My Egyptian Broad Collar Complete

Looooong story ahead; don't mind me. It's a nostalgia trip to look back at my phone WIPs.

This has been the most work-intensive magickal item I have crafted, even surpassing my wand. I do not recall putting nearly so much effort into a ritual piece before- not even my ritual robe (the second attempt, anyways), with its lower hem in hieroglyphs and an original prayer painted onto it.

Sitting at the computer and armed with Google and a few lovely pictures, my intent had been simple- to craft a real life Egyptian collar that shone like liquid metal. In my meditations with my patron deity, Anubis, I received a flexible golden collar. It looked like liquid and if there were beads or if it was hammered yet somehow flexible, I've no idea. But looking online, I saw the Broad Collar of Wah* and it got the gears going in my head- I wanted to try to reproduce that design but in copper, my favorite magickal metal of choice. (I'd recently drifted away from silver, no longer needing its receptive effects, and thought that a piece in copper to amplify energy would be wonderful- plus, I believe copper to be the gender-harmonizing metal in between feminine silver and masculine gold, so it fits me quite well.) I spent about 3 evenings simply staring at this piece. It was designed and made for an Egyptian official's funeral- laid on the man's chest and never worn while living. But how was it made? I researched different kinds of beading stitches, slowly putting names to different visual effects until I discovered it- the ladder stitch. It seemed to match up and I learned it was the Egyptians who came up with it. A few days later, I went to the Bead Room uptown, expecting to retrieve all copper glass beads of varying lengths. Then I fell in love with the real imported copper beads they had, and bought them out. Hopefully the effect would look like liquid metal!

I have never woven a necklace that wasn't single-strand before, and have gone through many different kinds of cords, all of which have broken at one point or another. I settled on 10 lb Beadalon WildFire. Then I began- thrice unsuccessful at simply weaving a simple ladder stitch with round copperToHo glass beads. I was frustrated as hell until I discovered the simplicity- the tension on the thread is what laid the beads on their sides. Ecstatic, I made a chain. Then I made a copper bugle bead chain, and another. Gradually I formed several long chains of ladder-stitch copper tube beads, glass seed beads, and smaller, rough-edged copper and bronzy glass bugle beads (they came as a $3 multipack and I figured it would add texture and visual effect- besides, they were the only seed bead bugles which would match!).

Once I had all the chains (an average of 8 to 10 hours a day for about a month; 5 hours on work days after work into the wee hours of the morning, and with good music for motivation to sit for that long), I curved them and discovered that they lined up on one side, but fell short in varying lengths on the other side. Crushed, I forged on and gradually evened this out. During this time, a trip to Savers showed me a gem- a matching set of ankh earrings and an ankh pendant from the Coppersmith Guild (or whatever it was called; can't remember at the moment). My fiance roughed up the too-shiny surface for me.

It took five tries to get the vertical cross-threading through the bead columns before I discovered that even pinning the chains to a foam mat with the proper neck curvature, I had stitched improperly and had to undo it all, as it wasn't curving properly and was becoming a rectangular mat again. The sixth try was the charm. Pinning it down segment by segment, carefully stitching, I managed it. Finally, I could pick up and hold the thing. Then I decided that I wanted to use my leftover copper round and ovular beads- and the topmost and bottom-most rows formed, leaving me with the interior to fill up. This later became a more in depth research of gemstones. Copper goldstone amplifies energy. Bloodstone purifies and was associated with Anubis. Garnet was used for courage and purification and an otherworldly currency. Amethyst was for royalty and spiritual purposes; lapis lazuli for eloquence as well as nobility and the colors of the sky goddess, Nuit.

It took half a month before I could figure out the clasp. Originally I wanted Anubis head clasp beads, and I'd planned to sculpt them with epoxy resin clay. I did decide on the clay, but Milliput was too hard and cracked apart easily. A few days ago I picked up "Mighty Putty" (as seen on TV!), tested it- much easier to work with. I rolled out 'back bars', lengths of tubular resin clay with holes punched through them via needles while the stuff was still pliable. After 24 hours, Copper Penny by Revlon became my best friend- it matched almost exactly to the necklace. Following that, I attached the back bars via each outer edge of each side of the main part of the necklace, and then up through each hole several times with doubled-up thread, then to the middle hole and outward. Still doubled, I added a few more beads, then crafted a resin clay hoop and a resin clay toggle/horizontal mini-bar, whatever you want to call it. Hoping it would work, I measured it carefully around the back of my neck and hoped for the best- I had only one shot at making the piece which would hold up the rest of the 13 ounces of weight!

It worked. Breathless, I see now how beautiful it turned out. It has represented both my power gem (amethyst), other gems I've worked with, protection from the scarabs, and a massive amplification capability. Simply even sitting next to the copper, working with it, I felt more energy behind each thought I would think as I crafted it; energy would sporadically surge along me as I sang along with wordless Egyptian reconstructed melodies on Youtube for days on end while working on it.

Let's hope it lasts for a lifetime. This is a crowning achievement for me and it will be a very sacred ritual item. It has been quite the journey and already my mind is playing with a 'just for fun' piece with aurora borealis beads... but I'm extraordinarily happy that such a massive undertaking has been completed.

Blessed be!