Recycled Recycled Art

I made this setting years ago, before I had the proper tool for making round "hats." Now, it's back!

Proper tools make construction easy. If you don't have the right tool for a job, the best you can do is fumble around and jerry-rig something that sorta works.

Several years ago, Bruce Brinkley brought me a red-swirled marble that was important to him. He wanted a little "hat" and loop on the top--something plain and masculine. But I didn't have a dapping set, which is what you need to hammer silver into domes.

So I did the best I could with the tools, talent and experience that I had on hand. This  little silver cage is what I made for him. I loved it, but he never wore it. I asked him several times over the years why he didn't wear it. Finally, last week, he admitted that it was too feminine for him.

"Give it back!" I insisted. "I have the dapping set now and can make the hat!"

He did. I cut his marble out, and inserted a gorgeous seafoam orb from Sunderland, England. Now, I need to make Bruce his red swirled pendant. But that will be easy, since I have the proper tool.

The great thing is that I got a chance to see one of my old designs. I still love it. At the time it was a long stretch of my imagination and skills. Now, it's simplicity incarnate. I think I'll make more cages. They're cool.