Queer prayer beads (update)

Back in 2013 I started making a queer prayer bead bracelet, but I still had some queer icons of mine, that I wanted to represent. My bracelet is now complete! I'll always be happy to add more if needed :) 

A pyramid, to represent Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum 

A pierced heart to represent Saint Sebastian
A deer, a boar, and a wolf, to represent the three sons of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy 

A faceted blue glass bead to represent the early queer writers from the 1800s to the early 1900s. E.M Forster and his beautiful novel Maurice; the Bloomsbury Set; A.E. Housman; Oscar Wilde
A silver star, to represent early queer cinema, the first queer actors, the first films to ignore the Hay's Code, and the first queer filmakers who worked hard to show us on screen 

An apple, to represent Alan Turing (with whom I share a birthday)

The high heel is to represent the Stonewall Riots which happened on this very day, back in 1969
The rainbow bead is to represent the beginning of the gay rights movement, I do love that we use the rainbow to celebrate it!
The blue bead (I searched far and wide for this particular shade of blue) represents Derek Jarman's seminal film Blue

The last three are more recent. The crown is RuPaul's crown - a club kid tuned drag queen supermodel of the world! I adore RuPaul
The wizard's hat is Dumbledore. I knew he was gay when I read the books, I honestly did. Wonderful writing from JK Rowling
The rugby ball is for Gareth "Alfie" Thomas. I'm Welsh, so I love rugby, and Gareth Thomas was the first openly gay rugby union player, and a bloody good one too! I'm very proud that the first one was a Welshman. Da iawn, ti!

So there you have it. My updated queer prayer beads. Every time I wear them, I offer a prayer to the universe to keep my queer brothers and sisters safe and well, in countries where it is dangerous to be openly queer. 

Can I get an amen?

Queer prayer beads

Religious imagery has always fascinated me, and I do love my little obsessions, so when I did some research into prayer beads I wanted to make some of my own. Not because I pray (though I do often ask the Universe to bring some joy into a friend's life, for example), and not because I have any gods (again, other than the Universe and the Earth). So my prayer beads are queer prayer beads. Each bead represents a queer icon, or symbol, that is important to me.

So they are arranged chronologically, from past to future. The beads are all 925 sterling silver, which is my favourite metal (plus it goes with all my other jewellery).

A pyramid, to represent Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum
A deer, a boar, and a wolf, to represent the three children of Gwydion and Gilfaethwy
An apple, to represent Alan Turing (with whom I share a birthday).
A star, to represent the first queer actors, the first films to ignore the Hay's Code, and the first queer filmakers who worked hard to show us on screen
A blue glass bead to represent Derek Jarman's seminal film Blue
A wizard's hat, to represent Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (I always knew he was gay)
A rugby ball, to represent the amazing Gareth Thomas "Alfie", the first openly gay male athlete on any pro team - and also the second highest Wales try scorer (after Shane Williams, who I was in school with)

I'm looking for a bead to represent the Stonewall riots in 1969. If you can think of one, please let me know!

8 questions

Questions from Annekata (go and look at her lovely, lovely blog)

1. If you could have a dinner with a famous person (alive or dead) who would you choose?
There are so many people both dead and alive that I would love to answer for this question! Alan Turing. He's the father of computer science, and sadly he killed himself because society was so against homosexuals at the time. A great man, and we share the same birthday.

2. Where would you have that dinner?
There's a lovely little restaurant on the Rue de L'Eglise in St Généreux. It hasn't got a name, or a menu - you just get whatever they decide to make that day. Six courses of good French country cooking, vin compris. C'est magnifique!

3. What book written (in the last 300 years) had a real influence on your life?
There are many books that have influenced my life. Here are a few, in no particular order:
Folk Music by Sheenagh Pugh, and
Kirstie's Witnesses by Sheenagh Pugh
Berta La Larga by Cuca Canals
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling (yes, really)
1984 by George Orwell
The Poems of Max Ehrmann
The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs (it was after reading this, and all his other novels in quick succession, that I decided to concentrate on being a writer)

4. If you could live anywhere, in any time, what place and time would that be?
I like living now, and where I am, is that weird? I'd like to visit loads of different times, I'd love to be a hunter-gatherer living in Wales in the Neolithic (is that when hunter-gatherers lived?); I'd also like to go and visit the 1700s, just so I could wear some fantastic clothes! There are also so many turning points in gay history that I'd like to visit - being a young man paired with a strong Roman warrior as my teacher; learning Polari and visiting underground gay clubs when gay culture was still being created, also seeing it being decriminalised would be amazing; I'd also love to go back to June 28th 1969 to be part of the Stonewall riots.

5. What season would reflect you best?
Autumn. Cold, sunny days made for scarf-wearing, long walks, fruit-picking, blankets, knitting, making dens, hot tea, baking cakes, warming stews, game pie, blackberries, gloves, Halloween/Samhain, fires, fireworks, lots of soup and reading stories. That's me.

6. What do you wear when you don't want to think about what you wear?
Boring. Jeans, t-shirt, sneakers.

7. What does craft/making mean to you?
Literally everything. All the creative stuff I do, whether that be writing, sewing, painting, pyrography, knitting, crochet, sculpting, soldering, drawing, folding, sticking, is a part of who I am. I make, therefore I am. Lolz.

8. If you project yourself into the future. Is there anything you would like to achieve in the next 2 to 5 years?
I want to get one of my novels published. I'm over halfway writing one, and about a fifth of the way through the other.