A Witch's View - Year in Review

Wow.  It has been an entire year of this series.  I'm not sure I'll be continuing it next year on a weekly basis.  We'll see how it goes.  I will be focusing on getting my craft together, both magical and mundane. Here's a look back at some of my favorite pictures of the year.


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Photo Credit - Elijah Olson

Photo Credit - Elijah Olson
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
Its been a fantastic year, thanks for tagging along. Wishing you health, wealth and well being.


Copper Tarnish - Weaving Wednesday

I really enjoy working with copper.  The bright shine that starts out and the slow aging of the copper that turns it slightly black.  Many of my pendants are placed in Liver of Sulfur (LoS) solution to speed this darkening process.  However because I live in a pretty humid area sometimes the tarnish gets a little out of control.  For this weaving Wednesday I thought I would show you the difference a little bit of steel wool and a soft brush can make in your pieces.




Let's start with the Rainbow Moonstone.  This is how the piece looked after I applied my LoS to it. As you can see the weave shows up very nicely around the entire piece.


Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
 Fast forward about 3-4 months and you can see how significantly darker the piece is.  Same lighting, same stone.  Just heavy tarnish on the piece.

Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
Now here's that same piece after I took a piece of grade #0000 Steel Wool (found usually for working with stains and lacquered finishes).  Just brush lightly across the woven areas, trying to shield the stone with your finger.  Then follow up with a soft brush. (I use a nail brush) to remove any pieces of the steel wool that might be in there.  Some people disagree about using Steel Wool related to rust and so forth.  This is the way I do it, please use the method that you feel most comfortable with.


Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
I then repeated the process on two other pieces of Larimar.  Here's the results.

Before cleaning.


Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
After cleaning.
Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
Before Cleaning.
Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
 After cleaning.
Photographer & Jewelry - Renee Sosanna Olson
What ever process you use for cleaning the copper, remember to protect the stone from strong abrasives that could scratch the stone or from harmful chemicals that could damage your stone.


A Witch's View - Cliffs of the Neuse

I went out to the Cliffs of the Neuse State park an snapped a few photos.  Here's how that went.


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Elijah Olson

Weaving Wednesday - Weaving Photography

Many times getting a photo of your jewelry is hard.  I have spend a lot of time and money to figure out a way to get a good photo.  Recently a new light box I ordered finally arrived I wanted to share some photos of the differences.


First these are photos in my old light box.  It was big enough for a four foot mannequin to fit in.  It was hard to use for jewelry. (Link to my old light box)


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson


As you can see the back ground was a bit washed out and the light from the top reflects in the stone.

I decided to just hold the pieces in my hand under my Ottlite instead. (link to my Ottlite)


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
I felt this was a good way to show it because with my hand in the photo, it gives and idea of size of the stone.  It was told to me however, that these were unprofessional.

So I ordered this new light box.  Here is a photo from this light box. (Link to my new light box)


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

I really like the way the new light box works.  It is a smaller size so I can put the box at eye level and try to take the photo from the front.  So far so good I think.


Here's that same moonstone from above now in the new light box.   To me I am feeling that it is a pretty good image.  Feel free to leave me your comments.


Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson








Tryon Palace - A Witch's View

Here are some photos I took at Tryon Palace in New Bern, NC

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

New Bern NC - Photo Credit - Renee Olson

Weaving Wednesday - Tarnish

Over the last few weeks I shared two pendants without applying the liver of sulfur (LoS).  LoS is a tarnishing solution that gets into the weave of the pendants and really brings out the detail.  Here are those same two pendants.  I'll share a before and after.




Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson




Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson


Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit Renee Sosanna Olson




Here is a video of each of the finished pieces.





A Witch's View - Seeing Myself

As I begin wrapping up this year I'm coming to terms with the way my year of mastery has changed. How I have grown and how I have changed. When I started out with this year my goal was to focus on what I wanted to do with my shop and my crafts both my material crafts and as it turns out my spiritual crafts as well.

This post is about my relationship with my dreadlocks and Hecate.

Two and a half years ago I started my dreadlocks.  Many days of confrontations and discussions about why I shouldn't have them and why I did have them later, I ended up with quite a healthy head full of them.  I created them because of several references to the goddess I follow and words used in her references ....and her hair was like snakes.  I wrote a blog about this and you can find it here.  You can also see a photo history of my dreadlock journey here.

The day before I cut my dreads - Photo Credit - Elijah Olson


Over the days prior to November 30th, I had many discussions with my hubby about taking them out. Finally on the 30th I decided to take them out.  Ironically enough on Hecate's Night.  Read more about the references to this date and Hecate here.  I have felt my belief structure changing and growing.  It now no longer sees the gods and goddesses as deities but more of an image, a personification of characteristics that we want to be or not be.  It was though I was outgrowing a belief and becoming more independently spiritual, if that makes sense.


We started by cutting about six-eight inches off them.

Cut Locks - Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
 This is me with the locks trimmed.  The weight off my head made me feel like I had lost 10 pounds. They didn't weigh that much though.  Trust me I weighed myself to make sure.  For about 15 minutes I considered leaving them at this length.
Photo Credit - Elijah Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
This is the back side.  I decided to just go ahead and start combing them out.  I read one part on the web that said, expect to lose some hair.  That is a gross understatement.  I lost A TON of hair.  Now remember that my locks were nearly 3 years old.  Your hair grows and falls out or gets caught in your hair brush over this time and you hardly notice it.  But if you had it all come out in the same day well you'd get a pile like below.

Next we spent hours and hours combing them out.  My head was so sore.  It took a lot of time, a lot of de-tangler and a lot of patience but we finally got them all combed out.

One of about 20 hair piles - Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
This is a photo of them all combed out.  As you can see pretty fuzzy.  I needed to apply some conditioner to it and straight keratin to it to calm it down a bit.  Next I decided I wanted a bit of a wave to my hair so I made an appointment.  I spent the next day thinking about my relationship and what this would me to it, if anything.  I know that I am now leaning towards a more magical life and less in devotion to a goddess and more in line with taking control of my destiny and making things happen.


All combed out - Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson
So here's the final photo.  The circle is complete.  I hope you have enjoyed this journey with them this year.  I cannot wait for the year to come.




Photo Credit - Elijah Olson