Thursday, January 7, 2016

calm seas

"halcyon" is greek for the kingfisher bird
 -once believed to magically calm the seas for 14 days during the winter solstice-
floating and nesting on the surface of a peaceful, windless, open ocean


it has come to mean a peaceful or tranquil time in life


this tiny photo of one of my girls waving to me is "enough to gladden any heart"
it was a happy day as she stands on the shore of a beach on Whidbey Island 
- the halcyon seas of Puget Sound are seen in the background -


How I made it:
I made this piece out of a broken Christmas ornament found at the shop I work in.
I took it apart, scratched away more of the mirror silvering material, adhered text and a photograph of my oldest daughter (at age 8) to the back of the glass - allowing those elements to peek out through the scratched out silvering. Then I made a foil pennant banner strung on wire to cover the cracked glass. The pennant lettering is made using a round hole punch and book text. The mirrored glass is backed with a blackened book cover. I then sandwiched everything and copper foiled and soldered it all around. It's about 5 inches in diameter.

5 comments:

Ms. said...

What a precious memory keeper. Beautifully done.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely way to re-use something broken and make it into something meaningful. We have kingfishers here thankfully. Love their clicking sounds as they glide over the river. xox

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

And to think, someone else would have thrown the broken ornament into the garbage yet you've made it a thing of sentimental beauty. :) Awesome!

Charade said...

I like it a lot. You have a beautiful way of expression which is fun to peek in at. I'm so glad you share.

Jill said...

Wow! So many steps with such ingenuity to make "something from nothing" so to speak. Wonderful!!