BACK
TO HEART INDEXAMULET MINILOCKET
What is it about hearts that makes them a frequent subject of jewelry? Is it like Valentine's day all year? In Nicolette Stessein's Book (which i'm told is out of print now) Beaded Amulet Purses, Project one is a heart bag by Lynne Irelan and Nancy Male. It has been made over and over again by many beaders. I had no idea until I ran into Susan Aguirre at a UMBS bead retreat. She has a section of her web site that shows how different this bag can look when made by different individuals with different tastes (including my own off-center taste). Here's a link to it.
http://idt.net/~wtw29/hearts.html
This article will describe a small heart-shaped amulet pouch that I call an "amulet locket". It is formed by making two flat brick stitch hearts with seed beads, encircling the these hearts with two rows of circular brick stitch, then forming the sides of the pouch by connecting the two hearts with rows of square stitch. The small pouch thus formed is then fringed in the normal manner using the center bead of the square stitch side as the anchor bead. The seam where the brick stitch meets the square stitch is hidden with a lovely ruffle formed by using a four bead pick-up edging stitch. A strap of choice can then be added by using the three beads in the top row of the square stitch on the side.
The heart amulet locket had two major influences in its creation. the first was Bead and Button issue Number 9 (June 1995), the second was the death of my 91 year old grandmother. Bead and Button Number 9, p7 ("I Love Beads" by Kathleen Burke) describes improved brick stitch where the thread on the edge doesn't show, and has a beadwork pattern for a heart using flat brick stitch and delicas. Same issue p17 ("Medicine Bags" by Jennifer Clement) shows lacey side edging which when done slightly differently can be made to look like a ruffle. After my grandmother died I was looking for something to make and send to my two cousins and aunt who I stayed with for the funeral. Even though Gramdma had a good life and was old, when she died we felt her loss profoundly. I remembered a mourning broach I had seen at Henry Ford Museuem (Dearborn, MI). I designed a heart pin using the heart pattern in the B&B article, but modifying it for 11/0 seed beads. I circled the heart with two rows of brick stitch and sewed it to a leather backing to attach the pin finding, then edged it with with the 4-bead pickup edging to hide the stitches where it was attached to the leather. I made two pins:one for each of my cousins. My aunt was more problematic since her arthritis was bad and she would have trouble with the pin. Seeing the two pins together gave me the idea that I could make a small amulet pouch by attaching the two hearts together with square stitch on the sides. I made the strap long enough to just slip over her head. Hers looked so good that I made one for myself. In the gallery is a photo of the second amulet locket I made which I call "In Memoriam". It is fringed with daisy fringe to resemble forget-me-nots for remembrance. Inside is a medal Grandma gave me.
This part of my web site will address how to make it. The heart amulet locket can have many looks and moods depending on the colors, the fringing and the strap design. Check out the different looks that I have been able to give it in the Gallery