Legends on garnet
Happy birthday!
Featured artist - Dora Torakis
Happy Valentine's Day!
New media - organza and beads
Step by step - tutorials
February upcoming events
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January, 2009
From MyLovelyBeads.com TeamWe are happy to meet you in 2009! Stay with us! In the 2009 first issue of MyLovelyBeads.com newsletter: info@mylovelybeads.com.Best regards,
MyLovelyBeads.com Team |
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Legends on garnetGarnet is a January gemstone. The name "garnet" comes from the Latin GRANATUS (grain), possibly a reference to the Punica GRANATUM (pomegranate), a plant with red seeds similar in shape, size, and color to some garnet crystals. Six common species (but altogether, more than ten different gemstones!) of garnet are recognized based on their chemical composition, they make up two solid solution groups: Pyralspite garnets (almandine, pyrope, spessartine) and Ugrandite garnets (andradite, grossular, and uvarovite). Garnets species are found in many colors including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colorless. The most common variety of garnet is pyrope and talking about garnet we usually mean pomegranate-seeds-like red to dark-red and purple-red crystals of pyrop. Throughout time, there have been many ancient traditions and legends about the garnet. In Greek mythology, a pomegranate is referenced as a gift of love and is associated with eternity. Nowadays, garnet remains as a gift of love and is traditionally given for the 19th anniversary of marriage. It may also be used as a gift for two-year and six-year anniversaries. Moreover, garnet is symbolic of a quick return and separated love. The most notable reference in Greek mythology where garnet is thought to be symbolized by a pomegranate, involves Hades and Persephone. It is as follows: after Hades had abducted Persephone and taken her down into the underworld, Zeus, on the behalf of Demeter, commanded him to release her. Zeus sent Hermes to ensure the safety of Persephone's passage. Hermes found Persephone seated next to Hades. Upon the sight of Hermes, Persephone was elated to be released from underworld. Hades knew he must head the command of his brother and had no choice but to let her go. Hades was eager to ensure her return. Before leaving, Hades gave, as a gift to Persephone, a pomegranate. She willingly accepted it and Hades knew that once she experienced the sweetness of the ripened seeds that she would return to him. In fact Persephone did return to Hades for three months of every year forever. Persephone's return caused the winter to arrive for the three month for which she remained with Hades. Garnet has been used by various Indian tribes to enhance the potency of fire and to heal and enlighten their people. Among these tribal groups are Mayans, Aztecs, certain African tribes, Native American and South American Indians. It has also been said that garnet has been ground up into a soft silky mass and heated to act as a medicinal remedy for fever (even yellow and other dangerous forms of fever). In medieval times, the stones were thought to cure depression, protect against bad dreams, and relieve diseases of the liver, as well as hemorrhages. According to legend, Noah used a finely cut, glowing garnet to illuminate the ark during those dark wet days and nights. Hebrew writers include the garnet as one of the twelve gems in Aaron's breastplate. Christian tradition considered the blood-red garnet as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. The Koran holds that the garnet illuminates the Fourth Heaven of the Muslims. The Greeks said it guarded children from drowning. It was also thought to be potent against poisons.
Jewelry in garnet by Albina Polyanskaya
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Happy birthday, MyLovelyBeads.com!This year in January we celebrate the 2nd anniversary of MyLovelyBeads.com! Two years seem to be a pretty short period, but it was the time for us to grow, to enhance and to improve our service. We have showcased the new artworks by award winning jewelry designer Zoya Gutina, published a lot of new articles and interesting facts on jewelry, jewelry making articles and tutorials, galleries of the most successful jewelry and bead artists. Our monthly illustrated newsletter the last issue you're reading now has already got about 5,300 subscribers and the number of them grows up every month! And we are still developing the site to make you feel better when you come to us! We love our customers and visitors! Stay with us! |
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Featured artist
It seems to be a rule that in winter we miss summertime with its green trees, bright flowers, a hot sun for swimming, fishing, eating outside, and much more! In December's issue we told you about summery bead designs by Svetlana Eltsova from Finland who creates beaded jewelry with flowers. Our featured artist today is Dana Torakis, who makes lampwork flower beads, as well as mosaic, jewelry and so on. Visiting her website you will also enjoy her beautiful paintings. Dana Torakis is 37 years old, an animal-loving mother of a 13 year old boy, living near a very pretty lake in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, with her husband, son, puppy, four cats, a hamster, a rat, a snake and five frogs. Dana says, "Art has always been an important part of my life while punching a clock and working 9 to 5 has not been as interesting. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to express my creativity in various forms, and eventually making a career of it. I began my career in art by becoming a freelance web and graphics designer in the late 1990's. Even though that was a lot of fun, I really had the urge to use my hands to create. Drawing and sculpting were always hobbies of mine, and I was really inspired to try painting. Selling paintings online as well as commissioning for a few years gave me the confidence to believe I could turn my hobbies into a career. I credit my husband with my becoming a lampwork artist. He talked me into buying a beginner kit, and I've been addicted ever since. All of the different media I like to work with contribute to new ideas and creative expression with each other. More and more, I feel there aren't enough hours in the day for all of the things I like to do. I feel I am very lucky to have a husband who supports my endeavors, and allows me to be me. Lately, besides my lampwork, I enjoy beadwork and bead weaving, glass fusing, mosaics, painting, sculpting, printmaking, fiber arts (knit, crochet, felting, sewing, etc.), and a lot more."
Lampwork flower beads by Dana Torakis
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Happy Valentine's Day!Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. An alternative theory from Belarus states that the holiday originates from the story of Saint Valentine, who upon rejection by his mistress was so heartbroken that he took a knife to his chest and sent her his still-beating heart as a token of his undying love for her. Hence, heart-shaped cards are now sent as a tribute to his overwhelming passion and suffering. Another source of the St.Valentine's Day tradition is The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea or Legenda Sanctorum) by Jacopo da Varagine that is a collection of fanciful hagiographies or lives of the saints, that became a late medieval bestseller. It was probably compiled around the year 1260. The Golden Legend still providing no connections whatsoever with sentimental love, appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II Gothicus, allegedly ordering that young men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army, believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved, as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It was a note that read "From your Valentine." Valentine's Day became the day that is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of "valentines". Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States. In the second half of the twentieth century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manner of gifts in the United States, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates packed in a red satin, heart-shaped box. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine's Day as an occasion for giving jewelry. The day has come to be associated with a generic platonic greeting of "Happy Valentine's Day." As a joke, Valentine's Day is also referred to as "Singles Awareness Day." The rise of Internet popularity at the turn of the millennium is creating new traditions. Millions of people use, every year, digital means of creating and sending Valentine's Day greeting messages such as e-cards, love coupons or printable greeting cards.
Valentine's Day jewelry and accessories by Victoriya Katamashvili
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Jewelry from organza and beads
Our second guest today, Lyuba Radomishenskaya, is a self-taught designer, learning techniques by books and magazines. While a student at the University of Communications in Odessa, she began her first craft of knitting. Soon after that she also took up satin-stitch embroidery and found her favorite fabrics to be thin, such as cambric silk. It was not until many years later, while working for Swedish cosmetic company Oriflame, that she discovered beading. When Lyuba was given a brooch that looked like a tiny bunch of flowers and a matching necklace, both made of beads, she and her family wanted to discover how it was made. They all attempted to recreate this jewelry and Lyuba discovered her enjoyment of beading. In the beginning, she created beaded jewelry using patterns from any prints, but soon she felt that she could create her own designs and decided to combine beads and organza ribbons. Lyuba designs necklaces that look similar to braids and are made from ribbons and beads. She says that the technique doesn't seem to be very complicated, and the most important piece is to work on shapes and color patterns. Lyuba was born, raised and still resides in Tbilisi, Georgia; a city rich in history, art, and culture. She began her beading in 2000 and since 2006 has participated in many different exhibitions. In 2007 she had her first solo exhibition. Her works can be found in the UK, Germany, Poland, Israel and other countries as well. Some of Lyuba's art was bought and others presented by Lyuba herself as gifts. At the end of 2008, Lyuba was a contestant in the "Faberge Modern" competition held by Forbes magazine and although she didn't take home any awards, she was very happy to take part! Today, Lyuba is still doing all of her favorite crafts, but she feels that beading is the loveliest; that's her love forever. Lyuba's philosophy is that the type of hobby doesn't matter, the most important thing is that it should come from the soul and be for the soul!
Organza and beads. Artwork by Lyuba Radomishenskaya
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Step by step - tutorials
To help our readers who makes beaded jewelry we regularly publish free tutorials. The link to Victoriya Katamashvili's "How to make: Beaded "Heart" tutorial is above, and we would like to give you some more. We believe, that you liked artworks of Lyuba Radomishenskaya, who makes jewelry using organza ribbons and beads. Below you will find her tutorial teaching how to make ribbon braids to use them in jewelry. Another couple of tutorials is about how to make a hand bell using beads. There are two versions of this instruction - to work with one needle and to work with needles. We hope that you will be able to find some time and to try highly interesting beadwork! We wish you good luck!
How to make: Organza Braid for Necklace
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Upcoming events
February 26 - March 1, 2009 Explore an American art that has developed and grown with the nation. The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival is a compilation of quilting, fiber arts, and wearable arts. It's the perfect place for quilt enthusiasts and textile artists to meet, shop, learn and explore their art. |
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