Rilke Belt and Something for you, L

When my husband and I got married a little over two years ago, we had a wealth of quotes from which to choose for our ceremony: bits of antique wisdom we wanted to

include.

Shakespeare's 116th Sonnet was so important to me.... I am a huge fan of Sense and Sensibility, and a reformed theatre major.

When I was a sophomore in college (getting that degree in Theatre) my dearest girlfriend Amy spoke of "Letters to a Young Poet" by Rilke, referencing its lines in an almost biblical way...

A few pages in a few years on and I completely understood.

That book and the man who wrote it have genuinely influenced my life

for the better.

Time after time, I have recalled his tender, encouraging words as though they were written only for me, this young artist so scared and proud

just beginning to be husked by life and determined to 'win', whatever that means;

'win' is a word for races or reality shows: it has no place in art.

Lately the word "bravery" has been on my mind; the women and men I admire so, the trials and heroics of modern life, and this Rilke Quote comes to mind:

'Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are waiting to see us once brave and beautiful'

I will be tooling that phrase and inlaying it into the above leather belt (red and aqua: is there a pair of colors that is (are?) more gorgeous together? hmmmm....)

It will be like my scarflettes, lacy and supple, lined in the aqua suede....

Secondly, there was a parcel delivered to my home that I purchased on the world wide interweb:

a few porcelain cabochons painted waaaaaaay back in the day.

Given the age and the style of these pieces, I would date them right around 1900, making them over 100 years old.

There are pieces of black paint worn off; I like to imagine they were beloved and cherished pieces in the jewelry box of a sweet lass, worn in the fashion of the day...

years later here they are in my hand,

awaiting their rebirth into a sterling case

for another generation to marvel at their beauty.... how lucky am I to be that artist who gets to gently tuck a bezel around their edges and settle their bones into a soft cotton-filled box bound for their new beloved?

This one is a garland of blue flowers, shaped into a 'L'.

I wanted to post this here and see whom this lovely piece belongs to.

It's sizeable with a big dome and a good weight: this ain't no pansy porcelain - it's awesomely strong.

can't you just see the painter holding it up under the lamp after it was done?

Do you see the powerful smile this beautiful piece created in its finished glow?

L, come claim your beautiful necklace :)

I leave you with the Rilke quote I chose for our wedding:

"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky"

xoxoxo,

Allison