Vikings, anyone?

Raise your hand if you like vikings? Both culture, and the movie? Well, I do.

This is one of the perks of living in Sweden: either you want it or not, you are immersed into Norse culture and folklore. For instance, we have old viking graves close to my in law's farm. One day, I will show the pictures.

The story of this necklace dates a couple of years ago. An old good colleague of mine wanted to give a necklace to his wife to celebrate 20 years of their happy marriage. His wife is very interested in ancient petroglyphs (rock carvings). I do not have any pictures of my own and do not want to infringe any copyrights, but to get an idea you could type the Swedish word for it, "hällristningar" into your internet browser and have a look for yourself.

The custom order was to embroider a replica of petroglyphs and incorporate her birth constellation into it, which is Leo. So, I did that.

One of the most common motifs in the Swedish petroglyphs are boats and the Sun. I went for it and made an embroidery on a piece of salmon skin (what can be more viking than salmon?).

The Swarovski chatons represent the Leo, the crossed circle is the Sun, and the jeweler's metal mesh under the boat represents the Baltic sea (with some blood in it; blame HBO and Ragnar Lothbrok for that. By the way, their Swedish "accent" was ridiculous and Uppsala is NOT BUILT ON THE ROCK!! I know because I live in Uppsala. But I still like the series!).

 

And to add even more viking flair, I incorporated a viking knit rope of sterling silver. It killed my fingers just a bit, despite of the wire being dead soft, but I went for a 22 Ga one, so it was quite tough to weave with. And I had to invent beadwoven end caps to finish off the ropes. My beading (viking) BFF Anna Lindell has taught me the art of viking knit a couple of years ago. 

As far as I heard, my colleague's wife was glad to get it, and my colleague seemed to be happy, so I call it "mission accomplished".

That is today's story!
By the way, I got Neil Gaiman's "Norse Mythology" in a Christmas present from my viking husband. Highly recommended!!

Have a nice day, folks!
Olga