A birthday

Ok, so I turned forty yesterday.....yep, I was born on the original Earth Day, back in 1970. It's a distinction I have always enjoyed, honestly. I've never had a birthday that I can remember that wasn't sunny and gorgeous, which is perfect for getting into the spirit of celebrating the planet AND a birthday. Yesterday was no different. :)

I think I had mentioned a while back about creating a necklace for myself that would be somewhat commemorative of my milestone birthday. As with most projects, I didn't get it done *exactly* on time, but it is finished now, and I love it.

Here is "The Road Less Traveled":

It's a difficult necklace to photograph, because it's long (about 21"). I wanted something that was busy and full of my favorite things....and I wanted to include beads that represented some of the best or most life-altering things that have happened in the last forty years. The overall necklace shape is a Y, or rosary shape, which for me, says much more about devotion and faith than anything else I came up with.

There is a closer look at the pendant portion:
The pendant itself is polymer clay. In making it, I thought of my favorite poem, Robert Frost's "The Road Less Traveled", from which I usually take a quote to sum up some of my approach to my life:

Two roads diverged in the wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.

The beads above the heart pendant represent, from left to right, my middle daughter Wren (she loves pink), my oldest daughter Kira (she loves the beach), my husband Travis (his 'colors' are black, white and green), and my son, Noah (he just loves).

I made the white dove bead at the top to signify the peace in family life -- having a family, knowing your family is complete, having everyone safe and together.

On one side of the necklace, I hung beads that represent achievement of one of my most important things...education:

Here, the blue and white bead is for my undergraduate degree (SUNY-Geneseo!) and the purple and white, for my high school (Go Southwest Eagles!).
It's not a great picture, but the purple and yellow bead is for my graduate degree (James Madison University).

On the other side of the necklace, are the beads representing other life choices, some that worked out and some that...didn't:
My favorites have to be the BIG hollow beads....there are four of them, one for each decade. In the rosary, there are larger beads interspersed at intervals with the smaller beads. these are called 'decade' beads, and while they don't necessarily represent actual decades in years, the larger beads serve that purpose here. In all my favorite colors, of course. :)

I used hammered copper rings and copper links as the metals in this piece, because the copper is warm and takes on a beautiful patina all by itself as the piece is worn. Circles for the cyclical nature of life, and randomly-wrapped copper links because of the messiness and unpredictability of life.

I didn't get the piece done in time to wear it yesterday, and that's okay. I'm planning to wear it some today and maybe this weekend. I'm just happy I finished it, and was able to put it together the way I want. Even if I don't wear it that much, I have it as a labor of love and to remind me of all the good things in my life.

Happy birthday to me. :)