Reiki lvl 2

Today I had my lvl 2 reiki attunement. Well, a re-attunement really, as my first lvl 2 attunement was back in November. It was sort of a 'rushed' session with another reiki master, not mine. Having just missed the class with my reiki master as I was abroad for work at that time, and as I really wanted to send healing energy to my mom, who was not very well, I had my attunement then. However, when I got an email a week ago from my reiki master that she is offering level 2, I jumped at the opportunity to be re-attuned, as the atmosphere in the class is great, and she is teaching us a lot of things related to reiki and energy.

They say reiki can change your life, well it definitely changed mine! Two weeks after my attunement early November I quit my job where I was employed for the last 10 years, then found another job, quit that as well within a month, and early January this year I found a third job, where I am currently employed.

I haven't thought of it like this until now, to connect all these coincidental changes with my reiki attunement, but today as we were talking in the session with the other students, I realised that it definitely shifted the energies around me. I let go of what was old and not needed anymore in my life and started searching for something new, that is closer to my purpose. Well, I'm not sure if I found THAT, but I definitely found a job that is merely 3 minutes away from home, which is an improvement over the old, I'd say, lol!

Now let's see what turmoil this re-attument will bring during the next 21 days of cleansing.

Emeralds: The May Birthstone

Emeralds are the May birthstone - which means that the emerald is my birthstone. I really love emeralds, and I would create with them all the time if they weren't so expensive. Emeralds are quite difficult to get in bead form (ones that are affordable and still look good that is), but sometimes I get lucky. My dream is to have huge emeralds to create with, but I don't know that it will come true anytime soon.Emerald is considered to be one of the "Big Four" gemstones (the others are diamond, sapphire, and ruby). It has a hardness of 7.5 to 8 on the Moh's scale. Today the best emeralds come from Columbia although emeralds are found in Australia, the United States, and Africa (Zimbabwe, most are small emeralds but of high quality). At one time, emeralds were mined in Austria and also Russia. There are emeralds in India that have been found recently (Rajasthan) but most are lower quality and made in to beads. However, the emerald has been popular in India since ancient times although no one is really sure where they came from.

The emerald is a beryl, that is, it belongs to a group of gemstones, including aquamarine, that are known as beryls.
All the bracelets shown here can be found on our Emerald Bracelets page on the Cluny Grey Jewelry website.

The earrings above can be found at Cluny Grey's Emerald Earrings page.

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A little chain

I made this bracelet in an hour this evening. I took the idea from somebody who showed a similar bracelet but one row only. I doubled it up and here is the result.

The Golden Compass comes out as a movie!

If you've read Philip Pullman's trilogy, then you should be thrilled as December 07 it will be out as a movie!

In the meantime it seems that I found my little demon, lol!

Chainmail again

After almost a full month of abstinence, here I am again making jewelry with rings.
This bracelet took me almost a whole day, it was not difficult, but too many small rings to pre-close and add. It is a japanese pattern, called 6 in 1.

I did spend a nice time doing it and chatting with Alex, who was standing by me in my time of Bookmooch sorrow *grins*, so I dedicate this bracelet to Alex. I will definitely remember our giggles and Machiavellian plans when I am wearing it, lol.

What else has happened since I last updated the blog?
Not much really. Last Friday was my birthday, one last year closer to 40 *sigh*. Not everybody that I expected from congratulated me, but everybody who really matter, did, so I'm quite pleased :)

Swarovski, Charoite, and Coral Earrings

Once again, I'm behind in the blog. But I do have excuses such as a very long week-end in Philadelphia (thank goodness, it was nice there!), and many commissions keeping me busy. I have made a few pairs of earrings though, mostly of coral, just to get in that summer mood that I can't wait to have every year.
The top pair are dangling coral earrings in a very pretty pink colour. I personally prefer the beaded studs with drops although I know that earwires are much more popular lately. Although coral was widely used in the Victorian era for all seasons, today most coral jewelry is worn more in the Spring and Summer than any other time.
The earrings above are made of simple coral ovals mixed with sterling silver and hung from some of my favorite Karen Hill Tribes earwires. These earwires are so dramatic! So young and modern! I love this look. The coral earrings below feature blue sponge coral and cool dapped sterling silver disks with circle cutouts of different sizes. The gemstones around the blue coral rondelles are ocean jasper that I picked out of a long strand in order to get these particular colours.

The earrings below are made with huge Swarovski Helix crystals with an Aurora Borealis finish, sterling silver rings, then hung from small sterling hoops. They have loads of sparkle to have just one bead apiece!
Finally, these earrings are made of some very good Russian charoite (all charoite that is real is Russian) ovals and amethysts. They hang from some of my favorite earwires with amethyst cabochons bezel-set into the front of the earwires. Because of the charoite, these earrings are listed on my Unique Gemstone Jewelry page.
I hope everyone is getting ready to enjoy the summer, and of course, as everyone knows, summer is much more enjoyable with the right jewelry - wherever you get it!
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New musings - on spirituality

It seems that I am going in circles - at times I am very engaged in making jewelry, at other times I only think of reading a good book. But pretty much all the time I am preocupied with something else - spirituality.
Although I have many hobbies, these three seem to go round and round in circles, and they are those that I never really get tired of.

Ever since I stumbled across astrology a few years ago, when I learned to interpret my natal chart, and learned something new about myself in the process, I discovered a completely new side to life, which I was not aware of at all previously. I am by no means a religious person, actually all my life I was an atheist (that comes with having previously lived in an (ex)communist country, I guess). However I started discovering new depths to life which intrigued me, and made me want to know more about them.

Thus started my journey in discovering myself, my spiritual path.
I learned to be open minded about subjects such as reincarnation, the survival of soul when the body dies, and I started learning how to see auras, how to meditate, learned about astral travels and OBE, and generally let new things enter my life without preconception and judgement.
Also learned (or I am learning) to let go of what is old in my life and doesn't resonate with what I feel currently anymore. This means physical clutter, mistakes, people and old notions. It is not easy, but definitely necessary. And unavoidable.

While browsing the net for spiritual subjects, I met some wonderful people along the way, on different forums and user groups. One of them is the Mystic Familiar forum, where there are a lot of people on the same spiritual journey as I am.

But more on this later.