Arizona Dreaming

The past weeks of sewing have made a nice little dent in the fabric stash and swelled the contents of my closet. This week I decided it was time to have a go at the bead stash. I'm heading to Sedona for a holiday soon and Arizona is on my mind.

Turquoise, red and silver always says South West to me. As you can see, I have a healthy stock of appropriate stones to pick from. And this picture was taken post-necklace.


Arizona Dreaming 2 Necklace
The necklace is actually a set of two that can be worn together. The two outside strands are joined together at about collar bone level. The inside strand is a separate piece that can be worn alone. I guess it could even be turned into a wrap bracelet if needed.

Arizona Dreaming 2 Necklace detail


Bead Specs: 

  • The antique looking 'silver' bird - and I do use that term loosely - is part of a pair of earrings that I bought on sale at Forever XX1. 
  • The sterling silver pendant with red and turquoise stones was an ebay steal for just a couple of dollars last summer. Sometimes you get lucky. 
  • The concho-esque square beads came from Michaels specifically for this necklace. 
  • The big chunks of 'coral' are fairly heavy - some kind of stone dyed to look like antique coral. They give a good effect.
  • The rest of the bits are from any number of bead store purchases over the years and across the continent. Some people collect postcards or shot glasses to remember their travels. I buy beads.  Wonder what I'll come back with this time!

I suppose this necklace should be called Arizona Dreaming II. It seems I'm quite inspired by my trips to the desert. Here's the original Arizona Dreaming necklace from 2010.

Arizona Dreaming Necklace
This first one features a great pewter pendant from the airport gift shop - of all places! It shows images drawn from regional Native American pictographs.

This necklace is my little homage to the monumental pictographic shaman sculptures of Bill Worrell, which I admired last time I was in Sedona.

The piece includes 4"long bone beads, silvery nuggets and smooth and carved black stone ovals.

Will there be an Arizona Dreaming III? We will have to wait and see. But if history is any indicator, I'd say yes!

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