closer to fine

little bit of bokeh, eh?

I just made this more-delicate-than-is-usual-for-me necklace from an antique watch chain and vintage brass rosary chain and a tiny pin I got in Hardy, Arkansas, made of brass and celluloid. The pin was costume jewelry in its day but is closer to fine today.

And here I will confess that I used to perform this song by the Indigo Girls when I lived in the Florida Keys. It was the end of the '80s, and I'm a sucker for a nice melody and decent lyrics, so I was playing Edie Brickell and Suzanne Vega and Emmylou Harris, and if she'd made her break by then, I would have been playing Sheryl Crow, but that would have to wait till the '90s. Before Vega's "Luka" was a hit single, I'd said, "Damn, this song should be a hit single, but it's too dark."

*****

"Closer to Fine" --Amy Elizabeth Ray, Emily Ann Saliers

I'm trying to tell you something about my life

Maybe give me insight between black and white

The best thing you've ever done for me

Is to help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all

Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable

And lightness has a call that's hard to hear

I wrap my fear around me like a blanket

I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it, I'm crawling on your shore. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I went to see the doctor of philosophy

With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee

He never did marry or see a B-grade movie

He graded my performance, he said he could see through me

I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper

And I was free. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I stopped by the bar at 3 a.m.

To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend

I woke up with a headache like my head against a board

Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before

I went in seeking clarity. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

We go to the bible, we go through the workout

We read up on revival and we stand up for the lookout

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in a crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine

The closer I am to fine

The closer I am to fine

You can buy this necklace soon,
as well as other pieces, in my Etsy shop.

gamesmanship necklaces for Renegade

antique game pieces from France, vintage rosary chain,
vintage brass and steel chain, antique brass uniform
beads, antique crystal bead, vintage black steel bead

tin riveted to antique yellow-dyed bone game counter, antique
yellow enamel and sterling watch chain, antique turquoise enamel
and brass watch chain, African trade beads, copper heshi beads, vintage
copper leaf bracelet links, antique dog clips from watch chains

the antique swivel dog clip makes this piece reversible

many metals, many years

New necklace: Victorian enamel and cut-steel button mixes it up with 1940s TWA DC-3 pin from a Stetson Stratoliner. Metals are mixed, too: brass and nickel silver chains and plane; and steel and pinchbeck (an alloy of copper and zinc that shines like gold) on the button. Two links from an antique watch chain accent the neck. Delicate brass-beaded rosary chain holds the twin-engine craft. That bitty plane makes me happy to no end.

wild blue yonder

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

on ivory, feathers and animal bits as ornamentation

"The Bull Leaper" 15th-century ivory figurine from the palace of Knossos, Crete

I worry about offending people, which is the reason I hesitate to use anything that even looks like old ivory. I mean, really, to say that it's pre-ban ivory doesn't make it okay; an elephant killed for its pieces is still a murdered elephant. Unless you've been desecrating an elephant graveyard or finding the actual skeleton itself. I guess if I'm walking the savannah and trip over a tusk, I could use that tusk without guilt.

I've sometimes questioned the acceptability of using of items depicting circus elephants. I don't think most captive, trained animals are happy.

And what about bones? Are they okay? I purchased some old ivory piano keys, intending to try my hand at scrimshaw.

Also, I'm reluctant to incorporate feathers in my pieces. Where are they coming from? I did find an already road-killed pheasant on a trip a couple of years ago, so I can use its feathers without guilt.