A Necklace and a Story

Story first...'cuz it's just so cute.

I tell a lot of funny stories about Ryan here - usually regarding things he has, um, altered? destroyed? taken apart? Because I have to laugh about those or I'd go nuts.

But, really, I'm probably doing him a disservice by not talking about what a great kid he is 95% of the time. For example...

On Saturday mornings, he has Tae Kwon Do class. Which he has been less and less excited about attending lately - he wants to switch to swimming. I've been struggling with where to draw the line on letting him quit vs. forcing him to keep doing something he's not that crazy about.

So, Saturday mornings have become a bit of a struggle to get him to class with a good attitude. This past Saturday was no exception and I was really frustrated by the time we got to class so I decided to get some errands done and then come back to pick him up rather than staying for the whole class. I got back just in time to watch the end of class.

When I arrived, Ryan was working one on one with a teenager who recently made black belt. They were running through the form that he needs to perfect in order to pass his green belt test. After repeating it several times, the instructor gave Ryan a break to go get some water.

I watched him go to the water cooler and fill up two cups of water and I thought "Why is he filling two cups? That's weird."

Next thing I knew, he was walking towards me holding the second cup and saying "Here, Mommy, you looked thirsty so I brought you a drink."

I started crying right in front of the master and all the other students and parents. It was so awesome to have a reminder that there is way more to him than just the times he gets in trouble or drives me crazy around the house.

Okay, enough of that. On to the necklace:

I started this piece with a great raku shell pendant from Star Spirit Studio on Etsy. It made me think of buried treasure scavenged from the sea floor so I grabbed a bunch of other odd bits and pieces to continue that theme.

Here's a closeup of the pendant - it really has lots of great colors in it from a deep wine to a pale gold with hints of blue, sage green and rose. Of course, my wonderfully fabulous photography skills were not up to capturing any of that.

A closeup of the necklace reveals some of the goodies that have been incorporated: a patinated brass sand dollar charm from Patina Queen, a tiny blue Czech crystal rondelle, a rose and gold alabaster vintage bead from Gemme Tresor, a sterling silver seahorse charm from Sadco, a gold owl coin from a local bead store and some brass chain.

On the other side, some copper seed beads and a tiny, textured gold disk; a foiled Murano glass bead; a silver coin charm; a deep purple Swarovski shell pearl and a couple of extra Czech crystals for sparkle.

The clasp is a patinated Vintaj brass hook and eye from Patina Queen. I added a rose gold alabaster bead and brass flower bead cap as a dangle.

Of course, that's where all the beads and charms REALLY came from. In my imagination, Melusine found them as she traveled through the various oceans of the world - picking through lost treasure from sunken Spanish galleons or finding Greek and Roman coins tossed overboard by sailors wishing for extra luck.

So, I named this necklace "Melusine's Treasure."

KJ