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

love tokens from the late 1800s

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say hello to Alma and Ben, earrings

antique assemblage earrings

I'm not sure what I will call this pair, maybe Alma & Ben. They were described as love tokens in the auction I won, but they look more like they were cut from some other existing piece of silver, since there is cutwork on the backs. At any rate, they're silver. And the coral bits are coral, originally from an antique necklace that belonged to my grandmother. The string disintegrated, so I've had this box of coral pieces with drilled holes, thinking I'd eventually use them for something, and lo and behold: Alma & Ben.

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my new light box has a cathedral ceiling

Yesterday I made a light box. I used thin dowels and thinner dowels and tape and tissue paper. It looked like a box kite gone horribly wrong. It is now sitting in the fireplace waiting to be a box-light bonfire and also waiting for the weather to not perversely be 85 degrees in winter.
Today I went to the hardware store, then to the office store. I bought stuff to make a larger, studier light box (see instructions below and pics taken in the light box below that).

LIGHT BOX RECIPE

4 large dowels

8 pieces douglas fir

1 deluxe white shower curtain with a tiny allover pattern of reflective satin-stitching

4 full-spectrum bulbs, 75 to 125 watts

1 sheet polyviny core board

2 sheets white poster board

use items found in garage:

32 1.5-inch finishing nails

wood glue

8 2-inch wood screws

10 screw-in hooks

clip-on lights

Nail together 4 pieces of fir in a square and repeat so that you have 2 frames. Route holes to hold dowels in all 8 corners of frames. Drill holes into each end of 4 large dowels and drill holes though the center of each routed hole in corners of frames. Screw dowels to frames. Cut shower curtain in half horizontally and cut half of that (the half with the grommets) in half lengthwise. Screw hooks along top of box. Hang shower curtain from hooks by grommets. Use other piece to drape over top. Cut polyvinyl core board to fit bottom frame and cut notches in corners to fit around dowels. Hang poster board from top back to bottom front. Clip lights--with full-spectrum bulbs--onto sides and top of box.

  

A delicately enameled gold crescent moon curls around a flower whose center is a pearl. This piece had a broken pin and was in a box of a relative's that had been stored in a closet. I've had it for years thinking I'd love to do something with it. I'm not sure if it's gold or if that's a real pearl, but it's very finely made and hasn't been polished yet retains its gold luster. The enamel has worn off in two places, barely noticeable since the piece is 7/8 inch. Two hand-carved, not-exactly-the-same-size mother of pearl beads accent the double chain, one length of which is an engraved fetter-link or trombone chain that sets off the intricate enamelwork of the focal. It clasps at the neck with a small, nicely made antique dog clip that looks like gold or rolled gold.


*****

part 6 of Mary Oliver's "Little Sister Pond" from her book "American Primitive," 1978

6

And somewhere the blue damselfly
sleeps in the reeds
it flew back to when it left my wrist,
its tiny lungs
inhaling, exhaling, its eyes
staring east where the summer moon
is rising,
brushing over the dark pond,
for all of us, the white flower
of dreams.

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a lot of bull

From facsimiles of Sitting Bull's drawings to an 1870s analysis of them, this story is straight from a scanned copy of the Daily Graphic. The piece concludes that Sitting Bull has a great deal of influence with his ["dusky"] brethren because of his artistic skills. Um, maybe, yes, but more probably his ranking in his tribe is because he's a complete badass who knows how to mindfuck the enemy and keeps on coming with a bullet in his thigh and seven in his horse.

THE DAILY GRAPHIC: NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1876

FACSIMILE OF SITTING BULL'S PICTORIAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON

SITTING BULL'S PICTURES
Herewith are presented reproductions of extracts from the famous pictorial autobiography of the great Sioux chief Sitting Bull.
     These drawings were presented to Dr. Patrick in 1870 by his friend, Dr. W. West, of the United States Army, who sent them then with the comment that they were the work of Sitting Bull, a Sioux outlaw, who was a great braggart and fraud; that they were ostentatious boasts of that Indian's prowess, who doubtless placed them in the hands of the Crow scout who gave them to Dr. West for the purpose of reminding the soldiers of sundry and several outrages which Sitting Bull had in person perpetrated on the whites and friendly Indians.
     Dr. Patrick sent them to the Smithsonian Institution last Christmas in connection with a very large collection of Indian utensils of war and specimens of pottery, pipes, etc., which are simply deposited, and not given to the institution.
     It must be remembered that these pictures were all drawn by Sitting Bull in color on sheets of common writing paper. He evidently used a fine brush and shaded those parts of the drawings which are filled in with lines by our artist, who has made these copies perfect facsimiles. They are reduced in THE GRAPHIC and are about one-half of the original sizes. The outlines, however, he drew in the same free, bold manner as represented.
     These five pictures are selected from the series above referred to, It not being deemed necessary to use them all, as the style and skill of Sitting Bull is well expressed by the selections given: He doubtless must owe a large portion of his influence among his dusky brethren to this art, which he certainly possesses in an unusual degree as compared with Indians generally.

sitting bull pictograph facsimile, 1876

1. Sitting Bull is represented on foot, with war shield and rifle, defying the power of the troops represented as drawn up in platoons. Sitting Bull, by the dotted line curving on itself behind, calls attention to the fact that though in a hailstorm of bullets and the cannon belching in his face, yet he is unconcerned enough to execute a derisive dance in the enemy's presence. The fire of the soldiers is represented by the cloud of heavy horizontal lines around him, indicating in this way the path of bullets, and the march of the soldiers by the dots representing tracks to the left of the dark patches, which show the compact masses of infantry.

sitting bull pictograph facsimile, 1876

2. The same thing, only he has chosen to represent himself as a buffalo bull on its haunches: the war shield is placed in full view behind the Sitting Bull.

sitting bull pictograph facsimile, 1876

3. Sitting Bull steals three mules from some ranchman's corral. The attention of the whites and their fire has bas drawn to the back of the corral, where a lot of Sioux have been threatening to charge, as shown by the tracks, while Sitting Bull slowly rides around behind, and under the cover of the previous confusion he dismounts, slips into the door of the corral, and manages to get out three mules before he is discovered. The whites fire on him from the windows, but do not dare to come out of the open house door, so he gets away with his plunder.

sitting bull pictograph facsimile, 1876

4. Sitting Bull, single-handed, catches four soldiers out somewhere by themselves, rides around them discharging arrows, which are represented as bringing blood, when he finally gets off his horse, and in the face of a general broadside from the whites gives them all the finishing touch with his war-lance. The bird of victory, an eagle, perches on his head; his body is painted red, with stripes of the same color across his face; his warhorse has its tail clubbed up like one of our dray horses on a muddy day, and has white bands painted around its legs as indicated by the savages brush and shaded those parts of the drawings which are filled in with lines by our artist, who has made these copies perfect facsimiles. They are reduced in THE GRAPHIC to about one-half of the original sizes. The outlines, however, he drew in the same free, bold manner as represented.

sitting bull pictograph facsimile, 1876

5. Here Sitting Bull represents the Fort Phil Kearny massacre. The surrounding of the hapless squad of soldiers and their utter annihilation are expressed by the unbroken circle of horse tracks around the concentrated mass of discharging guns and pistols, for the men fought nearly an hour in this way before their ammunition gave out, when they were at once charged upon and butchered. Sitting Bull, who, with Red Cloud, was one of the leaders and planners of the ambuscade, draws himself here in full costume, with two bullet-holes in his thigh and seven in his horse, from all of which the blood is streaming. Six other bullet holes on the opposite side are depicted by being made in a line just above the horse's back. Although the Indians were well armed with breech-loading rifles, yet Sitting Bull, to show his contempt for the belching guns of his victims, represents himself as being armed with nothing more than a bow and a quiver full of arrows!

Not "It" As in "Cousin It"

Though this hand is slight, its flight is not sleight of hand, unless it's meant to misdirect attention from the prestidigitation that conjures a rabbit from the hat...or is it a dove? A bat? Oh: a winged rabbit.

 New necklace: Flight of Hand

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hair

I cut Mike's hair this morning. It took about 15 minutes. The last time he came home with a less than satisfactory cut, I said, "Next time, I'm going to cut it, so I did, and it looked okay. Today's cut was fine, too. I asked him,"Do you like it?" He said, "Yes." I said, "It'll do." I said, "Hey! That's the name of my hair salon: It'll 'Do." Then I wanted a tagline. Since I've been trying to come up with a better tagline for Millennium General Assembly, I'm fixated on hitting the right balance of information / tone / benefits, etc. So for It'll 'Do, I first thought, Better-Than-a-Bowl Haircuts. Then I went with, Okay Haircuts. You know, haircuts that aren't expensive and look fine. But I didn't want it to seems like a Fantastic Sams. I settled on It'll 'Do: Haircuts That Don't Suck.

It'll 'Do: Haircuts That Don't Suck . . .
like this one

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astounding

That's the word that came to mind when I first saw this work of art.

corset by Irena Gasha

I was so taken by the artistry and craft that I had to make a treasury in tribute.

Okay, enough with the treasuries;  I need to post these new necklaces to my Etsy shop.

And work on the white balance (!)