For Those Who Were Curious in The Common Room

This is the jewelry from the previous entry.

The bracelet is somewhere around a century old. I bought it from the ;leftover stock of an old gem and mineral shop that had gone out of business in Toas, New Mexico. The new owners did not want "junk" from a dusty old backroom and neither did their mineral collecting clientel. I bought it very cheaply.

This bracelet was handmade by a nomadic tribe of Afghani hillfolk. The silver was forged, formed and soldered on charcoal fires. There are many layers of lacelike silver wire, formed into intrecate disigns. I cannot imagine the delicacy and hand/eye control this must have taken, much less the time.

The "stones" are ebony (wood), hand polished - that is, polished by rubbing the hand over and over the wood.

These people, because they lived in the hills and it was too much trouble to differentiate between them and the hill dwelling rebel troops, were totally wiped out by the Soviets in the 1979-1989 invasion of Afganistan. .

The ring is also silver It was designed and handcrafted by a man in Provo, Utah from pieces made in Mexico. The chrystal is simple, natural quarz, though intricately formed. The ring is one-of-a-kind.; the genius is in its design. No matter how large or heavy the ring, this man's designs lay perfectly balanced on the hand and never interfer with using the hand. I had no trouble keying, playing a musical instrument or doing anything else wearing his designs. (Well, I wouldn't advise gardening nor breading eggplant wearing it.)

For those not familiar with the jargon:
Hanmade (as the bracelet) means that no machines were used.
Handcrafted (as the ring) means that a thing was made by a person, but that person may have used handheld machines in doing so.

Hope that answered some questions and/or was interesting to someone.
Until again...