unt. 2

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Traditional. September 25, 2017.

Here's some of my original commentary from the Patreon post I made for this piece when I first finished it:

Today [Sept. 25, 2017] I finished a piece I started in August, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out! I'm glad, too -- for something that took so much time and so many hot glue burns, it'd be a shame to be disappointed in it.

The shells I used in this piece I actually didn't intend to use originally. In the spur of the moment I dug out a bag of seashells I collected on a high school trip (with the sole intention of using them in art later, fittingly) and felt inspired.

The bracelet used as a halo was actually a bracelet I've owned for a long time and never been able to wear comfortably. Attaching it required me to lay the project back so the lid that acts as a background was flat against my desk. It was surprisingly easy to get it to stay! I think trying to tie knots for the hanging charms with such small thread was the real challenge when it came to the halo [...]

Sometimes as projects go forward they change a little to the point some materials don't fit anymore, and I think following that flow is better than trying to shoehorn in pieces that don't really work.

I also mentioned burning myself with hot glue a lot in the work-in-progress Patreon post, which is really funny because I don't remember that at all just a few years later.

What really stands out to me now is this comment I made about the bracelet being one I'd owned for years. It's true -- I can't remember not having that bracelet (tucked away to play with, since it really never did fit me) as a kid. Actually, quite a few of the pieces here are objects I held onto out of sentimental value for years and years. The shell necklace was another item that had always been around in my jewelry box. The wings behind the plastic heart on the back broke off a special figurine to celebrate my youngest years that I never got around to fixing but never wanted to lose, and that plastic heart itself is from a bracelet, one of two, that I had alongside my little sister. The beautiful shell hanging from the bracelet is one I bought from a Native person at a powwow in the area my dad brought me to as a kid (and though I've never been able to connect with my Native heritage, the way my dad is able to still is a warm feeling). In some ways, this piece feels to me now like a way to preserve and cherish some little memories. It feels like family.

I think that I got most of the supplies used here at Eugene's Material Exchange Center for Community Arts (MECCA), an organization that's been around here since 1999. I've been going since 2017ish -- I think the trip where I picked up most of the stuff in this piece was actually my first trip. The entire bottom of the tray is filled with white seaglass.