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LooLoo's Box Handcrafted Jewelry: Artisan Jewelry, from Sterling to Steampunk

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Conquering Arachnophobia, One Piece at a Time

I admit it; I have always, for nearly my entire 49 years, been a terrible sissy when it comes to spiders.  Nothing else in this world has the power to turn me into a shrieking, jumping, quivering and, on one truly nightmare-inducing occasion, fainting wreck than arachnids.  They just creep me the heck out.  Now I have improved somewhat over the years - gardening, especially, has helped me to learn tolerance - but any spider that crosses my threshold will meet The Boot.  No exceptions.

So, imagine my surprise when I found myself making these????

Tack Pin, on Etsy
ArachnaMachina 'Carpus' and her prey
ArachneMachina 'Auris' RoboSpider Earrings

These are the new line I am working on.  I call this line of Steampunk Spider jewelry 'ArachneMachina®', and I am in the process of securing the appropriate patents and trademarks.  Their abdomens are cast (by me) from Ice Resin that is choc full of bits and pieces from defunct mechanical watches; their thorax' (what's the plural for 'thorax', anyway?) are rhinestones, at least so far; I can definitely see gemstones in the near future.  The strange thing is that I am enjoying working with these!  They aren't creeping me out a bit, but the reactions of those who see the finished jewelry is ranging form "WANT IT!!!" to "EEEEEKKKKK!!!!!"  I sold my first wto pairs of earrings before they ever had a chance to hit my online store. I'm totally going to wear one of these pins on the back of my shirt, top of the shoulder blade, crawling towards my neck... to the mall.  That should be fun, bwahahaha!

Do you think this could be a case of 'know thy enemy'?  Could I be becoming inured?  Somehow I don't think so.  These things have an up to nearly two inch leg span; a real spider this size would likely have me raising the roof.  I hope I never find out.

6 comments:

  1. Bug jewelry is AWESOME....I love spider pins but no way do I want a spider this size creeping around on ME!

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    1. No, the thought of a real one on me makes my stomach clench, my skin crawl and the skin on my neck stand up. (shuddering)

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  2. My daughter started loving spiders at the age of 5. She got to handle a large tarantula in England and was hooked from there. She spider sat for a Capt. at our Air Force Base because the capt. had to go to another base for a year. She was 6 at the time and took care of 3 big spiders. After they went back home she finally got one as a pet. She managed to have 3 live ones. Now her husband is Air Force and because of moving she doesn't have any real ones. I find and send her a new spider Christmas ornament every year. She had quite a few spiders now.

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    1. Thank you for sharing your daughter's story. Perhaps if I had had anything other than negative experiences with spiders as a child I would feel less apprehesive around them. I know that spiders are beneficial and misunderstood creatures, and some of them are even beautiful. I've always thought they were fascinating... from a distance. :-)

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  3. These are awesome pieces of jewelry...I am also afraid of spiders, but these are great!

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