To understand the inspiration for this latest jewelry project, we have to take you to a small coastal town, in the south of France. The year is 40 A.D. (We are not talking 1940, or 1740, or even 1040, but 40 A.D., just 40 years after the meridian of time; almost 2000 years ago.)

It was at this time and place, that a small group of double prow boats (boats that come to a point at each end) arrived after a journey that spanned the Mediterranean. The boats moved without oarsmen, or even oars, but were propelled by a powerful, spiritual force. These little boats were called by the French, “navettes”.

The passengers of these tiny boats had left the holy land, shortly after the crucifixion of Christ, and were brought to this French beach just a little southwest of Marseilles. Mary Magdalene, her sister Martha, and brother Lazarus (yes, that “Lazarus”), led this little band, along with Joseph of  Arimathea, and a number of other notable Biblical characters.

Together they changed the religious, social, and economic foundations of France, and left a profound mark on the future of the entire continent. Their arrival at that tiny fishing village is celebrated today with the annual Festival of Lights, or Chandeleur.

As part of the celebrations, people make and consume bread and pastries in the shape of the little boats that brought their saintly passengers to France, known as Navettes.

It’s a Boat; It’s a Bread; It’s Jewelry

Back to the present day, a few years ago, Debby went shopping for something new and exciting to put into one of her jewelry designs. That was when she found these very special, navette connectors. The only problem, they were being discontinued, and there was only limited stock. She bought every one our vendor had left, about a thousand. They arrived, she briefly admired them, then put them into a container, in a drawer, on a shelf where they sat for years.

It was while we were cleaning and reorganizing the studio a while back that the Navettes re-appeared (without oarsmen, or even oars). It was a revelation. We brought them out to the work area, and the design just seemed to make itself.

Now we have it to share with all of you.

The main feature of each piece is the unique, marquise-shaped metal spacer beads and the Navette pendant, the “star” of our collection, is made from a circle of these navette beads. One prow of each bead is joined in the center of the star. The other ends are separated by a couple of sparkly crystals and your choice of gemstone beads. Finished, it looks exactly like an arrangement of navette pastries on a round plate.

The bracelet reminds us of a row of boats safely moored to a long, thin dock running out to sea from some small seaside village. A double row of gemstone beads keeps the navettes in tight formation.

And of course there are earrings.

Make and Wear the Legend

The navette jewelry kits are currently available in the HomeStrung store. The links are shown below. Each piece is available with one of four gemstones of your choosing: snowflake obsidian, rhodonite, lapis lazuli, or howlite. 

Supplies are limited, but for a short time we are are offering a free matching navette earring kit if you purchase both a pendant/necklace and bracelet as a set. Order the two pieces and we will include the earrings when we send the kits to you.

Have Your Own Easter Parade with Some Great New Jewelry

It’s almost time to celebrate our favoritest of all Spring holidays by making some new Bunny Jewelry. And we’ve got the funnest, most sparkliest Easter bunnies you’ve ever seen. (And yes, my grammar and spelling checker just had a violent conniption, exploded, and then uninstalled itself from our computer, which should make writing the rest of this article a whole lot easier.)

Easter has been with us for almost 2000 years and there have been a lot of changes over that time as to how it is celebrated, and one of our favorite traditions is the Easter Parade.

It All Started with a Roman Emperor…

It’s rumored that Roman Emperor Constantine the First, started the first Easter parade somewhere around 330 A.D. when he commanded his subjects to march around the city in their finest clothing to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We have it on good authority that cool new Easter jewelry was featured heavily in this celebratory march.

1550 years later (that’s around the year 1880 for those of you, like me, who are mathematically challenged) New York City formalized what had become an Easter tradition when the biggest churches in town would decorate their massive cathedrals with fresh spring flowers for their Easter service. The more well-to-do attendee’s, inspired by all of this grandeur, would follow suit by dressing up in lavishly colorful, stylish, and beautiful new clothes (along with some great jewelry) to attend their respective church services.

After the meeting, these affluent parishioners would then stroll down the avenue (with their new clothes and jewelry) to check out the other ornately decorated churches as well as checking out the other ornately decorated couples also strutting their stuff (and their jewelry) on the avenue.

Meanwhile, the poor and middle class showed up (probably without a lot of jewelry) to witness all of this sartorial magnificence and to find out what would be fashionable for the coming year, fashion a good seamstress could make at home (a lot like our jewelry).

This became the annual Easter Parade, an American cultural event inspiring an Irving Berlin song, a Broadway revue, and a movie with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire (I guess that means singing AND dancing, along with a great display of some lavish jewelry), and still open to anyone who wants to show up and show off their fashion sense. It happens along 5th Avenue, in the City, each Easter.

And did we mention that along with all of the marvelous clothing there is also a lavish amount of jewelry on display? A LOT of jewelry.

But What Does All this Have to Do with Bunnies???

Well, who doesn’t love bunnies? Especially sparkly bunnies you can wear on Easter, and every other day of the year. If Emperor Constantine had known about the Pearl & Pave Bunny jewelry, he would have definitely had his minions passing out bunny earrings and pendants to all of his citizens. Judy Garland? If she had seen the Bunnies, she would have been wearing Bunnies throughout her movie. Fred Astaire? Maybe not so much. But, who knows? We are truly lucky to live in these modern times where we can make and wear adorable Bunny Jewelry.

Our Pave & Pearl Easter Bunny Jewelry kits feature the cutest bunnies you’ve ever seen. The crystal pearls are white and the crystal-encrusted pave beads are available in 8 different colors. 

We have both earring kits and pendant with necklace chain kits available. Buy both kits, as a set, and we have a special 25% discount from now through Easter. You can get all of the details by going over to the Pave & Pearl Bunny product page of the HomeStrung store.

These bunnies make great gifts. They are inexpensive, fun, and easy to make. Each kit can be completed in just minutes (you can pretty much have the earring or pendant kit finished during one TV commercial break).

Become an Easter Trivia Hero

While you are making your new Bunny Jewelry, here is just a little Easter trivia you can use to astound and amaze your friends and family.

The Easter Bunny’s formal name is Egbert. He is married to Betty Bunny, his longtime sweetheart, and mother to his 20 children. She lets him get away from his household responsibilities once a year so he can deliver colorful Easter eggs to the children of the world.

Easter easily competes with Halloween each year as the two biggest holidays for candy sales. Americans are expected to spend over $18 billion dollars on Easter this year, and a lot of that goes to candy.

90 million chocolate bunnies will be produced, and eaten, during the holiday. Depending on the survey, somewhere between 75 and 90 percent of people eat their chocolate bunnies, ears first. Only 4 percent start with the tail.

Americans will buy more than 700 million Marshmallow Peeps this Easter season. In 1953, it took almost 27 hours to make a small batch of Peeps. Today the candy maker kicks out about 5 million of the Peeps each day, all year long, just to get ready for the holiday. Yellow is the most sold color, followed by pink, lavender, blue, and white. 

Easter was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess, Oestre, who was the goddess of spring and the renewal of life. She had a pet bird which she once changed into a bunny to entertain a group of children. Since this bunny was really a bird, it began to lay colorful eggs which Oestre then gave to the children.

Easter is a major religious holiday celebrated by Christians throughout the world. Easter Sunday has the highest church attendance of the year, followed by Christmas and Mother’s Day.

Happy Easter, Everyone!!!

Sometimes, Even We Have to Stop and Stare

You all understand about ordering things from the Internet: Colors are off, nothing ever looks quite as good as the “random samples” displayed in the pictures. and heaven help you if you don’t check, then double check, the sizes and dimensions. With modern photo manipulation and enhancement it’s no wonder things don’t always match what you thought you ordered. 

Now, we love our vendors and suppliers. They send us some amazingly beautiful stuff and rarely disappoint us. But we still experience a little anxiety, and not a few stomach butterflies on bead order delivery days (Debby orders TUMS by the case; says she just takes them for the calcium). 

So it was a big relief, and just a little exciting, when our order of Impression Jasper beads showed up and looked way, way more spectacular than the catalog pictures. We really did stop and stare. And then we began to play.

What do you do when the beads look this good, and they are just sitting there on the strands? You make something like a simple string of beads, with just a few accent beads, hardly noticeable, to enhance the beauty of the featured stones.

And that’s the other thing: Making a jewelry design where every bead is perfect and exactly the same as every other bead can be okay (a strand of quality pearls is a good example), but it is more amazing when every bead may be of the same species, but each and every one is unique and and an individual work of art. 

You could take one of these beads, put it, all by itself, onto a string, wire, or chain, and say, this is a necklace, and people would think, that’s pretty. But a whole string of these beauties? It’s like owning an art gallery in stead of just one little picture. It can be overwhelming. And “overwhelming” is what we wanted for these beads. 

The set includes a necklace, bracelet, and threader style earrings. Each piece is made up from some of the most spectacular impression jasper we have seen. The jewelry is also accented by pretty little crystal abacus beads, and some rose gold rounds with cuts so they sparkle like diamonds.

The necklace and bracelet kits come with enough rose gold plated wire to make either a “J” or “S” hook clasp. We include a rose gold accent bead if you wish to add it to the clasp.

Introducing the Impressions Jewelry Set

The Miracle of the Poinsettias

Many years ago, in a humble village in Mexico, the people in and around the tiny town were preparing for what they hoped would be the best Christmas celebration ever seen in their part of the world. The Christmas festival would last an entire week and would center around a new nativity scene the villagers would build outside the local church. Each day there would be celebrations as the nativity was assembled, and people could come to pray each morning and evening at the little church. On the final night, Christmas eve, people would come to the nativity, where they could kneel before the manger and present gifts to the Christ child. 

Just outside the village lived a little girl named Pepita. She lived with her parents, her grandmother, and two older brothers. Pepita wanted so much to be a part of all of the Christmas events, but especially, she wanted to be able to kneel before the Christ child, on Christmas eve, with a gift showing her love for the baby Jesus.

But Pepita had no money to buy a gift, and she had no way to work to earn the money as she spent each day, struggling with her family, to scratch out a meager living from their little farm. She could make a gift, but she had neither time nor materials

All week she worried she had no gift and finally confided in her grandmother. 

“Pepita,” her grandmother told her, “The baby Jesus will be pleased with whatever you give because he knows your gift comes from your heart.”

“But I have nothing,” she said.

“Just pray and use your heart to find the perfect gift.”

Christmas eve arrived and Pepita came into town praying she would find a suitable gift. Everywhere she looked she saw people, beautifully dressed, carrying flickering candles, and walking toward the nativity. All carried gifts to place before the manger. Panicking now, Pepita looked around her, hoping to see anything that would serve as a gift. All she could see were some leafy plants, little more than weeds, growing along the path to the church. They were fresh, green, and full of life. Pepita quickly gathered an arm load of the plants. Holding them close, and hoping no one would notice, she hurried toward the church.

At the nativity, all the people were gathered, the flames of a hundred candles lighting the night. People, one by one, came forward to arrange their presents around the manger.

When it was her turn, little Pepita came before the figure of the Christ child and looked around at all of the marvelous gifts. She felt ashamed of her humble offering and tried to run away. But the crowd pushed her forward. She quickly dumped her armload of weeds over the manger, and with tears welling up in her eyes, scrambled, unsuccessfully, to get away.

At first, there were a few chuckles. Then a gasp and the crowd became silent. 

“It’s a miracle,” someone exclaimed, and others echoed the remark in whispers of awe and excitement.

Pepita, unable to hide or run away, looked back to see her “weeds”, strewn in and around the manger, and as she watched, bright red flowers were appearing at the top of each plant until the manger was filled with the crimson blossoms. 

It was the best gift of all; a gift from the heart, given in love.

Whether You Have Been Naughty or Nice – You Don’t Need to Check Twice – To Make Some New Jewelry This Holiday Season

Coming up with neat, new Christmas stuff is an annual tradition here at HomeStrung. We always try to give you a new tree decoration design and at least one new holiday earring project you can make to wear or give away. 

We’ve got a new ornament that will look perfect on your tree, and we have a new earring, using a spectacular new bead we found that was just crying out to be used in a Christmas design. All things considered, we had our new designs. But Debby just couldn’t let well enough alone. She started working on a second earring.

The Christmas Flower that Grew into a Wearable Garden

The extra, new earring is a cute little beaded poinsettia, perfect for Christmas (especially if you read the legend of the poinsettia flower that goes with it). She finished it up, way too quickly, and then just kept on going, adding little poinsettias to the original flower, until she had turned that earring into a bracelet.

Well, the project was supposed to be an earring, so she made a couple more earrings to replace the one earring that turned into a bracelet, They looked pretty good with the new bracelet. But, looking at the two earrings, side by side, she started to think.

Now when Debby starts to think it is always a little scary but it is when amazing things can happen. (Steve, on the other hand, is forbidden to think without adult supervision, a fire extinguisher, and a first aid kit, all close at hand.) She moved the earrings around a little, stared at them for a moment, and then got out some more beads, a needle, and thread.

She joined the two earring poinsettias together using a third flower and added a chain and clasp. Those two earrings were now a three poinsettia necklace.

She had a new necklace AND a bracelet, but, again, no earrings.

Out came the beads and thread, and in a few more moments she had a complete Christmas jewelry set made from the adorable little poinsettia flowers. The original earring was now a garden of flowers you can make and wear this Holiday season.

Kits are available now, on sale, in our web store at www.homestrungjewelry.com. You can also click on any of the pictures to open the individual product pages.

Each kit contains detailed instructions, and all of the beads and materials you need, except thread and needles, to make your own bouquet of beautiful poinsettias. 

Give the gift of poinsettias this Christmas.

The 2019 “Hope” Snowflake Ornament Kit

The idea for this new ornament has been percolating through our minds for the last few years. We were looking for something a little fancier than our beaded star ornaments, but even easier to make.

This year we finally got it done and here is the result. It features some of our best quality glass pearls and enough sparkly crystals and Miyuki beads to send rainbows of light dancing around your room (which is why we like to hang them in a sunny window, as well as on the tree).

The snowflake kit is also on sale and you can see it in our store (Just click on the picture). 

These snowflake ornaments look good on your tree, but they will also look great on the Christmas trees of your family, friends, and neighbors, so make sure you make a few for gifting. And even your most Christmas adverse friends won’t mind a snowflake “sun catcher”, or two, flooding the house with shimmering rainbows of light.

A Special New Bead for Our New Christmas Earring

When we saw pictures of these new beads we knew we had to have them. When they showed up we had the same idea: a new Christmas earring. We each came up with new designs and this is the one that won.

The earrings come in 5 fun colors, you can choose between silver and gold-colored findings, and you get to decide whether you want white shell pearl or crystal accents.

Check out all of the shiny bead colors on the product page in our store.

These are really easy and fast to make. We personally are making a lot of these to give away to family and friends this Christmas.

There is More in the Store

We have both a Christmas Jewelry category and one for Ornaments in our store with many more holiday designs to choose from. You can see all of the Christmas stuff there.