Dichroic Reflections

goods to trade?

With a lot of luck and preparation, two weeks from now I will have completed the erg marathon and passed my instrument checkride. I keep reminding myself to live my life as it happens and not wish time away, but someimtes that's difficult. And how sad is it that I'm looking forward to the month before a marathon (the "real" one, on the water) because I'll be able to rest more?

Last night, inspired by Elisem - both the earrings she's posted pictures of and the jasper that was part of her Bead of the Month club - I put together a couple pairs of earrings, one from brecchiated jasper stars and another from picasso jasper in an oval cylinder. One has gone to a coworker, because it's too dark to show up against my hair, but I took pictures of both and will try to post them tonight. I'm very pleased with the way they came out, especially the elegant picasso jasper pair I kept. I've got ideas for another pair of jasper earrings, with small striated disks (though those may wait, because they'd look wonderful dangling from long polished wood cylinderbeads in mahoghany or dark cherry, if I can find such a thing), and a pendant from a smoothly-shaped honey colored piece of jasper. I haven't decided whether to keep those or give them away; most likely I'll keep the pendant and give away the earrings if they seem to be right for any particular person I know.

Or maybe next time I make something that's not right for me, I'll offer it as a trade and see what people are willing to swap for it. That might be fun. I could list the cost of materials and amount of time, so people have an idea of what would be an appropriate value trade item - not that time and material would have to match precisely, but so that I don't get offered, say, a vase made of a soda can, masking tape and shoe polish (like one I made in summer camp!) for a silver necklace that took hours to make. Certainly material value could be traded for time value, too. I wonder what a fair selection process would be? Elisem's Artist's Challenge sparked the idea, but I would expand it to include handcrafts as well as art, basically bartering something I can create for something I couldn't. She takes the first respondant to those challenges I think: I'm not sure if I'm brave or trusting enough to do that. I would probably only ever do this with jewelry; I'd feel odd trading writing instead of publishing it freely, and my knitting takes so long to do that I only keep those pieces for myself or give them to someone I love. I might trade photos; I could show a low-res sample, then enlarge and mat one if someone liked it. Also, I'd have to commit to being prompt at sending out pieces. I don't know if this is something I want to do or not, but I do like the idea of bartering my handwork for someone else's. Also, I have some beads that are very nice but aren't likely to become something I'd wear. For example, I have some dichroic beads that seem to want to be a bracelet. I don't wear bracelets much, especially chunky ones, so these beads are languishing until I can find some other way to use them. At any rate, it's an interesting idea to play with, especially as the gift-related holidays approach. Maybe I should just try it once with an easily-mailable pair of earrings to see how it goes.