Blog entry

Spring Colors! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!   Sitting Bull

With spring definitely here in the Borderlands, I have been thinking about colors quite a bit as the brown of the desert bursts into so many glorious shades of green.  The white and pink fruit trees have pretty much quit blooming, so the various shrubs, hardy trees, ocotillo, cactus and poppies will add their beautiful spring colors: yellow, pinks, oranges, reds, purples and others all against the huge dark blue sky.  My soul revives!

New Jewelry Designs by Shadow Dog Designs, Necklaces and Earrings

It has been three weeks since the last blog share of the new handmade earrings and necklaces in my Shadow Dog Designs jewelry shop.  I have been extremely busy making new pieces with the resulting product photography, photo editing and listing the new pieces . . . with MUCH more to come.  Shared below are the nine new pieces listed since my last “new” blog.  Also two “oldies but goodies” necklace are included, two of my favorites.  

The Sky is Already Purple - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

"The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world."

I have always loved this quote from Alice Hoffman’s novel, Here on Earth.  It is so very evocative of watching the sky turn dark here in the Desert Southwest during this glorious time of the year.  When the sky is transformed for a few minutes into a magical velvety bluish-purple color, a multitude of stars come out to to play, twinkling away.  Then the sky will finally slip into a depthless black and even more stars will appear . . . and, hopefully, a shooting star will streak across the sky.  Another reason autumn is my favorite time of the year.

The Magical Color of Purple - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade

Since purple is a fairly rare color in nature, an almost magical aura has been associated to it throughout human history.  The first historical record of a purple dye, called Tyrian purple, indicates that it began to be manufactured in the Phoenician city of Tyre in the eastern Mediterranean in the 14th century BCE.  The dye was extracted from the glands of several types of shellfish, but especially the Murex brandaris.  The process to extract the dye took about three days.  Thousands of putrefied, crushed shellfish were left to bake in the sun.  Salt was then added and the mash of glands were boiled down.  (Can you imagine the overwhelming stench of the process!!!).  It took about 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye, barely enough to dye a single garment the size of a Roman toga.  In 301 A.D. during the reign of Roman Emperor Diocletian, one pound of purple dye cost 150,000 denarii or around three pounds of gold. This is the main reason the purple color was reserved for emperors or individuals with titles of royal authority.