It's time once again for the latest installment of the Inspired By Reading Book Club.
This month we delved into the anthology My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me, edited by Kate Bernheimer. The book is a compilation of fairy tales with a modern twist. As it is a rather long book, It was decided we could read as many or as few as we wanted as we found our inspiration.
After reading several of the fairy tales, "The Brother and the Bird", by Alissa Nutting spoke to me. It is based on the Grimm fairy tale, "The Juniper Tree". In this modern version, the jealous stepmother kills her husband's son, cuts him up and feeds him to his father. His sister eventually rescues his bones from the deep freeze and plans to bury them under the juniper tree. The juniper berries swarm off the tree to consume the bones. Meanwhile, the family's radio would mysteriously turn to static, send out the sound of fluttering wings and play the following song, "Mother killed her little son; what a beautiful bird am I. Father ate 'til meat was gone; what a beautiful bird I am. Sister saved my bones; now I sing and fly..."
I did a little research. Found a few photos of juniper berries. And went in search of the perfect beads.
I found them in NYC at the Whole Bead Show. These vintage pine cone shaped vintage Blue Heron beads were perfect.
I actually won these beads from the Whole Bead Shop! I entered a contest on their Facebook page - Whole Bead Shop - and won a $25 gift certificate! Yeah - I spent more!
But scored some amazing vintage glass beads.
The beads were wrapped onto a medium flat oval chain to resemble a
cluster of juniper berries. I added some pale gray labradorite to represent the the layer of ash at the base of the tree.
And a bird from Green Girl Studios finishes off the necklace.
As always, I have enjoyed the challenge put forth by fearless leader, Andrew Thornton.
Don't forget to check his blog, as well as the other participants.
I hope you'll consider joining us in the future.
Andrew Thornton Our host!
