A bag for Gaia

This, too, was meant to be a Yuletide gift. Boy, was I late.

My friend was pregnant at the time - she's since given birth to her son, and fortunately I did manage to get this to her a week or two before the birth, which was my aim (the "hard deadline").

When I started in November; she was quite pregnant already (big baby this time around!), and I was thinking how wonderfully suited my friend is to pregnancy. I think of her as a water spirit, but she was so perfectly at home as this grounded mother, growing heavy with child. So I began to bead a sort of mandala pattern for her, all in blues and greens, studded with lapis and jade.

I stitched together a kind of medicine bag from softest back suede; the bag is maybe ...5 or 6 inches wide by about 8 inches long, I think? I don't quite remember. The entire bag is edged in tiny seed beads of palest lavender. One on every stitch.

I made a very long, 4-strand braided strap from leather, so the bag could easily be slung, messenger-style, diagonally across the body and hang at the hip. I left long fringes hanging and weighted them with silver beads to help them swing just right. My fingers turned black from working all those dyed skins.

I wanted it to be a gift to bring sweetness and light, so I stuffed it with a sage smudge, palo santo sticks, lavender balm and special soap, tea for breastfeeding mothers, etc. And off it goes. Not much to say about this; it's just a pretty thing I made for a friend whom I love and it turned out quite perfect!