Monthly Archives: November 2022

1″ diameter, found objects

The first piece I added to this pendant was a gear. It fit perfectly, nestling into the outer ring. But there were spaces left between each tooth. I found beads that nestled right into the spaces, filling them completely. And with a little hunting I found beads and rivets to fill the space in the center, nestling the smallest rivet into the larger one. The pendant became my 1-inch version of feeling nestled and well-protected, especially as the weather gets colder and windier outside.

2″ x .5″, ceramic tiles

I spent this week at the enormous annual conference of the American Public Health Association. Thousands of people in a big convention center trying to rush from one end of the building to another to catch the sessions and speakers that they’re most interested in. Unlike in the regular world, everyone already speaks public health acronyms and believes in prevention, but still, there are surprising divides between the people who attend.  It feels like the tiles in this pendant, all made of the same stuff, painted the same family of colors, but different shapes and with some space still between them, all trying to line up straight enough to accomplish collective impact.

1″x  .75″, found objects

As you know by now, I love the natural patinas that materials develop over time.  Every time I used to go to Europe I’d remember that the time scale for buildings and roads and aqueducts was so different there.  The finish on the stones was more worn, the metals more corroded.  Then, going to India, the time scale jumped again.  Instead of decades old in the US or hundreds of years old in Europe, things that we still walked by could be thousands of years old.  This pendant combines an antique cuff link from the US with an antique coin from India.  Each is beautiful and old in its own way.  Now I’m watching my own body age at the same time I watch my grandmother’s 98 year-old body age.  The scales are different, and her patina of wrinkles and softness is more advanced than mine.