Bead Soup: Avalon :: Priestess of the Isle

This is my final reveal from Kalmbach's Bead Soup with beads from Thistle Beads. This piece is from a pattern that I saw in my favorite inspiration book: Bohemian Inspired Jewelry. I've been eyeing it for awhile and wanted to find just the right elements to pull into this lariat. 

This design is from a beautiful pattern called Flirtation Lariat by Lorelei Eurto. It isn't exactly what she had, but I never follow any pattern exactly as you all know. That is just me. But wow, do I love this pattern. 

The lariat somehow just said medieval to me, and I wanted to put a twist on it. This could be in the Mists of Avalon or perhaps from a Druid inspired outfit. I confess, the story of the Mists of Avalon just took me away to another world. And I could read it over, and over.

If you like fantasy and all the stories about court life, you might want to check this book out if you haven't already read it. It's one of my favorites. It is loosely written around King Arthur's Court, but from a completely different angle. 

For this lariat I used a similar deep rich color, which is similar to what Lorelei used in her pattern in the book. It's a dark wine velvet with wrie wrapped stones, brass findings (leaves, knot, end crimps) and briolettes of lemon quartz. The brass Celtic knot is a 4-sided version with meanings of various earthly elements:

The four directions: North South East West

The four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

The four elements: Earth Fire Water Air

The four Celtic festivals: Samhain, Beltane, Imbolc, Lughnasadh

The Celtic knots started appearing in history after about 450 AD, but their meaning is often hard to determine because there is little written history on their purpose. There are rumors that this design is a four-leaf clover design - a symbol of good luck, and legends that the four-cornered Celtic knot design was created as a symbol of protection. The Druids were said to believe it was for the four major energies, or Gods, for governing a specific quadrant of the world. These four-cornered emblem were used to invoke these powers for protection (in the home, during battle, etc)

I mentioned in my post last Sunday that I would have a second give away to my readers on Wednesday. If you are interested in throwing your name into the hat please just leave me a comment telling me you want to enter this one.

For those following my recent posts, I am happy to say I still have power and I'm online! While we have trees down in every direction from hurricane Sandy, and lost the fence, it really could have been so much worse. We are safe, dry and online. Thanks for all the many posts and concerns. I'm hoping all you out there across the East Coast and throughout the Northeast corridor made it through the storm without serious damage or much worry. Stay safe!