny look to me (I like that stone). Hermes does have a very watchful quality to him, he would have to be to set up the random accidents and coincidences that he does. So perhaps it fits that way.
And then there is the snowflake obsidian. That one is almost on the tip of my tongue as to why it fits and why I grabbed it. Something about the shadowy quality to it, something about about the combination of white and black making gray (gray another color I associated with him for many, many reasons), light and dark mingling. Something like that anyway. :-P
The central piece will be that small old skeleton key I've been carrying around with me for years now. Because of some strange, reoccurring idea about keys and me and Hermes.
And its my job to turn all this into a decent enough looking finished product that doesn't appear to have been put together by a five year old and that I won't be embarrassed to wear. Its going to take me a while to figure this out, I don't even have any idea how to place things, patterns, order, anything.
And I'm working under a deadline, too.
Oh happy day. :-P
It was far from a wasted trip. Busy enough that the employees didn't have time to sit around and mindlessly gossip with one another (though the soundtrack was a bit worse than usual, a mixed CD of about ten or twelve tracks featuring the likes of "Give peace a chance," "Good morning Starshine" and Green Day's "Time of your Life;" bad enough that any of this was playing, but they never changed the CD either so we heard all these songs about three times). Also someone ran out the store with a tray full of gemstones hidden in his shirt, while the only employee not in her early twenties (or even thirties really) who had earlier been complaining about being in pain due to some nerve condition, bolted out the door after him; she hadn't come back before we left, I so wanted to know if she caught up to him or not.
But most importantly for me personally, the solution to the Hermes prayer bead finally came to me. I was just literally pulling beads seemingly at random off the racks, about an hour before I stopped to really sort through what I was grabbing or why. In the end it all looked good to me and, perhaps more importantly, according to my far more knowledgeable girlfriend, they all look good together, too.
This is not going to be a prayer necklace per se, there will be no formal prayer to go along with this. This is more something that I'm going to wear (unlike the one I made prior with isn't anywhere near big enough), maybe not all the time but on certain occasions (a new addition to my Hermes attire, along with the black fedora and the black trench coat :-)).
This presents a certain problem in that I need to make the necklace look even better than I had before; it was passable for what it was, not bad considering I fail at art and making pretty things. I am very particular about the jewelry I will wear, if I'm going to be seen in it it has to look a certain way, it has to be acceptable to me. Truth be told, I'm really not sure I'm up to the task.
But either way, the list of beads I ended up with.
First, to use as spacers I found these pearls that had been dyed with an iridescent sheen put on them so they change colors as you look at them in the light; never the same color when you look at them, somehow seemed appropriate for Hermes. As far as that goes, they seemed to be the only unnaturally produced stone I was allowed to pick up; there were others I had my eye on until the wonderful rock nerd I'm dating (and she does love it when I call her that :-P) explained to me that they were dyed or fucked with in some other weird and interesting ways (learn a lot around her) and then I was immediately turned off them. Who knows why, but that is the way it was.
Aside from those, I have labradorite, lapis lazuli (an unusually high quality for the price, according to Renee), emerald, tiger's eye, snowflake obsidian and possibly moonstone.
Possibly moonstone because the strand I first picked up I was less and less impressed with the quality of the beads the more I studied it. They didn't have other moonstone beads of the same cut and the others they did have were more expensive (and even with fifty percent off everything I grabbed, this still cost me a good bit of money, I do hope he is happy). Renee has some chipped moonstone beads at the office and, while I don't usually like chipped beads, these are she says very small so they may be more aesthetically pleasing to me than they usually are. I'm not a hundred percent certain why I grabbed it, but I do feel there is an association here somewhere (give me time, maybe I'll find it).
Labradorite seems to be often associated with trickster deities, and I've seen of people using it for Odin and Loki before. I can easily see that, and can see it with Hermes as well.
Lapis lazuli has small flecks of gold (pyrite) in it when you look at it closely enough. Strikes me as a good representation of Hermes as a god of luck (Hermes' style of luck can be a strange thing and not always easy to recognize for what it is unless you're looking at it closely, looking at it right; I've been writing about this subject lately and have done too much thinking on it).
Emerald, dark green with the black-brown spots, in addition to reminding me of the sort of out on the road scenarios I often see him in my mind, is my birthstone. Green is always a color I have associated with him (one of many) so this one has something to do with both of us.
Tiger's Eye is still one I'm working out in my head. Like the dyed pearls, the design changes when you look at it in the right light, has a strange uncanny look to me (I like that stone). Hermes does have a very watchful quality to him, he would have to be to set up the random accidents and coincidences that he does. So perhaps it fits that way.
And then there is the snowflake obsidian. That one is almost on the tip of my tongue as to why it fits and why I grabbed it. Something about the shadowy quality to it, something about about the combination of white and black making gray (gray another color I associated with him for many, many reasons), light and dark mingling. Something like that anyway. :-P
The central piece will be that small old skeleton key I've been carrying around with me for years now. Because of some strange, reoccurring idea about keys and me and Hermes.
And its my job to turn all this into a decent enough looking finished product that doesn't appear to have been put together by a five year old and that I won't be embarrassed to wear. Its going to take me a while to figure this out, I don't even have any idea how to place things, patterns, order, anything.
And I'm working under a deadline, too.
Oh happy day. :-P