Do you ever had one of those days? A day when the minute you get out of bed, things go wrong? Well, today I have one of those.
I got up really early full of plans. Made myself a nice cup of coffee. Wrong. Not sure what happened but the coffee tasted like dishwater. Well, to be honest, I have no idea what dishwater tastes like, nor do I incline to find out but it sure looked like it and it tasted yuck. I will spare you all the details what more went wrong after that coffee except for this. This was suppose to be a brilliant epic post, full of deep inside thoughts about guns and bullets and the fear, despair, ugliness, pain and hatred accompanied by them. About how we have to reach out to other people and turn hatred into love, into something beautiful. Instead nothing happened. I couldn't find the words to express myself.
So I give you a beautiful lady who turned a personal drama into something wonderful and powerful. A great role model.
And I give you earrings made with empty bullet shell casings, inspired by her. Power, my attempt to make something powerful and lovely out of something which causes destruction.
Earrings made with etched bullet shell casings, chrysocolla, gorgeous handmade lampwork glass beads from Stephanie McCain of Avas Bead Garden and matching lampwork glass spacers from Taara Ryan of Desert bug Designs. Now available in my shop.
Thanks for looking!
Wishing you a wonderful day,
Janine
Esfera Jewelry
These are really beautiful earrings Janine. I am never totally sure about the idea of empty bullet casings in jewellery - I feel like sometimes it can come across as glorifying something that represents destruction and, frankly, evil to me. But these are beautiful and I the story behind them and their design is perfect.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment Rebecca. I so agree with you. It does represent destruction. And there is too much of that already in this world at the moment. I feel powerless thinking about what happened for example in Paris. But it happened. And if I look at Malala, her courage and strength, I have to try to make a positive difference every single day. How small a difference it may be. These earrings is my experiment to make something so ugly into something lovely. To me it represents that out of destruction and despair can come something beautiful. (sorry, I'm rambling..will stop now).
Deletebeautiful post Janine!! lets face it, unfortunately, for now anyway, there will always be weapons. Either for personal protection, hunting or war. I think taking something destructive and turning them into something beautiful is AWESOME!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Lynn :-). And I'm afraid you are right. Unfortunately there always will be weapons. The weapon industry is a big industry, with lots of profit, so therefore very powerful.
DeleteReally beautiful and I love looking at the bullet casings in a different way.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kristi for your lovely comment :-)
DeleteBeautiful... the earrings... the sentiment... the inspiration... the person designing them. Enjoy the day! Erin
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Erin :-)
DeleteBeautiful post, Janine. <3 xoxo -- julie
ReplyDeleteThank you Julie :-)
DeleteJanine, your heartfelt post evoked many different emotions all at once. That is an art in itself. Thank you for sharing the lovely soul that you are with the rest of us. The earrings are lovely. . . . but it sometimes seems quite meaningless, doesn't it, with all that goes on around us; on the flip side, it is an essential outlet for me. I'm sure that's true for many others. Thank you, Janine, for such a beautiful post.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the earrings more closely the second time and they are more than lovely. They're Gorgeous! Really! :)
DeleteThank you so much for your kind and wonderful words Norbel.
DeleteThank you Janine. We all need more of this.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carol!
DeleteBeautiful earrings. I love the inspiration behind them. Great post.
ReplyDeleteThank you Ann :-)
DeleteBeautiful earrings and I can feel what you are saying. Heartfelt --- and powerful. Malala is one of the great inspirations of our time. She inspires me to soften to stand up and I'm sure for girls and women everywhere. Amazing young woman! Thank you for sharing this. And your beautiful empty shell earrings. Very powerful! <3
ReplyDeleteThank you Cindy. I agree with you, Malala is such a great inspiration for girls and women all over the world.
DeleteBeautiful post and oh my the jewel tones in those earrings - LOVE! I am so grateful the world has Malala. She is eloquent and powerful. Back in 2013 I too took to making earrings out of bullet casings for a similar feeling of wanting to make something beautiful out of the horrors of violence. I knew that some would be uncomfortable, but that's what I wanted: to start a conversation. When one wears them they are noticed and that can start a one on one conversation which is usually more civil than SM. If interested, here's the post I did: http://www.honeyfromthebee.com/blog/flower-child-earrings-and-other-bullet-casings
ReplyDeleteHi Janet, thank you so much for your comment. I agree, it is the perfect conversation piece, jewelry made with bullet casings. And definitely more civil than SM :) I love the earrings you made with them as well. And that quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower is so true.
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