Wire Jewelry Idea: Millie Fee’s Legend of the Lakestone Cuff

by Rose Marion, Wire-Sculpture.com

Wire Jewelry Idea for
October 26, 2011

Today’s Wire Jewelry Idea, your dose of wire jewelry inspiration, is the idea to use your wire jewelry in a story – either create a piece of wire jewelry that fits in a story, write a story about a piece you’ve already made, or even create a piece of jewelry that tells a story! Today we’re featuring Millie Fee’s bracelet and accompanying story. If you’re as passionate about storytelling as Millie Fee is, this may come naturally to you. Whether or not you choose to create stories to accompany your work, I guarantee Millie’s story will get your imagination going!

And, if you’re interested in submitting any Wire Jewelry Ideas, simply head over to our form (Click Here). Your Idea could be featured on our Blog! You don’t have to write a story, like Millie did. You can share a picture of some really interesting architecture, ironwork, or shapes that have inspired your wire jewelry designs. Share any Wire Jewelry Idea you like, and if you have an online store, we’ll even link to your shop if we choose your Idea to be featured! (And right now, we’re especially interested in what holiday shapes or images inspire you). Now, let’s hear from Millie!

Millie says:

The Modified Celtic Bracelet Cuff is a blending of 2 of my fondest teachers, Perri Jackson, and Dale Cougar Armstrong. I used a modified version of Perri Jackson’s Celtic Weave to form the braided side-cuff; and a modified form of Dale Cougar’s “Ornate Cabochon Bracelet Topping” from her Wirework book….turned side-ways! You see; 2 of my greatest passions in life are writing and jewelry making. The stories, are whimsical legends, that I will leave to my 4 grandchildren…plus a few pieces especially made for them, complete with pictures.. The 2 grandchildren in this story, that accompanies this piece, are for and about my eldest son, Richard, and his children: Isabella Rose and Phillip; and his fiance, their mother. The story involves my granddaughter, Isabella Rose (born in April), and her brother, Phillip;…. And all the rest of the loving characters in our family;……We all need to have magic in our lives!

(You might have spotted Millie’s cuff in our Jasper Profile)

The Legend of the Lakestone
by Millie Fee

She stood by the window with her back to the locked, heavy wooden door. Her eyes desperately searching the road far below for any sign of rescue as the evening light faded and her room grew darker…nothing.

“This can’t be right!”…”It just cannot be happening like this!” Bella feverishly whispered. “Please!, Please! Papa! Nana! Phillip! Help us! Where are you???”

For the first time in her young life, Isabella felt truly all alone and afraid. She slowly closed her eyes and leaned her throbbing forehead against the cool window-pane, wearily allowing the blur of events from the previous 3 days to wash over her. The fact her Mother and Father—the King and Queen, had been captured as well as herself, by the Count, had been a shock. They had all been warned not to travel too close to his borders, especially without protection. They had heard that he was hungry for their power, but they never thought that he could touch them…not in the borderlands. The waves of shock were nauseating as they washed over her.

This was a totally different world here, in his lands-alien and harsh. There was no magic here. Only endless miles of barren, sick, earth and jagged rocks jutting out at heinous and tortured angles. That, and the unrelenting moans and screams from the cruel punishments inflicted upon his subjects. A perfect portrait of his black and twisted soul!

Now, the Count was demanding access to their land-holdings so he could rule both realms. She couldn’t recall ever seeing trees or birds or any flowers, since entering his land….frantically searching her memory. They both knew that she could not survive without them! His corruption would be complete if he gained control over the magic of their land.

This was what he had carefully worked towards… He had always wanted unfettered access to their beloved “Enchanted Woods and the Lake”. The Count had never faltered in this one obsession….one way or another it would be his…he had already determined that it was his destiny.

Her heart constricted in fear…

“No! That will never happen… not this way…Never!” She fiercely whispered to herself, wincing as she gently rubbed the bruises around her wrists.

Papa, Nana, and her older brother Phillip, were the ones that were able to get away. She caught sight them briefly, at the Woods edge, as the Count’s ghouls sprang from no-where and roughly grabbed the King and Queen, and herself in a well thought out ambush, as they had emerged from the Enchanted Woods. They had valiantly put up a long fight… long enough to effectively cut off access to the Woods; and to stop the ghouls. And for Papa to make sure that Nana and Phillip, had melted safely back into the woods unseen. But in doing so, they themselves were also cut off from their escape…then it was over. She had watched horrified as she and her parents were placed into shackles and chains.

The hellish ride back to the Count’s castle and the demands that their families merge in a marriage were just too much to bear or even consider. He was holding them hostage until the wedding was over and then he would murder her family and the rest of her kind to legally “inherit” their lands…. The trap had been carefully laid for when they all showed up for the mandatory wedding and reception, the ghouls had received their orders just this morning. But he needed her alive to use the magic to enter their lands…for now, anyway. That is until he could find a way to corrupt it and control it.

The wedding was to be held tomorrow morning and attendance was mandatory for every single person in both lands…along with the customary demands for the best in wedding gifts that both lands had to offer. And woe to the unfortunate souls who had nothing left to give but their lives…For it was these poor souls that he singled out. The Count took their lives with great relish…carelessly spilling their blood upon the corrupted ground beneath his thick boots as he laughed.

Bella shivered as she heard the key turn in the lock and turned to watch the Count enter with the King and Queen, who were still in shackles. His servants quickly scurried in with candles and like moths quickly fluttered back and forth lighting the sconces and the fireplace, and closing the heavy drapes before quietly scurrying out again hoping not to catch his eye. Her parents looked bruised and battered. They were still in their same clothes that were bloody, dirty and torn from the ambush, 3 days prior. Bella realized they could soon be gone….forever…..

“They will come for us!”–she silently sent up a plea –but would it be in time? Bella had a sudden twinge of doubt. At first she was confident that they would…..but now? Three days had passed with no word or sign. Something must have happened.

Isabella stifled a sob as she rushed into their arms. With tears in her eyes, she pleaded with the Count to let them go…to no avail. It was as if his heart had turned to stone.

“Come here!” he demanded, his quick grasp of her arm causing her to fall off-balanced into his hard embrace. “Finally! Some of the gifts are pouring in. But this one! …This one is special! I have decided to give you this early” he murmured feverishly. His eyes curiously glowed in the candlelight as he snapped closed the clasp of a heavy bracelet cuff around her slender, bruised wrist.

Bella shuddered at his touch and looked dumbly at her wrist, then quickly gasped in delight. The cuff was made of heavy copper wire that was coiled and twisted into an intricate braid on the sides and formed a bezel with sparkling dark crystals around a large stone on top. It seemed to be vibrating-humming…almost alive. It was ancient-looking, heavy and tarnished. But it was the stone itself that caught and held Bellas’ attention. Even though matte in appearance, with goldish streaks on a blue-green background; it seemed to have a life of its own. Here was the source of the vibrations! She smiled as she recognized the stone. It was from her beloved Lake! The reeds and water on the stone, seemed to be moving and rippling just like the reeds and waves which lapped the shores of her Magic Lake back home! She caught a faint, teasing whiff of the rich loamy smell of the woods and shores of her beloved homeland as she fingered the stone, and was caught up in a momentary wave of home-sickness. Then, as the Count looked away; her brother Phillip, impishly popped his head up out of the water, and holding his finger to his lips, flashed an OK sign and a quick thumbs up as he knowingly grinned and winked before diving under the Lakestone’s smooth surface again. Bella quickly tried to stifle her surprised giggle. Her mother and father looked up and moved closer to her to get a better look, a slow smile of recognition and joy spreading over their faces. The Count looked down and smiled sardonically. He blindly noticed nothing amiss… looking at their delighted and innocent expressions, as evidence of his cunning…soon…soon…it will all be his!

“I take it you like my little gift; my Nymph?” he softly whispered as he leaned closer, his foul breath and lips brushing her forehead. “It’s called a Lakestone. I took it from an old Crone and her husband, just outside the city. They offered it as a meager wedding gift. Said they were on their way into the city, to attend our wedding. She said it is Enchanted and it will absorb tears and turn them into smiles of love and joy. They vanished into the crowd before I could “Thank” them properly, it must have been their lucky day!” he said, smiling cruelly as he thoughtfully fingered the haft of his dagger, trying to remember where he had seen them before and where they had disappeared to. “But, I can see she was right about the bracelet. I thought it would be a nice trinket for my future wife.” he said smugly.

Tears of joy and relief ran down Bella’s face and fell onto the stone only to be quickly absorbed. Papa and Nana! She wrenched herself out of the Counts grasp and moved into the King and Queens eager arms. Papa! Nana! Phillip!…They were here after-all! It was Papa who had found the Lakestone; and it was Nana who made the Enchanted cuff– this she could plainly see…..It had enchanted the Count, and they had managed to send the Lakestone with Phillip to safely rescue them right beneath his very nose! That the Count had brought the cuff to her and personally handed to her the means for her and her parents escape was not lost upon her!

“Do you know the entire story of the legend?” she asked, smiling sweetly as her parents tightened their arms about her while touching the stone.

“No! What’s this about the rest of the legend?…Tell me now! This moment!” he demanded. The Count’s hard, greedy eyes glittered in the candlelight as he quickly leaned forward, eager to hear of a new possible power that was within his grasp.

“Well, this Lakestone is very special. Only a very few exist on this plane of existence and they hold a very great power.” she said reverently, as her mother and father lovingly touched the stone with her.

“It holds the secret to the magic of our land that you seek to control. But it only works for our kind. The Lakestone is bound to us for eternity, because of its attempt to take away and to control the magic of our “Enchanted Woods and Lake.” she sadly smiled looking deeply into the Count’s eyes. She reached out to lightly touch his face, just as one of her tears dropped upon the tip of her fingers. The Count’s eyes widened in surprise as it quickly soaked into his skin. He was filled with an intense longing for the Enchanted Land and Lake especially its water.

She quickly withdrew her hand, grimacing at the rough feel of his skin under her gentle touch.

“They are activated by our tears. As Nymphs; we also know that if we can touch it; the Lakestone, will always recognize us as one of those who belong to the “Enchanted Woods and the Lake”, and it will take us home immediately…for that is its fate.”

And Bella, looked up again into his face and with a saucy wink and grin, softly whispered “Welcome Home!” and suddenly vanished with her parents, before his startled eyes! Her soft laughter tinkling like chimes in the breeze. The Count would get his wish…

Immediately, the Count felt the floor vanish beneath his feet and looked down in horror. He found that he was dangling high above the waters of a Lake that was blue-green in color and had goldish colored reeds waving and nodding gently on the water’s edge. His wrist was firmly grasped by Isabella’s father and brother…the King and Prince….he looked up into their stern eyes as they touched the Lakestone from the bracelet and let go of his wrist. He could see the Queen and an old Crone and her Husband, standing on the shore line with Bella as he started to fall. It was then that he recognized who they were. The Count fell into the icy waters of the Lake far below. He felt his body grow smaller and smaller as it sank quickly to the bottom of the lake….weighted down by the stone-heart in his chest. Suddenly the Count realized what his fate was to be, as he started to turn to stone! He watched as the Lake slowly turned his body the same matte blue-green color of a Lakestone. The familiar goldish lines of the reeds began reaching out…. gently encompassing him and weaving their way throughout his body as they softly hummed and vibrated. They slowly started rubbing and smoothing his skin and healing the wickedness of his stone heart and soul; turning it into veins of the thin shafts of gold that ran across his body’s rough surface, but it would take time. He realized with a start, as he drifted off into a deep sleep, that he had got exactly what he wished for after-all. ..unfettered access to the Enchanted Woods and Lake and smiled.

Nana bent and picked up the stone at the Lake’s edge and held it gently in her hand and called her grandchildren to her.

“Now see this one?” she asked as she held it up. “Kinda early for this one to be out. What do you think?” she asked, critically eyeing the goldish lines that ran the length of the rough stone.

Phillip smiled and took the Lakestone and showed it to his sister and his grandfather.

“Look familiar?” he asked as he turned the stone over in his hand.

“I don’t think this one is ready yet, Nana.”

Bella grimaced at the stone’s rough feel under her gentle touch as she replied, “I agree, it doesn’t have that smooth feel to it yet.”

“I believe you’re right.” Nana agreed as she nodded her head and grinned broadly and winked at Papa “Heavens know, your eyesight and touch is better than mine now, and I know it’s way better than Papa’s!”

Papa indignantly snorted and reminded Nana that it was he who found the Lakestone to save Bella, his gruff voice ringing out and echoing against the far side of the Enchanted Woods, while Nana grinned and fired back that she had made the cuff and put the spell on it!

Phillip and Bella laughed and shook their heads as Phillip tossed the Lakestone back into the deepest part of the Lake.

“Maybe later, it needs a little more time right now.”He said, as they watched the Lakestone sail through the air and drop back into the Magic waters of their Lake. And they all nodded in agreement as they walked hand-in-hand, back to the Enchanted Woods to pick some juicy blackberries for dessert at tea. Bella knew her father and mother, the King and Queen, were expecting them later on for the big celebration tonight being held for the liberation and healing of both lands and their peoples….complete with feasts, fireworks, and dancing. This was going to be fun!

Bella smiled contentedly and gave her Nana an affectionate squeeze of her hand. The bracelet felt comfortingly warm against her skin, as the dark crystals sparkled in the warm sunlight; its heavy weight a gentle reminder to always carry the Lakestone from now on. The Lakestone absorbed the sun-warmed rays in its matte blue-green surface and the goldish reeds danced gently as the waves lapped against its magical shores….it was indeed, good to be home again!

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19 Comments

1. 

   Karen McCoun

   October 26, 2011 at 8:36 am

   WOW! How creative! The bracelet is georgeous and the story fascinating! Thank you!
2. 

   Lori Crawford

   October 26, 2011 at 8:45 am

   What a great story and a creative idea to modify the bracelet was a wonderful idea and very beautiful idea too!
3. 

   Rochelle

   October 26, 2011 at 9:30 am

   Hi,
   I don’t write beautiful stories to go along with my jewlery, although that’s such a good idea.

   I make jewelry for other members of my family. Often, my jewelry is just czech glass, crystals or some other type of glass bead I’ve purchases in some ordinary place.

   But if I do recycle something vintage, or buy a specific piece of some special stone or bead for some member of the family, I try to enclose a note with the finished jewelry piece to inform the recipient of the special qualities or the “story” behind the piece.

   I am also a quilter, and as such, always put a quilt label on my finished items. “Signing” jewelry is much harder! So a story about specific beads, wire or other things used in the piece is always a treat for the recipient as well as a traceable documentation as to what and where that piece of jewelry came from.
4. 

   Nathalie

   October 26, 2011 at 10:33 am

   Your grandchildren are very lucky to have such a talented Nana. Congratulations on such beautiful pieces: The bracelet and the story!
5. 

   Millie

   October 26, 2011 at 10:53 am

   Thanks for all your wonderful comments everyone! And Thanks Rose, for allowing me to drive Ya nuts with the writing of my story, I really value your feedback!
   • 

     Rose

     October 26, 2011 at 8:01 pm

     Thanks for sharing it with me, Millie!
6. 

   Rachel Ison

   October 26, 2011 at 2:13 pm

   Wonderful and beautiful! What a treasure.
7. 

   Dorothy

   October 26, 2011 at 2:35 pm

   What a wonderful treasure your grandchildren will have long after you’re gone. I know I so treasure everything I have of my grandmother’s day-to-day life. When she passed away, it was those things I wanted, rather than the more expensive things she had that had more meaning. The bracelet is exquisite, but the story makes it a legacy of love. I often write poetry to go along with gifts, especially jewelry gifts I’ve made. I’ve never considered writing anything to go with what I sell, but you’ve sparked some ideas for me. Thank you.
8. 

   Dorothy

   October 26, 2011 at 2:36 pm

   Thank YOU for sharing this.
9. 

   Gina

   October 26, 2011 at 6:06 pm

   WONDERFUL!!! I love the story and the bracelet. You have very lucky grandchildren. I am inspired!!!
10. 

    Linda Keesee

    October 26, 2011 at 6:11 pm

    Wow! What a beautiful bracelet and story. I wish I could write. I have a hard time just writing up catchy descriptions for my jewelry Thank you for sharing your wonderful story.
11. 

    connie perez moreno

    October 26, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Loved the story, should be in a magazine. The bracelet is beautiful love the combination of the green Jasper with the copper.
12. 

    Carol

    October 26, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    WOW !! I love copper How you put it to work is lovely without a doubt!!!
13. 

    Ramona Parker

    October 27, 2011 at 1:05 am

    Millie, what an honor to have you sharing something so personal. Your talents are such a perfect blend, yet play off the other with magic. My grannie made beautiful crochet spreads, table cloths, etc. and I treasure my pcs. of her work. Seeing her working in my mind in a gift I hope to have forever. You are one great artist, and one great grannie! You as well as your loving gifts show how special you are. Congratulations to you and thanks for inspiring me and many others..of course, I am ready for another story…that cab was so perfect with the copper, which is my fav., too. Sincerely, Ramona Parker
14. 

    Gwynette

    October 27, 2011 at 3:23 am

    WOW! What more can I say? I hope you keep these stories with the picture of the jewelry all together and in a safe place. These stories need to be passed down to the next generation (your Great-Grandchildren).
    My first grandchild is due to be born next May (2012) I can’t wait to tell her (I just know its a girl ) stories. If you don’t mind I’ll remember to make them part of the story; and incorporate jewelry into some of them.
    What a blessing you must be to your family-including the grandchildren.

    Gwynettekea
15. 

    Perri

    October 27, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    Oh, Miss Millie!

    A beautiful, fanciful story to go with your beautiful, fanciful bracelet. I’m so very proud to have a part in this story through your lovely bracelet.

    I know this will bring you and yours together time after time through the years.

    Hugs and best wishes,
    Perri
16. 

    Millie

    October 28, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Thank-you everyone, for your kinds words and compliments! I really appreciate them and hope it gives lots of ideas for extra-special gifts! Wouldn’t it be great to accumulate a bunch of these from everyone to inspire the next generation of wire-artists?
17. 

    sharon

    October 29, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    I think your bracelet is one of the most beautiful artistic creations I have ever seen
18. 

    Nita

    March 21, 2012 at 10:26 am

    Millie, where are you selling your pieces? Do you have a website?

    Your marketing is genius! Thank you for sharing it with us.