Rainbow Child Has Arrived!

Rainbow Child Becoming

I had a carved bone moon face cabochon that I like a lot, and a rainbow bowl of seed beads collecting from various projects that I'd finished. So I decided to make something wonderful with them. That's how Rainbow Child is coming about. 

She's inspired by the birth of my sister's first grandchild, Maya. Maya's father wrote a lovely message about her name, which I'll include here with his permission - Tom and his wife Hawa are very special people, he works at the U.S. State Department as the Director of Afghanistan, and she also works at the State Department. Good people doing hard work to make good things come about. Tom said:

"We were drawn to the name Maya for the breadth of its meanings across cultures and societies. In Arabic, Maya means 'honorable matriarch'; in Old Persian, 'generous.'  Maya was also Buddha's mother, who loved unconditionally. In Nepali, Maya means 'love'; in Hebrew, 'spring' or 'brook.' Like so many of our friends and family, Hawa and I love the variety of humanity in this world and are humbled by its beauty and power. We hope she'll find strength in exploring and celebrating the many ways people live, love, and create, that she'll know there's more than one way to go about the world."

So this little bead necklace is a celebration of the birth of Maya, who will grow up with a wide understanding of peoples, a love and respect for many cultures - she is a rainbow child.  

Side View

I started sewing and sewing, first doing the peyote stitch border around her face. Then added some flat glass flowers and leaves that I got while I was in Oregon. The bead stores there are fantastic. I had a lovely rose bead which I wanted to place near her heart, so I drew a mark on the backing so I'd remember the spot.

Her blue rose is now in place.

I found that the ceramic leaves are moveable which is kind of fun. They swivel on their attaching beads. 

She is becoming surrounded by her rainbow.

I sewed and sewed, enjoying the colors, and she became surrounded by her lovely rainbow. 

She's all dressed up with her rainbow fringe.

I carried the colors through with her fringe, and sewed the border and backing on. She's backed by soft blue ultrasuede. Tomorrow she gets her necklace, which will be a continuation of the colors that are on the top, blues and greens, probably in a double seed bead necklace with crow beads every so often to bring the two strands together. I'm just deciding whether to put a clasp on this one or to make it long enough not to need one. It's a matter of about 2 inches. Hm....we'll see. Tomorrow is a good day to look forward to.

She's made during the time of the beautiful super moon, and since most of the work was done at night and in the wee hours I'm sure she's soaked up some of that good feminine energy. 

More to come when she's finished. She'll go up on in Dreamkeeper Creations on Etsy for sale as soon as she's ready!

Update - here she is with her wonderful seedbead necklace chain. No clasps so it flows ever so smoothly and slips right over your head, sitting right at the 4th chakra energy center. The necklace is done with FireLine so it's very strong, and it's composed of sections about 1 and a half inches long, joined with crow beads of different colors. The overall color of the necklace is greens grading out to blues with little touches of the colors in the pendant added throughout. LOVE!

Namaste,

Jen