After last week’s sneak peek of the talisman jewellery I’m currently making, I thought I’d share the locket that’s my own current favourite talisman, and how I came to choose it.
From, and featuring an image by, one of my very favourite artists, Nicola Taylor, it shows her self portrait titled “Listen to the Colour of your Dreams”.
How to choose yours
A talisman should be a wearable reminder of something – a way to keep your dreams or wishes, hopes or beliefs, close to you. It should also be something that makes your heart sing – whether in colour, or style, or some kind of indefinable quality you can’t quite put your finger on.
Things to think about:
- the colours that speak to your soul
- words that have always meant something to you, whether in your mother tongue or another language
- objects or animals (or both) you are drawn to
- things people automatically associate you with
- your dreams, aspirations and hopes – what could represent them?
There are no right or wrong answers, and only you will know when you’ve found the one (or more) which speak to you. I made a unicorn pendant as another talisman when I couldn’t find quite what I was looking for after months and months of looking. But you’ll notice that this locket doesn’t have a unicorn in sight…
It does however have lots of the qualities from the list above – it’s in my favourite colours, it speaks to my dreams, it’s by someone who constantly inspires me (as much for how she escaped the city as for her photography work) and it’s a locket. I have had an obsession with lockets and boxes and keys since I was very small – they’re almost talismans in themselves. What better place to keep a secret?
And of all Nicola’s work, this is the image I love the most – it makes me happy in the most indescribable way. (Yes, indescribable even for someone who loves to write and talk as much as I do!)
So I was thoroughly overexcited when she released some of her images on lockets, and especially chuffed when it turned up with a matching card I can frame!
And of course your talisman doesn’t have to be jewellery – what would you choose?
Wishing you unicorns and happiness,
