Kokopelli

Fertility deity, spirit of Music, and Trickster god, Kokopelli has been a favorite of mine for many years--not too surprising, I guess, since I  lived almost half my adult life in Colorado.  He is one of the most recognizable figures in the petroglyphs and pictographs of the Southwestern United States and is often pictured with a consort, a woman the Hopi called Kokopelmimi:

The Hopi Kokopelli was often represented as a human dancer, which seems appropriate, given his connection to music (and fertility rites, for that matter), and in my research for this post I found a lot of dancing "Kokes" and female partners...and even entire dance parties:

In recent times, Kokopelli has been adopted as a symbol of the Southwest U.S. and is a common figure all over the area (and is fairly common in other areas as well).  You'll find his flute-playing (or dancing, or drumming) figure all over, from stained glass windows:

...to garden ornaments:

...to tribal tattoos: 

...and jewelry.  You knew I'd get to that at last, didn't you?  :)  Our friend Kristi Bowman-Gruel made these beautiful Kokopelli components, and I had to make some earrings!  In the true Trickster spirit, I decided not to make them in classic Southwestern colors, but to choose whatever palette suited me:  

Trickster Dance  

Earrings "recipe":  colorful swirled lampies in teal, olivine, and chartreuse with black; little faceted ocean blue jade beads;  copper bead caps and beaded beads; all tied together with green Irish linen cording and hung from my petite ear wires.

I like to think that the two dancers on Kristi's copper teardrops are Kokopelli and Kokopelmimi, but whoever they are, they're a beautiful couple.  💗 

Thank you so much for reading--I'll be back in two weeks!

xoxo

Meridy

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