Piggybacking on African Genius

I was just knocked out by these Ghanaian leaf medallions in brass/copper at Happy Mango Beads. I love stuff like that--rustic, luminous, earthy, sensuous, a little wild. The selection of these Ghanaian cast metal beads was stupendous--lots more stuff on my wishlist. One of the things I like best about them is that they're so stunning you don't need any talent or imagination to make something really gorgeous with them. String them on some used dental floss and they're still magnificent. The gold pearls were sort of a no-brainer--I'm always looking for no-brainers in order to conserve intelligence for other things, like remembering where my keys are. I thought the plummy garnets would cool the piece down nicely, so that's all I had to think about. For more information on this piece, or to purchase, click HERE.



I wanted to do another piece that featured the medallions more strongly, so I used three of them in the necklace below. Again, the bronze pearls were a no-brainer, and the "oil slick" crow beads were kind of in the same texture family. Again, no brain strain. For more information on this piece, or to purchase, click HERE.





OK, now I'm off to do more brainless stuff, like watch golf on TV and play with my hair.

Delicious Booty from the Sack of Troy

No, no, not THAT kind of booty, you pervert. PILLAGING booty. The spoils of war. My friend Alan said he thought the pendant pictured here looked like something pocketed during the sack of Troy. And by golly it is. Yes it is. Yeah. I bought it from a Turkish collector of antiquities for ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

Nah, actually I made it. The other day. I disassembled a pendant given to me by an Eritrean woman about 11 years ago (thank you, Meaza). I loved the little house pendant, and wanted to combine it with something really stunning. I adore these bronze pearls and thought that was just the ticket. I made another necklace, sans pendant (since there was only one) with more of the oxidized metal beads and pearls. I like that one too. The chain is hand forged by moi, also oxidized, just so, by moi.



I have lots more of the little metal heishi beads from the original pendant, and I think four more of the large metal beads. I don't really know what kind of metal they are--I'm thinking maybe a copper alloy, possibly bronze. Bronzes are fairly common in Africa, and I can see a lot of copper in the pendant. Could also be brass, as brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. But who knows, they don't really have a lot of safety legislation in Africa. Could be plutonium. Don't let any babies chew on it. And maybe you don't want to chew on it either. I wanted to but I didn't.