Is “stumped” a new word for uninspired?
Or is stumped the way you feel when you think you can “will”
inspiration? Is it stubborn determination that you can MAKE yourself come
up with a good idea? I don’t know. But I was not taken with any
really magical idea or inspiration for this month’s Little Altars spot – for
the entire month!
However, I am pretty happy with my result! I’ve been
surrounded by fallen leaves. I especially like the fallen leaves of the
red maples. At an office building I frequent, there are literally dozens
of these trees surrounding the building. Every year I get suckered in by the
their colors and take multiple photographs of the leaves. Whether there
are just a few on the ground, or sheets of them, they thrill me! I also
live with two maple trees at my house: a Norway maple and a silver maple.
Leaves, leaves, leaves.
I’ve also been surrounding myself, a little bit, with copper.
Put all that together, and, in the end, I was equally inspired
by some leaves that my husband sawed out of copper during a beginning jewelry
class we took in the mid-1990’s. We never finished the class (it was an
evening class – yikes – and that didn’t work for us.) But in the
intervening years, I’m the one who got into copper, and chasing and repousse,
etc. Since I’ve so enjoyed David’s leaves on the mantle for all these years, I
figured Lynn might appreciate one as well.
This leaf has been patterned with a dried leaf in the rolling
mill, sawed, chased, formed by hand, and heat treated. It’s not sealed,
so the colors will change over time. So that it can be cleaned in the
future, if desired (ours never are), it’s removable. Not meant to be worn; the
edges are sharp! It’s a simple inspiration, but I think that sometimes
those are the best.
Nancy
