box_camera | chaplets: Saint Joan of Arc and Saint Martin de Porres

Both of these saints have set forms to the number and placement of beads on their chaplets, but not for the colors, so I just used the colors that are generally associated with each of them: grey or silver for Saint Joan (for her armor and sword), and purple and white for Saint Martin.

Saint Joan's chaplet starts with 2 large beads, then has 3 sets of 5 beads separated with 2 more large beads. This adds up to 19 beads, the age of Joan when she was burned at the stake. I used hematite for the main beads, which is a dark silvery charcoal color. The blue and pink don't have any special meaning, I just liked the way it contrasted.

Of course I used a fleur-de-lis charm to finish it! Saint Joan is the matron saint of France, and of all bad-ass women.

Saint Martin de Porres' chaplet is 3 beads, then 10--essentially it's a single-decade rosary. I took apart an old rosary to make this chaplet; I've never liked it because the person who strung it used this gross waxed thread that picks up every speck of dirt in a 5-mile radius. (The white beads are leftovers from Saint Dymphna's chaplet.)

I wanted to use a mouse as the charm on the end but couldn't find one, so I just used the crucifix that was on the rosary. The most famous story about Saint Martin is that the head of his abbey asked him to poison the mice, but he couldn't bring himself to kill them, so he told them that if they left he would feed them everyday. They did leave, and every day they would line up outside the walls and he would feed them.

Saint Martin de Porres is the patron saint of African-Americans, all racially mixed people (he was the son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed slave), those that strive for interracial harmony, and anyone who loves animals. He is also syncretized to Papa Candelo in the religion of Santeria.