Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Blogoversary Hop :: Sleeping Giant

I am coming up on 2 years of blogging, which seems to have gone by so quickly! I can not believe how many amazing people I have meet through this experience, and I am so glad that I decided to start a blog. I decided to ask a few fellow bead weaving friends of mine to join a challenge using a focal as a theme. I saw this piece and just had to ask for a custom order!

Luckily for me, five lovely ladies agreed to help me celebrate using this amazing focal created just for us by Jana of Happy Fish. If you have not yet heard of Jana, then do click over and check out her beads. She is one very talented artist! I now have quite a stash collection of her work! So there will certainly be more coming from me using her beads ... just as soon as I can part with them.

Today I will be showing you what I did with my focal from Jana. I call him Sleeping Giant because he looks like the mountain range here in Connecticut with the same name. But as I continued to look for background on the local park, I realized that there are quite a lot of places with the same name. There is one in Ontario Canada, Colorado, Hawaii ... just to name a few. 

The local legend (from the Quinnipiac Native American Tribe) goes something like this. The giant stone spirit Hobbomock (a nasty character in many old stories) became angry about his people being mistreated, and stomped his foot so heavily that he changed the course of the Connecticut River that runs from the top of the state to the bottom. To prevent him from creating such havoc again in the future, the spirit Keitan (the 'good guy') cast a spell on Hobbomock to sleep ... forever. Thus lying down and creating the mountain that looks like a Sleeping Giant.

And one more quick little indulgence that I found while searching was this icicle discovered in the Seattle area that revealed the same profile of our focal. Did they carve that? or did it melt that way? Got me, but that is cool!

Ok, so on to the focal. I did fight just a little with him at first. I originally had him upright (like the picture at the beginning of the post). But he just kept wanting to lay down in all designs. So I ripped the first piece apart (after being roughly 75% done with it!). But I like him so much better laying down, and now he does look like the sleeping giant.

I decided to use a graduated grey, to twilight, to deep blue colorway to represent the night sky. A few sparkles here and there for the stars coming into view. The grey below is a night reflection on water. So you'll have to use a little imagination to see my guy laying down for his long sleep!

Now that I've shown what I've done with my focal from Jana, I'm off to see what everyone else did with their designs. I simply can not wait to see what each of them have created! Here is everyone's link so you can check out their reveals.

Janet Bocciardi Honey from the Bee, Christine Altmiller One Kiss Creations, Bobby Rafferty Beadsong, Therese Frank Therese's Treasures, Alicia Marinache All the Pretty Things, Cynthia Machata Antiquity Travelers (that's me)

23 comments:

  1. That icicle is incredible!!
    And your piece is truly unique! What a great focal! Happy 2nd blogoversary :)

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  2. Oh, wow - love your story (as usual) and I'll now have to find the Sleeping Giant in my province :) As I already told Christine, I've went just the opposite way: mine is dancing, your beauty is sleeping away! I just love the representation of night in the neckpiece (and I must apologize for not using the seed beads, they just didn't want to be in the dance :) ) ~ down to the sparkly stars, beautiful detail!
    Thank you again: both for inviting me to your party, and for your continuous friendship! I appreciate both very, very, very much :)
    Happy blogo-versary!

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  3. I am so happy you are here!!! Happy Blogoversary!!!!! I am still chuckling at the thought of our Sleeping fellas. Yours has such a tranquil look, sleeping among the stars and water. This really is sensational! It has a peaceful flow to it. Gorgeous beading and color choices. Your beads give him full support but still keep him the focus. Beautiful! Thanks so much for providing this challenge and for your friendship :-)

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  4. Happy 2nd Blogoversary Cynthia, thank you for inviting me to play along in your Blogoversary Hop I had a wonderfully frustrating triumphant time with my little guy.
    I love your piece it is oh so your style. It is funny how, so far you and Christine, pictured pretty much the same thing you two have a fantastic creative connection. I saw everything you described in your piece before I read your description, with the exception of the reflective water. Gorgeous job!
    Therese

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  5. Happy 2nd Blogoversary Cynthia. Seems like much longer than that that we met. I love, love, love what you did with your Sleeping Giant and as usual I love your stories and the interesting facts that you share on your blog. Love the focal from Jana and all the other designs that your friends created. What a great idea. I do need to pick your brain on the technique you used with the beaded section of your piece. The way you graduated the beads and got that twist into the strands. Awesome. Looking forward to many more years of blogs from you my friend.

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  6. Cynthia, as always, you've taken us on a wonderful journey and introduced us to a new place. And I love how you interpreted the inspiration with the focal, with everything from the night sky to the dark lake. So beautiful and so full of meaning! Thank you for letting me be part of the celebration -- of course, you give us a gift every time you post!

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  7. The result is so beautiful Cynthia! The colors really complement the piece. I love the tale of the Sleeping Giant! There used to me a Man in the Mountain in NH but he crumbled some years back. There is however still an Indian head in one of the rocks. Very cool! That icicle image is amazing.

    I have enjoyed visiting your blog over the last couple of years. Your posts have a little bit of everything including beautiful jewelry, humor and great history. Love it!

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  8. Happy Blogoversary. Gorgeous necklace design and I love the story attached to it.

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  9. The reason I love to read your blog is the "history" learned - awesome post! And yes, the focal does resemble a sleeping mountain range - but that icicle near Seattle - fascinating! Beautiful piece and such a lovely read today! Happy Anniversary!

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  10. I just love that you and Christine went a similar direction with a similar story! I am not familiar with the sleeping giant story so find it interesting that it was so pervasive. It reminds me of the constellations that were mapped out by the sheep herders of long ago. I guess if you're outside a lot more and gazing at the landscape (sky)... you start seeing these things. I absolutely love the multiple seed bead strands and the graduation in color - stars... very wearable!
    On another note, I have a feeling Jana is going to love seeing all these interpretations!

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  11. Your necklace is beautiful and I like how your giant is sleeping.

    Congratulations on your 2 years. What a great way to celebrate. I'm off to see what the others did. :)

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  12. An amazing bead and I love what you've done with it! Beautiful color harmony and creative vertical interpretation . Looking forward to checking out the other pieces too :)

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  13. Happy Blogoversary Cynthia! I'm so glad you started blogging! :) I loved the story and your piece turned out beautiful!

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  14. Happy 2 year Blog-o-versary!! I love your stories - always educational and entertaining - beats the heck out of my science/fungi/office duty days!! And you necklace us just super. Love the colors ( you know me!) and I think the way he's laying is fabulous - looks so cool! And the icicle -wow!!

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  15. These are sensational! What great focals to work with, love the design, so many aspects to them!

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  16. Wonderful choice for a focal. When I saw your badge I was immediately intrigued. Your rendition of the sleeping giant is marvelous.

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  17. Happy 2nd anniversary! I bet it feels like 2 years of blogging has really gone by fast!
    I sure enjoyed the stories and the focal by Jana is really fantastic - so special that she created it just for the occasion. Your necklace is stunning, Cynthia. I like how you positioned the focal and my goodness, the beadwork is out of this world.
    Btw....catching up on your last post: WOW. What an amazing collection of photos. I like that - taking images throughout the day. There's no other way to really get a feel for what your day is like. I should try that! :-) And boy are up and out the door early!

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  18. Happy anniversary, Cynthia. I always, always look forward to a new post from you! You so often transport us to unexpected places and I always click away thinking more creatively. Like today! I'm totally in awe of this neckstap you've created to showcase Jana's focal. Night skies and glassy waters...brilliant!

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  19. Happy Blogiversary! What a neat story...I can see him laying down in the mountain photo! And what a beautiful necklace!

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  20. Happy two years ;o) I love this post! I love your creation and I love all this information, thank you, all the best ;o)

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  21. What a great post! And happy 2nd Blogiversary! Times does pass quickly doesn't it? I hope you stick around for a long time!

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  22. Happy blogiversary!
    What you did with that sleeping Giant is so cool. I love the twisted bead chain that works perfectly with your little man. Cool beans!

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  23. Happy anniversary, dear Cynthia!!!:)))
    Besos, Marcela♥♥♥

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