Milestone Pendant and Food Experiments
I just finished one of the coolest pendants I’ve ever made.
But first: New link for Yazan’s fundraiser!
Link here:
https://chuffed.org/project/help-provide-necessities-for-yazan-and-his-family
Yazan still needs help getting food for his family. The limited aid that gets into Gaza is looted and sold for exorbitant prices. Every bit of help matters.
Please call whoever you can think of and try and get aid to Gaza. Every day matters. Every day there is something you can do to make someone else’s a little easier. Please do all you can.
Lessons Every Day
As the Fraggles say:
Everything is Magic
A pendant with grape agate wrapped in copper, set on a crystal.
Grape agate in particular makes me remember that all I find beautiful is a product of the natural world. It looks like magic, like it shouldn’t exist, but it does. Chemistry produced this crystal, and the twisting coils around the it signify and exciting experiment.
The spirals pointing up and down signify “as above, so below.” Patterns in the micro are visible in the macro. Everything is connected, so everything you learn in one context will serve you in another.
When I started this, I wanted to try three things:
-spiraling coils with figure eight weaves
-channel setting grape agate
-making an aesthetically balanced piece using a raw grape agate crystal
I did all three! Some improvement could be made, but I can’t honestly believe this came out of me. I was suprised by how easilly I could look at this pendant and solve all the problems I encountered. My mind just knew what to do, like I was drawing with wire.
The themes are appropriate, considering how much experimenting I was doing with this pendant. Excited to keep going.
Promised Food Experiments
A jar of homemade pickled beets being held up by a hand in front of some bushes.
I made pickled beets for the first time! Vinegar and lemon juice brine. Thid was inspired by a friend who uses pure lemon juice due to a vinegar sensitivity, but my ability to keep things refrigerated is limited, and having just fruit juice in a jar, no matter how acidic, seemed risky. I added vinegar, kept the beets raw, and didn’t add any sugars to make them less perishable (in theory?). Store them in the shadiest spot I have. Still crunchy after a few days, but taste good with a touch of maple syrup in a salad. This is only kind of a food blog and I’m flying blind, please tell me if I’m doing it wrong. Not dead yet, at least. Will keep everyone updated on that.