I just got back home after being away for the last four weeks and as usual, am having a challenge getting back into the groove and the rhythm of making, photographing, editing, blogging, listing. I may be rambling just a teeny bit, so please be patient. I'll get there eventually. Or not. I know I've written about the ancestors before. About how shamans live with one foot in ordinary reality and one foot in the world of spirit and energy. We usually access that unseen world through trance/drug/drumbeat induced journeys. In some instances when we have been doing a lot of journeying, we flip back and forth - sometimes unexpectedly for some of us less experienced travelers. It can lead one to doubt her sanity. The great benefit is that it enlarges our personal definition of "reality". Quantum physics bears out the shamanic experience again and again. But I'm seriously digressing here. I just wanted to explain my use of the skull as a symbol of the protection of the ancestors. I use it as an invocation of the spirits and guides who I believe have our backs as we make our way through our lives. Some traditions say that they are not allowed to help us unless we specifically ask them for it. I use the skull beads as a reminder that there is more than can be seen with the naked eye - that we do not walk alone. The bead I used in this necklace is made of pyrite. See: Properties of pyrite for more information on this powerful stone. I've also used a couple of vintage coins, one from West Africa with a six-pointed star on the back (the union of the Divine masculine and the Divine Feminine) and one from Nepal with an image of Mt. Kailash, sacred to both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Coins are my shorthand for invoking abundance and wealth in all things. There is a Hamsa for protection; a Thai Buddhist amulet, blessed by monks, again for protection, good luck and wealth; a Chinese jade cicada bead, to remind you that you can always reinvent yourself like the cicada sheds her old skin; a little bronze heart - for love, of course! An Ethiopian cattle amulet, a quartz crystal point to amplify all the good mojo; some Labradorite beads (supposed to help facilitate self discovery and is a powerful protective stone). I love the ancient feel that the soft grey/greens give this piece. It has a powerful presence.

Maggie Zee on Etsy via TitleFx

urban amulets

If you travel and you’re female, you may pick up some jewels along the roads you travel. Maybe they’re talismans and amulets with purposes to protect. Maybe they’re pendants made from colorful semi-precious stones with meanings, like turquoise and carnelian. Maybe they’re one-of-a-kind pieces made by artists for the sheer pleasure of creating, no purpose … Continue reading "A Nomad’s Jewelry"

Soon it will be too hot for soup-making, but never too hot for playing with beads and charms and stuff. ...

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Explore Maggie Zee's 452 photos on Flickr!

"Every year at this time, I slap myself in the head and think, "Doh! Why didn't I pot those bulbs that I wanted to have blooming in the dark cold winter?" The reason of course is that I am the Queen of Procrastination and one basically Very Lazy Person. And in spite of that handicap, I've managed to identify and begin to overcome some of my fears. In 2014, I want to deal with my fear of fire issues and learn how to use a torch (for soldering) and a kiln (for metal clay charms and beads)." This was the post that I started to write a few days after Christmas. I never finished it because I was feeling a bit under the weather and despite dosing myself with vitamin C and various herbal concoctions, I managed to develop a serious case of pneumonia. Breath is so fundamental to being alive that I really freak out when it's a struggle to get oxygen. All creative endeavors were left to fend for themselves during the last four weeks, but I'm starting to feel almost human again and this afternoon took photos of an ambitious piece I finished just before the holidays. The amulet pouch is made of a vintage piece of Hmong applique. I sewed it into a pocket with a little piece of velcro to close it and hung it on a beaded necklace. I started with one strand, but it looked too unbalanced, so I added strands until it felt right. Labor intensive. I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandmother when I was growing up. She truly believed that "idle hands are the devil's workshop", so from the time I could hold a large, blunt-tipped needle, I was given handiwork to keep me out of trouble. My favorite things to make were "pockets" out of sewing scraps with the pick of my grandmother's button box as closures and embellished with my own crude embroidered flowers. I was thinking of those days when I was making this piece. May the New Year bring us all good health and peace ...

urban amulets via TitleFx

Soon it will be too hot for soup-making, but never too hot for playing with beads and charms and stuff. ...

Soon it will be too hot for soup-making, but never too hot for playing with beads and charms and stuff.

Krobo amulet bracelet via TitleFx

I've been busy. So busy. Taking old things apart and making them into new things. Sometimes the creative flow just takes over and it is glorious. If you heat copper wire on the gas burner on the stove until it's glowing red, it makes it nice and soft and malleable. Why did it take me so long to try this? This one started when I reworked an older piece that I was tired of wearing. By the time I was done, there wasn't one single element of the original necklace that I had kept. Things take on a life of their own. Garnets and some great brass rings and beads. My little kiln is having temperature issues so I haven't been making any components. Also, it's been too hot to test fire it. Labradorite eye with copper beads and charms. Lapis lazuli. Carnelian. A chunk of citrine was the inspiration for this one. Faceted horn beads, Beautiful handmade vintage African brass beads, borosilcate, jade, ammonite, ancient quartz, Tibetan mala beads. I really love this one. Hence the number of photos. Tuareg earrings with no mates are reincarnated. A request for a copper wire evil eye amulet inspired all kinds of variations. This one with Chinese jade cicadas and citrine nuggets. This one with amethyst and bronze clay charms. A bunch of evil eyes with different gemstones - this one green jade. Red jasper for strength and courage. Little body positive pink ceramic goddesses. Serene Buddhas. Buddha hands and Tibetan copper skulls to invoke the wisdom of the ancestors. Leather bracelet with Czech glass beads, bronze clay discs, copper and brass. Jasper and petrified wood. Chinese symbols for longevity. Artisan lampwork bead. Gorgeous colors. I may need to keep this one. Years ago when I had some leftover Ice Resin from a pour, I coated a few Lunaria pods. They have tiny bits of Chinese herbal burn medicine instructions collaged onto them and little faceted citrines. I've had the African hand cast spirals for ages but hadn't known what to do with them. More simple evil eyes. Labradorite on this one. It's called "The Shaman's Stone" or the stone that "Heals the Healer". I was not attracted to Labradorite when my daughter was first working with it. I took me awhile to appreciate the subtle flashes of blue and purple, but it has become one of my favorite stones. I think it works well with bronze, silver and copper. Carnelian and horn. Green Tibetan turquoise. Time to take a breather and see what to try next. If you haven't visited my Etsy shop, Maggiezees, please check out all the new listings. Shipping is FREE right now to US customers. I'm sorry that I can't extend that offer to Canadian and EU buyers.

As I was looking over my last blog post to see if there was anything I absolutely had to change, I heard my Grandmother's voice whispering soft and papery in my mind's ear: "You would wish your life away if you could." It made me think of this poem and I had the need to share: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean– the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down– who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do With your one wild and precious life? You know, it's just that I want to see how everything turns out at the end, like flipping to the last pages of a novel. Then I can relax and enjoy the ride, grasshopper that I am.

urban amulets

Lots of new stuff to share. I am way behind in photography and listing on Etsy and all the things I think I should be doing. Just indulging in the pleasures of creating. For a while now, I've just assumed that blogging was pretty much passe'. People I was following are now using Instagram and Twitter and I have enough trouble trying to keep up on FaceBook. But last night I checked out my blogger account and found to my great surprise that I am still getting hits. Lots of them actually. So for anyone who is still along for the ride with me, here is a lengthy update. I originally had a large labyrinth pendant on this necklace, but I wasn't completely happy with it. I had tried out something different for a bail and only realized after it had come out of the kiln and I was polishing it, that it looks just like the Trilithons of Stonehenge. I think the shape and size work much better. I used the second pendant with red jasper, carnelian, horn, and red tiger eye. This one had been incomplete for ages. It features an old silver and turquoise pendant from Tibet along with silver and turquoise, a jade cicada, old silver earring orphan, Scorched Earth spike, Thai amulet and Whitby jet beads. Jet is a cousin to both amber and coal - very popular in Victorian times for mourning jewelry. The weather hasn't be cooperating with my intent to photograph pieces outside - all the damp and dank has put a layer of green on my slate and whalebone props so I've had to look for some new backgrounds. The one above is the inside covers of a book I've had since I was a child - Sir Richard Burton's translation of "The Arabian Nights". I love the aged look of the paper. Some of the other photos are taken on the back cover, but it's not big enough to show an entire necklace. This piece is kind of minimalist for me. It showcases an unusual pendant of green Prehnite. The photos don't begin to do it justice. I love that it's not clear and perfect. The inclusions and irregularities and color shifts within the stone are fascinating. Prehnite is sometimes described on New Agey crystal websites as "the stone that heals the healer". It's supposed to help release a person's natural psychic abilities and deepen meditative states. I just know that I am drawn to work with it on an aesthetic level if nothing else. Rutilated quartz. Another favorite stone of mine. I love the threads of golden rutile running through the beads. Encased in time and space. Gorgeous porcelain spikes by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth on Etsy. I-Ching coins, old African cowrie shells, bone Buddhist mala beads, Kuchi coins, and Czrch glass talhakimt amulets. A little raw. A little wild and tribal. Steel wire was called for here. Faceted chalcedony beads with my hand made bronze clay discs. A twisted copper jump ring and vintage gold washed brass "raised dot" Yoruba beads from Africa. Another shield amulet with impressions of the dancing ladies inspired by North African cave paintings on both sides. A large smokey quartz crystal, recycled amber colored glass Krobo beads from Africa and tiny ones from Indonesia. I like to squish the clay out with my fingertips rather than rolling it out. I want to see the marks of my hands and leave no doubt that these pieces have been a labor of the heart and soul. Another spike from Petra Carpreau. The colors are glorious! A rough faceted carnelian, a Thai amulet of a Kalachakra Wheel in sandstone, a bone spike incised with an Ohmmmm, a little wooden skull from a Nepalese or Tibetan prayer mala, and one of my bronze hands - open to repel negativity and receive blessings. Suspended from a bronze ring on a leather choker. I had sent this one along to Belle Armoire for consideration, so it will be listed as soon as I get it back. And these two. I need to take some better photos so I can list them. The first one makes me think of woodlands - of Spring shoots poking through damp autumn leaves. Renewal and promise. Green garnets, wooden disc beads, and seed beads in many shades of green. The last one is golden - sun shining through dew drops. Sparkling with faceted citrines, amber, and Peruvian opals. It's going to be very hard to part with these two.

Maggie Zee

I've been busy. So busy. Taking old things apart and making them into new things. Sometimes the creative flow just takes over and it is glorious. If you heat copper wire on the gas burner on the stove until it's glowing red, it makes it nice and soft and malleable. Why did it take me so long to try this? This one started when I reworked an older piece that I was tired of wearing. By the time I was done, there wasn't one single element of the original necklace that I had kept. Things take on a life of their own. Garnets and some great brass rings and beads. My little kiln is having temperature issues so I haven't been making any components. Also, it's been too hot to test fire it. Labradorite eye with copper beads and charms. Lapis lazuli. Carnelian. A chunk of citrine was the inspiration for this one. Faceted horn beads, Beautiful handmade vintage African brass beads, borosilcate, jade, ammonite, ancient quartz, Tibetan mala beads. I really love this one. Hence the number of photos. Tuareg earrings with no mates are reincarnated. A request for a copper wire evil eye amulet inspired all kinds of variations. This one with Chinese jade cicadas and citrine nuggets. This one with amethyst and bronze clay charms. A bunch of evil eyes with different gemstones - this one green jade. Red jasper for strength and courage. Little body positive pink ceramic goddesses. Serene Buddhas. Buddha hands and Tibetan copper skulls to invoke the wisdom of the ancestors. Leather bracelet with Czech glass beads, bronze clay discs, copper and brass. Jasper and petrified wood. Chinese symbols for longevity. Artisan lampwork bead. Gorgeous colors. I may need to keep this one. Years ago when I had some leftover Ice Resin from a pour, I coated a few Lunaria pods. They have tiny bits of Chinese herbal burn medicine instructions collaged onto them and little faceted citrines. I've had the African hand cast spirals for ages but hadn't known what to do with them. More simple evil eyes. Labradorite on this one. It's called "The Shaman's Stone" or the stone that "Heals the Healer". I was not attracted to Labradorite when my daughter was first working with it. I took me awhile to appreciate the subtle flashes of blue and purple, but it has become one of my favorite stones. I think it works well with bronze, silver and copper. Carnelian and horn. Green Tibetan turquoise. Time to take a breather and see what to try next. If you haven't visited my Etsy shop, Maggiezees, please check out all the new listings. Shipping is FREE right now to US customers. I'm sorry that I can't extend that offer to Canadian and EU buyers.

A few of the pieces didn't work out. They crumbled to a brown dust. I was very disappointed, to say the least. The rest were also rough and brown, but when I tried polishing them, the results were much closer to what I had hoped for. Not sure what I did wrong, but I ordered a couple of different types of bronze clay and I'll try them out and see what gives the best results. I'm reminding myself that I've had the same disappointments with pottery and fabric dyes, so I just have to learn from it and move forward. Sometimes I can be such a grown-up! A few new Etsy listings:

urban amulets

Soon it will be too hot for soup-making, but never too hot for playing with beads and charms and stuff.

Krobo amulet bracelet via TitleFx

www.etsy.com/shop/maggiezees

Explore Maggie Zee's 452 photos on Flickr!

I've been busy. So busy. Taking old things apart and making them into new things. Sometimes the creative flow just takes over and it is glorious. If you heat copper wire on the gas burner on the stove until it's glowing red, it makes it nice and soft and malleable. Why did it take me so long to try this? This one started when I reworked an older piece that I was tired of wearing. By the time I was done, there wasn't one single element of the original necklace that I had kept. Things take on a life of their own. Garnets and some great brass rings and beads. My little kiln is having temperature issues so I haven't been making any components. Also, it's been too hot to test fire it. Labradorite eye with copper beads and charms. Lapis lazuli. Carnelian. A chunk of citrine was the inspiration for this one. Faceted horn beads, Beautiful handmade vintage African brass beads, borosilcate, jade, ammonite, ancient quartz, Tibetan mala beads. I really love this one. Hence the number of photos. Tuareg earrings with no mates are reincarnated. A request for a copper wire evil eye amulet inspired all kinds of variations. This one with Chinese jade cicadas and citrine nuggets. This one with amethyst and bronze clay charms. A bunch of evil eyes with different gemstones - this one green jade. Red jasper for strength and courage. Little body positive pink ceramic goddesses. Serene Buddhas. Buddha hands and Tibetan copper skulls to invoke the wisdom of the ancestors. Leather bracelet with Czech glass beads, bronze clay discs, copper and brass. Jasper and petrified wood. Chinese symbols for longevity. Artisan lampwork bead. Gorgeous colors. I may need to keep this one. Years ago when I had some leftover Ice Resin from a pour, I coated a few Lunaria pods. They have tiny bits of Chinese herbal burn medicine instructions collaged onto them and little faceted citrines. I've had the African hand cast spirals for ages but hadn't known what to do with them. More simple evil eyes. Labradorite on this one. It's called "The Shaman's Stone" or the stone that "Heals the Healer". I was not attracted to Labradorite when my daughter was first working with it. I took me awhile to appreciate the subtle flashes of blue and purple, but it has become one of my favorite stones. I think it works well with bronze, silver and copper. Carnelian and horn. Green Tibetan turquoise. Time to take a breather and see what to try next. If you haven't visited my Etsy shop, Maggiezees, please check out all the new listings. Shipping is FREE right now to US customers. I'm sorry that I can't extend that offer to Canadian and EU buyers.

A dear friend gave me a strand of glass Krobo beads from Ghana for my birthday a few years ago. They are "Mue ne Angma" or "Writing Beads"...

www.maggiezee.blogspot.com via TitleFx

Lots of new stuff to share. I am way behind in photography and listing on Etsy and all the things I think I should be doing. Just indulging in the pleasures of creating. For a while now, I've just assumed that blogging was pretty much passe'. People I was following are now using Instagram and Twitter and I have enough trouble trying to keep up on FaceBook. But last night I checked out my blogger account and found to my great surprise that I am still getting hits. Lots of them actually. So for anyone who is still along for the ride with me, here is a lengthy update. I originally had a large labyrinth pendant on this necklace, but I wasn't completely happy with it. I had tried out something different for a bail and only realized after it had come out of the kiln and I was polishing it, that it looks just like the Trilithons of Stonehenge. I think the shape and size work much better. I used the second pendant with red jasper, carnelian, horn, and red tiger eye. This one had been incomplete for ages. It features an old silver and turquoise pendant from Tibet along with silver and turquoise, a jade cicada, old silver earring orphan, Scorched Earth spike, Thai amulet and Whitby jet beads. Jet is a cousin to both amber and coal - very popular in Victorian times for mourning jewelry. The weather hasn't be cooperating with my intent to photograph pieces outside - all the damp and dank has put a layer of green on my slate and whalebone props so I've had to look for some new backgrounds. The one above is the inside covers of a book I've had since I was a child - Sir Richard Burton's translation of "The Arabian Nights". I love the aged look of the paper. Some of the other photos are taken on the back cover, but it's not big enough to show an entire necklace. This piece is kind of minimalist for me. It showcases an unusual pendant of green Prehnite. The photos don't begin to do it justice. I love that it's not clear and perfect. The inclusions and irregularities and color shifts within the stone are fascinating. Prehnite is sometimes described on New Agey crystal websites as "the stone that heals the healer". It's supposed to help release a person's natural psychic abilities and deepen meditative states. I just know that I am drawn to work with it on an aesthetic level if nothing else. Rutilated quartz. Another favorite stone of mine. I love the threads of golden rutile running through the beads. Encased in time and space. Gorgeous porcelain spikes by Petra Carpreau of Scorched Earth on Etsy. I-Ching coins, old African cowrie shells, bone Buddhist mala beads, Kuchi coins, and Czrch glass talhakimt amulets. A little raw. A little wild and tribal. Steel wire was called for here. Faceted chalcedony beads with my hand made bronze clay discs. A twisted copper jump ring and vintage gold washed brass "raised dot" Yoruba beads from Africa. Another shield amulet with impressions of the dancing ladies inspired by North African cave paintings on both sides. A large smokey quartz crystal, recycled amber colored glass Krobo beads from Africa and tiny ones from Indonesia. I like to squish the clay out with my fingertips rather than rolling it out. I want to see the marks of my hands and leave no doubt that these pieces have been a labor of the heart and soul. Another spike from Petra Carpreau. The colors are glorious! A rough faceted carnelian, a Thai amulet of a Kalachakra Wheel in sandstone, a bone spike incised with an Ohmmmm, a little wooden skull from a Nepalese or Tibetan prayer mala, and one of my bronze hands - open to repel negativity and receive blessings. Suspended from a bronze ring on a leather choker. I had sent this one along to Belle Armoire for consideration, so it will be listed as soon as I get it back. And these two. I need to take some better photos so I can list them. The first one makes me think of woodlands - of Spring shoots poking through damp autumn leaves. Renewal and promise. Green garnets, wooden disc beads, and seed beads in many shades of green. The last one is golden - sun shining through dew drops. Sparkling with faceted citrines, amber, and Peruvian opals. It's going to be very hard to part with these two.