there is a lavender

it first came in a jigsaw puzzle
and followed me in dreams,
intertwining itself in
melancholy and nostalgia

squash earring prototype molds

A mold was made of the 'raw' squash tendril as it was picked out of the garden (mold not shown).



Wax was injected into first mold. A prosthetic loop was attached to the top of the wax model that will serve as a bail for the earring. (Item to left in 2nd pic).

A secondary prototype mold was made of the wax model with loop on top. (Right part of 2nd pic).

Once the mold is made, the model is cut out and molten wax is injected into the cavity. (The all red model sitting on mold is an injected wax model.) This gives you a near-perfect representation of the model.

The injected wax model will now be transformed into metal. The metal piece will be cleaned up (especially where the loop was attached). This piece will become the metal 'master'.

A production mold will be made from this metal piece.

My sincere hope is that the earring will be 'reversible', so that by flipping one earring over, there will be an opposing, yet matching 'pair' of earrings. If it does not work, I will just shoot myself.

Because of advances in casting, the final product will be a near exact representation of the original squash tendril (with loop attached and about 7% smaller than original tendril).

driftwood earring molds

Two prototype molds are made of a pair of driftwood earrings similar in style to the driftwood ring.
Eerily looking like bacon at this stage.
We'll see...

final wax stage

This is the amethyst ring as finished wax model.
Next step, make a prototype mold.
Then inject a wax model into mold.
Then cast a metal prototype from wax model.
Then a production mold made from the metal prototype.
Then another wax injected model.
Then cast an actual metal ring.

moonlit pools

the weighty ghost of someone i once cared for lies against me today

nearly motionless
and in tiny ripples in moonlit pools
and cheap white wine

mingled with the smell of chlorine
and regret
and distance

and corporate offices
and awkward reunions
and denial as closure

p. k. dick

"Life is short, he thought. Art, or something not life, is long, stretching out endless, like concrete worm. Flat, white, unsmoothed by any passage over or across it."

from "The Man in the High Castle" by P. K. Dick

doings

So I got the outer shank for the amethyst ring 'roughed in' today. (It has a crown (bezel area) salvaged from the door pendant.)

Did not think about the difference between a ring mount and a pendant mount and the crown/shank meeting gave me fits. And I could not get the shank style right - kept making it too nice and pretty. It is finally where it will (or will not) be, it now needs some 'chaos' added and I think it will work. After that, the inside shank must be filled in, rounded and smoothed. Then a general clean-up.

The bezel area has a strange 'flared square' shape that leaves prominent corners at the base. At first this seemed too bulky. Usually when working on a piece, an oddity will either become increasingly annoying, and scrapped, or your eye will normalize the unique design. So far leaning slightly to the latter -- hard to know in this case until it gets to the point of being metal: as worn, as felt.

I get the ring finished and another creepy pod pendant and I can do a 3-month-overdue casting.

time

There is a compression of time that exists within breath and torn rags and destruction and naps. A soft cinnamon smelling filter of warmth and life mingled with aging perspective.

ticks

How easy it is to reduce oneself to nothing.
To store in 'edit mode' the scars and folds that make us human.
To pick and choose a persona like an entree on a menu.