Pig Like That

That's one distressed pig. Or maybe he's just loudly making a point. He hangs below a sunburst pewter button that hangs in turn from vintage steel chains. The necklace clasps at the side with an antique silver or silver-plated spring clasp. 

COMPONENTS
--vintage pot-metal pig, hollow, with 3.5 legs. Seems upset about something. One inch by one half inch
--vintage pewter button, one inch, no shank
--vintage steel jack chain from a watch fob
--vintage steel beaded rosary chain
--antique silver spring clip
--sterling MGA logo tag

*****

Bad Joke (apologies in advance)

A city guy visits a country guy, who proudly gives the city guy a tour of the farm...silos, cribs, coops, paddocks, sty. At the sty, city guy looks over and sees a pig with three legs. The pig is splendid, rosy and clean.

"Why does that pig have only three legs?" asks city guy.

"Oh," says country guy, "there's a story for you. One time in the dead of night, we heard the screen door banging hard and ran down to see what the ruckus was, and there was that pig. Then we smelled smoke and realized the house was on fire. That there pig's a hero!"

"Okay," says city guy, "but what happened to his leg?"

"Then another time," country guy continues, "my boy was out front of the house. He'd gone after his cat and was sitting there playing with it in the middle of the road, when out of nowhere, that pig comes rushing at him and shoves him into the ditch. Second later, a big ol' truck comes barrelin' down the road. That pig saved my boy's life. That pig's a hero!"

"Okay, okay, but why's he got only three legs?"

"Well...a pig like that you don't eat all at once."

If Time Is an Engine

An antique glass crystal rectangle wrapped at the edges in brass filigree hangs from the dog clip and spring ring of an antique gold filled watch chain, with brass rolo chain at the neck, closing with an antique spring ring clasp. Trailing down the back of the neck is a strand of vintage etched and faceted brass links, punctuated at the end with a crystal bead from a vintage rosary flanked by two tiny antique cut steel beads from France.

COMPONENTS
--antique glass crystal rectangle wrapped in brass filigree
--antique 12k gold filled watch chain with fancy links
--brass rolo chain
--antique brass spring ring clasp
--vintage faceted, etched brass chain
--crystal bead from a vintage rosary
--two tiny antique cut-steel beads from France

*****

From "The Mystery of Meteors" --Eleanor Lerman

If Time Is an Engine

There are sunflowers on the path where I go
and lacewings rising from the fields
With each step I take, I know more surely
that this is the way

If time is an engine, then it was created in a dream
If love is an engine, then the dreamer weeps
If memory is an engine, then it will carry the dreamer away

But there are sunflowers on the path where I go
and the dog is at my heel. There is a gate
and a meadow beyond. There is a stream

The sky is blue by day, blue in the evening
but I know the way of the hidden stars
and I'm still alive, I still know secrets
There is nothing I have left undone

So my keys are on the table. You can sell my
clothes. Rust, rust is affecting the machinery
But I am not needed. The machines can be repaired

For if time is a cathedral, then I have lived in the cathedral
If love is a cathedral, then I have lived in splendor
If memory is a cathedral, then I remember everything

but now pass by. And there are sunflowers
on the path where I go. The dog is at my heel
There is a gate and a meadow beyond
There is a stream

new pieces for Hollywood Dell Art Show tomorrow

Bee Ring (celluloid bee, bone ring)

Bread & Honey (vintage aluminum ad tokens)

G.E.T. O.U.T. (antique sword-belt chain)

Lamp Beyond the Wardrobe (deco aluminum necklace, walking-stick emblem)

My Stars (celluloid, brass)

True Blue (cut steel buckle part and dachshund button)

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icons and illumination

grace

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naming things

I suppose it'll get harder as time goes by, naming things, finding some trope to associate with the name or piece of jewelry. Now, since I just made a trio of love-token necklaces and am faced with naming them, I thought to use the initials on the tokens as a correlative device and am sitting here surrounded by poetry anthologies, searching the indexes of first lines for three words that match the initials.

This may be a dumb, not to mention extremely time-intensive, idea. Especially for three initials. Two initials are more doable. One is too easy...it becomes more like picking a word at random. So far, for the token SJP/SPJ/PJS/PSJ/JSP/JPS, I've hit upon "primrose, salutations..." The third word should begin with a J, but it's "miry." So, I think to myself, Maybe two will do, and I go to the page the poem is on.

I laugh. Of course, given the way my weekend has been going, it's a Sylvia Plath poem; what else would be there on page 1416, attached to those words? And the next? "miry skull of a half-eaten ram." Um, okay, who would want to wear that around her neck? Well, maybe plenty, but not me. 

"Here. Here's your necklace."

Sorry; have a unicorn chaser...

Postscript: Mike was standing in the kitchen, making me a brown-rice quesadilla, because he's sweet like that, and he asked me what I was working on.

"A blog post."

"What about."

"A bloody ram's head."

"Is there a picture?!"

"Yes. But I put another picture below it to get that picture out of your head. But it's gory, too."

"Why would you do that? I don't think I'll be able to read it. What's the title?"

"Naming Things."

"Maiming Things?!!"

"No, naming things."

"Whew. I thought I was gonna have to tell people my wife started a blog called Maiming Things."

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dogs on wheels

dogs + wheels = go, dogs, go!

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antique silver, mother-of-pearl, and coral love-token necklaces

love tokens from the late 1800s

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