Thinking aloud in copper

I'm still here.

I know it seems like I've fallen off the face of the planet, but I haven't.

Time is a rare commodity.

I just don't have enough of it and definitely not enough to spend it here waxing poetic about creativity and my muse and the challenges of artistry.

Nope.

More often than not the day is dirty diapers, dirty laundry, dirty dishes, but a clean and happy baby who is enjoying growing up as much as I'm enjoying watching the process (I just wish she'd stop bumping her head and watch where she's going!)

 

I do steal a couple of hours here and there to create and I selfishly hoard the time at the bench.

My head is full of ideas and the ones that don't make it to the bench are inevitably relegated to my sketchbook.

 

But, these? These little beauties?

They made it from heart to head to hands.

 

They are the tiniest Big Dippers.

 

 

Hand-cut rounds of copper, drilled precisely to form the constellation and then soldered to open copper discs.

 

It seems so simple, but I wanted to push the idea further. Could I capture, not just the idea of starshine, but the actual thing?

Could I make these glow like the constellation in the night sky? Co-opt its beauty to hang around my neck?

 

Why yes, I think I can.

 

That's why they are domed. Slipped over my phone flashlight and the dome blocks all the light except just the glow that sneaks through the holes of the constellation.

 

There she is. The Big Dipper in all her glory, the backbone of Ursa Major around my neck.

 

 

It might be the simplest of designs, the least complex of fabrication projects, but I can't get over the secret that this tiny pendant holds. An entire constellation in the palm of my hand.

 

They are here for you lovers of light, you connoisseurs of constellations, you amateur astronomers and aspiring astronauts.

 

Another secret? I actually made four, but you can't have the fourth one. It's for me!