My Greatest Jewelry Challenge Yet - How did I do?

I went to lunch with my wonderful friend Kathy yesterday. As always, we had a great time and talked nonstop over our salads. We covered everything from education to family to personal history and many things in-between, it was great. But there's a reason I have to blog about it - there's a great story here!

Towards the end of our lunchtime Kathy drew out a plastic bag from her purse and put it on the counter. It contained two very long, very shiny silver screws. I wondered where the heck she was going with this. Then she told me the story of how she broke her ankle.

She had taken her beautiful 55 lb dog outside for playtime and the dog got a little over-enthusiastic, deciding to run towards her at mach speed, and when she realized her dog wasn't going to bypass her she tried to get out of the way. In that moment her dog knocked her down and as she twisted, her ankle broke all to hell. Please don't get the willies from the gruesome photo of poor swollen broken ankle...does that look painful or what!? Read on....

The doctors actually had to use two screws to connect her ankle bones and Kathy walked around on them for months while she healed. Owie!!! She told me she could feel things rubbing together in there and it was not comfortable to say the least. 

Well right before we went to lunch together she had, at last, had those screws removed - YAY!!!! If you've ever had an injury of any kind and gone through the body healing stuff, the emotional stuff, the limitations on what you can and can't do while it's healing, you understand her glee, and her gratitude towards those screws that made the alignment and healing possible. They're pretty special screws.

She's an enthusiastic buyer of the jewelry I so love to make - which you can purchase in my Etsy shop Dreamkeeper Creations, and it always looks so great on her. So she said to me, "Jen, can you make me something out of these?"

And you know, I love this girl, and I picked up the bag with it's long shiny screws and nodded my head, answering "Absolutely." Well, I trust my artistic muse, don't I? This is a LOT of trust....

In the car on the way home that night after work my head was full of thoughts about how to attach these screws so they'd hang straight (a reflection of my totally OCD nature - I'll write a post about that too, and it'll be fun). So I sat down at the table my husband made me in my studio and got to work. Man it was fun. These earrings came out like they were just waiting to adorn her - HA! Take a look....

Kathy's Earrings to Commemorate Healing

Pretty cool, eh? Thank you my muse! These lovely danglies include little sterling silver dog charms, wish I had a better photo for you, and some agate, tourmaline, chalcedony, and Swarovski crystals, wire wrapped to blend nicely with the steel screws.

So pretty, huh?

Whenever I do commissioned jewelry for my friends (all clients are friends - which you'll thoroughly understand if you've ever purchased and worn my pieces) I write a special note letting them know what kind of stones were chosen and a bit about the piece(s). Kathy's copy says, right at the beginning:

Custom Earrings to Commemorate Healing for Kathy

These earrings, made especially for you, include little sterling silver doggie charms because your beloved fur person got a little over-enthusiastic and knocked you down, maybe you should eat more pancakes.... (she's a tiny, beautiful woman)

The silver spiral symbolizes the eternal cycles of life, healing and growing, death, and birth, of facets of self.

The spiral is because whenever we injure ourselves there's something going on that makes us stop, or at least slow down, and turn our thoughts more closely to ourselves to see what's really going on...and that's when surprising growth happens inside ourselves, which can positively affect our influence in our outside worlds.

So there's the story, ain't it great? I feel honored to have been asked to make something special to commemorate her healing, and I give sincere thanks, always, to my muse.

Namaste

Jen