Monthly Archives: November 2023

1″ x1″, found objects

Diwali and Thanksgiving are the two holidays when we gather with all of the nearby relatives. They’re the time when the generations come together at one table, and there’s a chance to maintain and build traditions.   This year the Thanksgiving meal was down to three generations for the first time in 13 years. We were lucky enough to have many Thanksgivings with great grandma, but this year the grandparents were the elders.  In both families, the grandparents presided, the next generation waited in the wings, nestled into the traditions that brought us all together, and the kids are big and loud, going in their own directions, questioning, wandering, not yet making the shape of a generation that will hold the others in place.

1″ x 1″, found objects

I have a few old photo albums that still have sticky photo corners to hold the photos in. Some of the photos have slipped out, leaving empty corners and a blank space that must have been filled with something important. I loved the way the corners made the photos look official, and chose them among all of the other images to be displayed. I also loved that they allowed old-fashioned cropping. I could cut the photos down to share just a section, and place the corners to make any shape. These days we barely print photos, no less display them carefully in an album. If I made a paper album now, I’d want to show off each picture with these golden corners.

1″ x 1.5″, found objects

I don’t think it’s a dreamcatcher that I need right now, but rather, a real-life catcher. I’d like something that’s able to see what’s coming and filter out the bad, so that the real newsfeed is full of kindness and joy, not death and destruction.

2″ x .5″, found objects

While I was working on this pendant I thought it should be called “not quite right” because it was so hard to line up the beads and straighten the metal pieces between them.  Each time I’d adjust one thing it would throw off all of the others. But with a bit of time and distance I’ve softened my judgement and feel ready to call it “just about right”.  Still not quite right, but I’m choosing to focus on the parts that worked, not the parts that didn’t.  I’m going to try to adopt this same attitude for the rest of the week.