blast from the past

A co-worker of my wife is graduating this year and she wanted to give a small gift. He's into the whole new biker scene in the town and asked if I had an of this bike jewelry I used to make years ago.

Back in the day I'd take old chain and form it into keychains and necklaces and earings. This was before you could buy them from online catalogs.
Down in the basement in a dusty old box, I found the last two pieces I'd made.

One time I even set up a booth at our local street fair in town. The booth was sold for Friday afternoon through Sunday. I didn't feel like setting up and Friday afternoon and went to see a band instead and set up Saturday morning. So I am setting up this rickity wooden display easel that I'd jury rigged the day before and a folding chair and old card table, next to the seasoned street fair regulars with credit card machines, nice canopy tents, and lots of merchandise who were all geared up the day before. The street fair enforcers from the town downtown council came by and chewed me out for not setting up on Friday and that they would have sold my spot to someone else ,etc, etc. And I sat all day in the baking sun. Sold enough for several nights of Cellar pita pizzas and beer money for a little while and never did that again.

I think I gave one to an olympic track cyclist who worked with a friend of my brother's out in California and I sent one to Missy Giove. One day I saw a cover shot of her on MBA or similar magazine and sure enough there is my necklace
*That's it but the star shape came apart*

(like the one below) around her neck. The funny thing is though she had sent me a thank you letter that started with :
Dear Homegirl, or Dear girlfriend or something like that...

She must have thought I was a woman as my name alone isn't really distinctive to gender for someone unfamiliar with it.


This morning my kids saw the keychain and I made one for my son on the spot with a dime in the middle of it. My wife still has hers from 15 years ago.

Fun stuff. I like to make things now and then. For most months out of the year I have shop tools that lay dormant, but a few times out of they year I have to make something "right now". A box or a knife or something tangible. Something about taking whole process from drawing a design on paper to forming some raw materials into something that transforms from just wood or steel into something beautiful, tangible, and real. My son and I are making some small boxes right now. 6 mos later it might be done given the rate I'm going...