Joulukuun Kivi: Turkoosi

Turkoosi on yksi vanhemmista ja tunnetuimpia kiviä, joita on käyttänyt mm. shamaanit, kuninkaat, soturit ja intiaanit. Turkoosi tulee rankan kielen sanasta "La Pierre Turquoise" tarkoittaen "turkkilaista". Kaunis kivi on ihastuttanut mm. egyptiläisiä ja turkoosi kiveä on käytetty Tutankhamonin hautanaamion rinta-alueella. Turkoosin kiven toi markkinoille ranskalainen kauppias, joka löysi tämän ihastuttavan kiven matkatessaan itään Turkkiin etsimään kauniita esineitä, joita Euroopassa ei ollut. Hänen huomionsa kiinnittyi turkoosi korukiveen ja myyjä kertoi hankkineensa niitä Persiasta. Palatessaan Ranskaan kauppias esitteli asiakkailleen löytämiään upeita kiviä, joita hän oli Turkista tuonut.

Aito turkoosi on melko harvinainen ja se saa kauniin värinsä ympäröivistä kivilajista. Sitä esiintyy alumiinipitoisten kivilajien halkeamissa ja raoissa. Sen vuoksi myös aidossa turkoosissa on tummia juovia. Turkoosin väri voi vaihdella vaaleasta vihreästä voimakkaaseen siniseen. Sinistä turkoosia syntyy, kun kivilajissa on alumiinin lisäksi kuparia ja vihreän värin saa aikaan rauta.

Turkoosi tunnetaan viisauden, voiman ja suojeluksen symbolina ja on suosittu korukivenä. Turkoosia käytetään usein kaulakorun riipuksissa, mutta sitä käytetään myös muissa koruissa kuten korvakoruissa, rannekoruissa ja sormuksissa. Faaraot pitivät usein turkooseista kiveistä koristeltuja kaulakoruja yllään. Niillä on katsottu olevan parantavia voimia niin ruumiiseen kuin mieleenkin. Kivien on katsottu myös luovan yhteyden esi-isiin. 

Turkoosi resonoi totuuden energian kanssa ja hoitaa tehokkaasti kurkkuchakraa auttaen kommunikoimaan rehellisesti ja viisaasti. Ujoja ihmisiä turkoosi kannustaa osallistumaan enemmän keskusteluihin ja luottamaan siihen, että heidän mielipiteillään ja puheenvuorollaan on arvo ja merkitys. Julkisille puhujille turkoosi antaa rohkeutta, tyyneyttä ja varmuutta.

Turkoosi tunnetaan myös otsachakran stimuloijana. Se herättelee selvänäkökykyjä ja intuitiota. Meditaatiossa voit kokeilla asettaa turkoosi kiven otsachakran kohdalle. Turkoosi tasapainottaa chakroja, rauhoittaa mieltä ja tasaa tunnekuohuja. Kivi sopii hyvin avuksi masennukseen, uupumukseen ja voi olla avuksi myös paniikkihäiriössä.

Turkoosia pidetään yhtenä runsauden ja onnen kivistä. Turkoosin kanssa työskentely kutsuu elämääsi tasaisempaa ja runsaampaa rahavirtaa ja antaa inspiraatiota keksiä uusia tulonlähteitä. Turkoosi tuo onnea ja hyvää terveyttä.

Työpaikalla turkoosi sopii johtajille ja niille, joiden työ edellyttää selkeää kommunikointia ja tiedonkulkua esim. laki- ja virkamiehille. 

• Kovuus: 5 - 6 Mohsin asteikolla
• Hiotun turkoosin pinta on vahakiiltoinen tai matta
• Halkaisemalla turkoosin voi selvittää onko turkoosi kivi aito vai ei
• Turkoosi tunnetaan Yhdysvalloissa intiaanikorujen raaka-aineena
• Turkoosia on louhittu Siinain niemaan esiintymistä jo 4000 vuotta ennen Kristuksen syntymää
• Persiassa turkoosia pidettiin pikkusormessa, sillä uudenkuun heijastuksen näkeminen turkoosin pinnasta toi tullessaan hyvää onnen ja suojan paholaisen houkutuksia vastaan
• Turkoosia on käytetty amulettina kaikenlaisia putoamisia vastaan, erityisesti ratsastajien keskuudessa estämässä ratsastajaa putoamasta hevosen selästä
• Venetsilaiset kauppiaat toivat turkoosin Eurooppaan Turkin basaareista
• Amerikan intiaanit käyttivät turkoosia tuomaan hyvää metsästysonnea ja tuomaan voiton taisteluissa
• Turkoosia ei saa ultraäänipuhdistaa, liottaa kuumassa vedessä eikä kivi saa joutua kosketuksiin kodinkemikaalien kanssa

~ Minna

Happy November

Can´t believe it´s November already! Time, days and weeks really flies or at least we Finnish people said that way when time goes by so fast.

As some of you may or may not know that I was participated in October IG challenge which hosted by Artbeads and in this blog post I wanted to share some of my creations from week 2. The challenge itself was fun although I was time to time little behind from posting daily task. My original plan was to create cool things from seed beads that I have but many times I ended up using polymer clay since Halloween theme creation was so much easier to make than beading.

If you haven´t read my first week post from this challenge, you can quickly read it here.

In the second week of the challenge we shared e.g. our favorite creations from this year, Halloween crafts, bead storage and trick or treat creation.

First photo shows my favorite creation from this year. It was bit hard to choose just one but eventually I eneded up with my newest addition - Crocheted anklet that I made this Summer. The anklet project was fun to make, I never had crocheted with beads so that was completely new thing to me. I thought that crocheting beads would be difficult but surprisingly it wasn´t. I enjoyed to make these anklet from Toho seed beads which I love to use in my beading projects. These beads have beautiful milky effect surface with silver lined inside. Toho beads are high quality glass seed beads and they also consistent quality so you will get clean and nice beaded jewelry.

Second photo shows day 9 task which was Fiber Fun. I chose beautiful yellow tassel earrings which I made while ago. For these earrings I learned to make tassels and used 100% cotton yarn to make the tassels. These earrings comes in four different colors and each one I have combined with different colored wire which I have hand shaped. When I looked these earrings, they make me happy. These are statement looking earrings but still light as feather when you wear these.

Third photo shows my crocheted bracelet. I chose "Survivor" because October was breast cancer awareness month. This month remind me of my favorite Finnish singer whose fan I have been ever since I was 11 years old. My favorite singer had breast cancer about five years ago and  when I saw the news, it stopped me. I started to think why I liked her songs so much and how much fun I had in her gigs. She had brought me so much joy when my life was so depressing and I was experience hard times with my mom. I´m really happy that she survived from that cancer and looking forward her new album. I chose multicolored green yarn for this bracelet because green is color associated with vitality, nature, tranquility and health. I have more these kind bracelet in different affirmation ring such as "Happiness", "Joy" etc.

Fourth photo shows my Halloween crafts. For some reason I wanted to make skeleton heads. I originally planned to make the skulls from beads but couldn´t find nice tutorial in order to practice so I molded these heads from photo that I took from web. It was fun to work with polymer clay. If the work was ruined, you can always roll the clay in your hands and re-shaped it however you like. I´m pretty pleased with these skull heads that I made. I also made my very first pumpkin that day. I added small leaves. I have no clue which kind leaves pumpkins have but this little pumpkin have tiny ordinary leaves that I also hand shaped. I give my BIG Thank You to my dearest friend who guided me through my polymer clay creation. I couldn´t do them without her inside tips and advices 💕

Fift photo shows my "Withcy Vibes" earrings. Witchy vibes day task was bit hard for me since I couldn´t find classic witch hat beading tutorial that I would like to do and this day task came quickly and hadn´t any time to order missing supplies. I live in small town and there´s no craft store anymore. I usually order all my jewelry supplies from online and occasionally buy them craft store if I visit bigger city. So this day I though to share my tassel hoop earrings that have three faux suede leather tassels that I have attached into stainless steel hoop. These earrings goes well for modern witch.

Sixth photo shows my "doughnut earrings" that I made from polymer clay. Challenge was to create something for the National dessert day and my first idea was to make doughnuts. I thought they would be easier enough for me to make since I´m not so talented polymer clay artist. These doughnuts was fun to make though. My friend have perfect polymer clay color for the doughnuts that I used and I made orange icing with black sprinkles. I tried to make realistic looking icing by molding it freely with my fingers. It was bit difficult since icing needed to be thin as possible but too big for the doughnuts. Even placing the icing on the doughnuts had to make carefully since I didn´t wanted to ruined my texture that I made on the doughnuts.

Final three photos shows my bead stores where I keep all my jewelry supplies and beads. I bought long time ago two black boxes with two different sizes plastic drawers. These were actually sold as a toolboxes but as a jewelry maker I only saw how neatly I can storage all my jewelry supplies and I labelled each drawer so I can find more easily specific jewelry part what I need. These two boxes have served me well and they were also very affordable price to buy. Money saving tip: So next time when your husband or boyfriend goes to buy tools, go with them. Surprisingly many men´s tool fit also for jewelry making like side cutters, different tool boxes, hammers, files, sandpapers etc. which cost many times much more in jewelry supply store. 

Here was my second week update. Many jewelry that I made during this October challenge can´t be find on BlueBellJewelry´s Etsy shop yet but I´m working on to add them in the shop as soon as possible. Next time I will write about December´s birthstone "Turquoise" so stay tuned and have a wonderful Autumn.

~ Minna