Christmas Glass

Presents for people I love.

Chris will never see this story. Neither will Aunt Dee or Uncle Joe. So when they get their seaglass mobiles for Christmas, they will still be surprised.

I make many of the presents we give for Christmas. When we were young, Mom told us it was more important to give a piece of yourself than just an object, however expensive. Decades later, I'm still following her advice.

It helps to have a studio full of gorgeous, old seaglass and a stack of driftwood piled out back, in the alley. When you really need a present, you can grab beautiful bits and put them together quickly (oh, yeah....it also helps to have the tools).

Chris' mobile is the first I've made with beads. But it's the glass that is truly outstanding. The big cobalt oval has "Made in the USA" in worn, raised letters across its face. This glass was found on a barrier island off Accomack County, at the site of a 1940s shipwreck. The deep turquoise piece is an old electrical insulator, worn to perfection on the Cape Charles beach. Then there is the purple glass, which has manganese in it, and is thus datable to before World War One.

The beads are little carved bone death's heads. Chris wouldn't like that, but I mixed them--eyes up, eyes down--so they wouldn't be as recognizable. I didn't have any other beads that were suitable. I'm betting she doesn't look at them closely.

Aunt Dee collects turtles, so her mobile has a carved bone turtle. Uncle Joe is the impossible one to "shop" for. He's a very handy man, though, so I took an antique tool from our workshop and tied it into his mobile. I don't know what the tool is. It's wonderfully made, though. Finely honed steel.

I'm hoping that they hang the glass in a sunny spot all year long, and think about how I cared about them enough to make them something lovely. It's the least I could do for people I love.