Sunday, June 1, 2008

My Brithday Brooch

I thought I had posted my Gavin Hitchings brooch Ben got me for my birthday on this blog. I was wrong; I hadn't. We actually got this a few days before last Christmas, but it was commissioned as my 50th birthday present, so I didn't wear it until this April. Ben made me the wooden case on Boxing Day, December 26.

"It's a scarf, and a time line of your life," Gavin said when he handed it to me. Do you see the shuttle? We joked whether the shuttle appeared towards the first part of my life, or more towards the end, and Gavin said it's all what I make of it.

In light of my love/hate-with-Pekka-Kuusisto post, I thought you should see it. That this "finding my thing late in life" thing has been a mixed blessing for me, and perceptive artist like Gavin has picked it up in our conversations. Or not; he might have simply thought it's nice to have a shuttle featuring big in my life. I didn't ask.

4 comments:

  1. I love your brooch, I think it needs a shawl to be pinned to, hehe. As I see it, the shuttle is at the center of where your paths have taken you. Not quite the beginning and nearly not the end.

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  2. So, I might be around somewhere between 25-50 more years? I love you, Deep End, I might just get through my stash and labels after all!!

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  3. What a stunning piece of art! I absolutely love and am incredibly envious!

    Hey! In America, 50 is the "new 30" so you're just getting started :)

    Truly, I'm loving this second half of my life, and really -- we have *more* time because 18 years of it are not going to be spent in childhood and then angst filled teen years. Those 18 years are an extra bonus because we can put them to use in such wonderful ways -- then add another 30 (god willing) at least on top of those and we have a loooong time to just revel in being creatives.

    Weave like an Egyptian,
    Jane

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  4. It isn't, though? Gavin's work is always inspiring to look at and superbly crafted.

    Yeah, some people have told me 50 is the new 30 around here, too, but I guess I wasn't expecting glucosamine plus MSM so suddenly.

    Speaking of teenage angst, I was talking Kate from Australia - she's a few years younger than I, but is in a superbly good place in her life right now. Recently she got a hold of a bunch of her diaries and creative writing from her teenage years, and after having a cracker of a time reading them, burnt some, because she so wanted to get rid of the angst she used to feel. It just relieved her, released her and lifted her so much to the point she was a different person from the one I met 5 years ago.

    Anyhoo, we were laughing our heads off because I, too, used to write teenage-angst-ridden poems in my youth, and I got rid of them as soon as I wrote most of them, but now that I have this angst-at-50, and it appeared the smoke and ashes of her angst landed on me. But fear not, angst doesn't seem to stick around me too long; in fact, I find my own very comical.

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