Starlight - for Maria

We went camping at Big Sur last weekend. What a magical place that is! Miles and miles of gorgeous coastline, redwood trees and oaks, and millions of stars at night. I got inspired. :o)
Since I'm short on art-time lately and more practically-minded, I made another gift. A birthday gift in this case. It is for my best friend Merry who's birthday is coming up next Monday. I know she reads this blog, although I'm not sure how regularly, so this is kind of a surprise spoiler. Maybe I get lucky and she's busy with life outside the computer and won't read this before she gets her necklace in the mail.

Anyway, I got the idea for this week's project from the starry night ar Big Sur and from Wandering Star . I bought a bracelet from them about 5 years ago along with a natal chart and interpretation. The bracelet broke after 2 years of wearing it almost every day. I kept the beads in a little plastic bag and I just came across it the other day. I'm in a rather transitional stage in my life right now, so I thought it would be nice to fix it and wear my universe again. I emailed them to ask how much it would cost if I send my beads back and have them make a necklace and it turned out to be around $90, which was a little bit more than I wanted to spend. And so I did it myself. I feel this way my necklace has even more meaning to me.

I had so much fun doing that, that I decided I wanted to make one for Merry also. So I went to all the bead stores around here trying to find appropriate beads for all the planets. This is an accurate necklace. There's one bead for each degree on the natal chart (360 all together). The Earth bead symbolizes the Ascendant which is the sign that was rising on the horizon at the minute of your birth (also called Rising Sign). So if you imagine the earth bead being the horizon line, you can see the position of all the planets at the time of Merry's birth. If you look at the sun for example, it is just above the horizon on the other side of the circle, the sun was about to set when Merry was born. I've marked all the other planets in the photo above to explain it a little better.

When you wear the necklace, you're literally at the center of your universe. It helps to ground yourself and focus on your true path in life.

Hey Puppe!
Ich hab Dich lieb! Und ich hoffe, die Kette kommt heil an...
Deine Fransi

Rebel

Sorry, if I seemingly abandoned the Found Art Tuesday community. You can find out why if you read a little further down, my last three posts... but now I'm back on track! :o)
I wouldn't really consider myself a rebel. But I have opinions and ideals and I stand up for them.
One thing strongly believe in is being the change you want to see. I hear a lot of people complaining about this and that, but they don't want to change their own patterns and conveniences. A lot of people also think that they don't make a difference, although there are soooo many single persons who DID make a difference. And when you bring them up they say "Oh Gandhi, well that was different..." Different how? He was willing to give up something of himself for a greater good. That different. But we're too obsessed with ourselves and our own problems. Every once in a while though something moves us... a movie, a song, or news reports. And we change something... we start buying locally, we buy organic, we change our lightbulbs. And you know what - it works! WE CAN change something. YOU can make a difference. There are 300 million people in the US for crying out loud. People just have to hear things over and over again to believe them (that's why advertising works...). Think milk is good for you? Have you ever thought about WHY you THINK that? Because you heard it over and over again - from the people who are trying to sell you milk. Got pus? Milk does! (haha, I just had to put that in there...:o) )

Anyway. I don't believe in the way we "produce" our food. Factory farming, genetically modified corn, soybeans, wheat..., processing till no nutrition and life is left in it and then microwave the heck out of it...

For me living vegan is not only about not eating animals. It's about treating others the way you want to be treated. It's a lifestyle of kindness and compassion. It's about awareness. Knowing what your consuming, where it comes from and how it was produced, not only food... but also everything else you buy, from your toothpaste to your shoes.

I don't want to take myself out of this. I'm not better. I too buy processed food out of convenience, or buy non-organic sometimes because it's cheaper... and plastic is just all over the place. It's not about giving up living and crawling back into the cage and live from love and sunshine - it's about being aware, wanting to change and changing - one step at the time.

It's very liberating, too. Just like making art and leaving it behind for somebody else. Once you give up something, you'll notice that you don't need or want it anymore. And once you give it all up, it is all yours.

My piece for this week is a refridgerator magnet and I'm not sure where I'm going to leave it behind... some restaurant maybe...

off to some vegan sushi now... :o)