My dear friend Tawnya had a birthday last week and I made her a long pendant as a gift. Tawnya is a gorgeous natural beauty with thick, wavy reddish-brown hair and green eyes, so I chose crystals with that colour scheme in mind.

The heart is a neat little pre-fab item, from Arton Beads in Toronto, that opens up on a hinge so it made a perfect container for some crystals. There’s something about filling a vessel with little beautiful things that makes them seem more precious, as if instead of wearing them ‘open’ around your neck you need to keep them safe in a lovely container.

I used various crystals from 4mm to 8mm in shades of brown, yellow, green, and purplish-brown. The technique is simple: just put each crystal onto a headpin and using round nose pliers, form a loop. Attach the looped crystals to a short length of chain. At the bottom of the chain, use a jump ring to attach the heart pendant.

It’s so nice to be able to give a personalized, hand made gift to someone you love. Of course, there’s always the worry that they won’t particularly like it but feel obligated to say how much they love it. However, as a maker/crafter/knitter/etceterer you do develop a sense of who would appreciate something hand made. Tawnya has always purchased her clothes from local designers and stays away from big corporate clothing chains, out of a strong sense of not only great style, but also social justice and environmental protection. So no worries there! — I know she’d much rather have a hand made gift than something made overseas and purchased in a big box store. What an awesome woman she is. I’m so glad she’s my friend. Funny to think that I met her and her partner quite randomly many years ago on a canoe trip to the Toronto Islands. We met as we were getting our canoes ready to go in the water, joked around, had fun paddling across and exploring some off-the-beaten-path parts of the island, and decided to go for a beer after we returned to the mainland. We’ve been friends ever since.

So happy birthday, dear Tawnya, and many happy returns!