Spirit Spiral

About twelve years ago, some unsolicited kyanite showed up at my door. I called my mother, who confirmed what I’d suspected. “I am the source of the kyanite!” she said triumphantly. “Near where I grew up there’s a quarry, and they mine kyanite. So I emailed them and told them you are a jewelry artist, and now they’ve sent you this kyanite! Isn’t that great?”

“Yes!” I said. Then I put the chunks of kyanite on my shelf among my other stone specimens. Alongside it since 2010 I’ve had an extravagant piece of cavansite, a chunky, teal mineral that is my favorite of them all. That summer my employers(Inaya Jewelry, lovely good people) at the time took thier annual excursion to India to bring back stones. “What’s your favorite stone?” they asked, and I said “Cavansite!” and they said “huh…”

I didn’t think of it again until upon returning they brought me a chunk of it. “It only comes from one mine on earth, Anna, but that mine was in India, so here you go!” That Christmas they gave me a necklace with a cavansite pendant, one of the most thoughtful gifts I’d ever received.

Finally I got some free moments to make my spirit doodle, the swirly wire sunburst I’ve been making since childhood, pictured in the drawing. From its center a mexican fire opal shines, and the cavansite looks great underneath it, like a mountain under a rising sun. Because it looks like the blue sky, I decided now was the time for the kyanite, and I hit it with a hammer. I put the chunks in my tumbler, and what emerged I set in the necklace. Interspersed with some gold chain I have, and accented with some black diamonds, it’s all come together. Today is a good day! Thank you

for the wonderful photographs.