Thankful

I am thankful I figured out how to use these pretty little antique mirrored whatsits in a pair of festive (think pure frippery) earrings.  After carefully drawing a bead on the end of a very thin bit of brass wire, it was threaded through the central hole, with a bead cap serving as a boss for a finished look, coiled around in the back and on the sides, and then brought back into a loop for suspending.  The ingredients are:  dirty pearls (a personal fave in recycled materials; you know the kind:  she wore them every day, thickly crusting them with hairspray and talcum powder, and chipping away the nacre in places); old pearlized wired glass drops, etc.  Once wiring was done, I papered over the backs with text from an old French grammar.  And the major part, sequin covered balls from some time back, who knows when for sure.  Sweetly shabby and tres bricolage!

 

And then I finished off a pair of earrings made of another favorite material: salvaged tin; in this case a tin imprinted with a chewing gum logo and the name, "Chris," which had fallen to the ground, was run over and flattened by a car and then rusted for a few seasons until I found it.  There's no amount of faux antiquing that can reproduce the authentic look of this one.  I papered the back with text from a 1913 edition of The Modern Priscilla and added a pretty red glass bead and some steel findings of my own design.   

I'm thankful for found objects, you see.  They provoke thoughts of use and abandonment, also wastefulness, but they give us a second chance when we can wear them for personal adornment.

Abbie is thankful, too.

We wish all a peaceful holiday with ample opportunities to appreciate good fortune and love our abundant planetary home and fellow Earthlings.