Jeff called me out of the blue today he's the guy who asked me to make this.
I made it actually
for his wife and mother-in-law, who where doing some benefit and using it as a
60gram trinket of platinum, 18k, diamonds, sapphires, and if you look hard
enough at the ribbon there is palladium and silver layers (the first step in the
Mokume Gane process). The
initial horse
head I carved from pictures to serve as a base for the detail and proportioning
which was accomplished only after the trip to their farm in Winchester Kentucky.
Jeff is an amazing host to the farm. He walked Pierson and I through to see Championship bloodlines of the Morgan horse in every age and sex. He showed us the German Shepard runs and training grounds (One of my customers has one of his dogs. His name is Cash and I was told by the customer worth every penny.) Jeff even let me torture little blue gills in his pond by spearing them with my wooly bugger fly.
After I put Pierson to bed they gave me his father-in-law's office to carve the details of the horse head. It was the most peaceful night of work I've ever had in my life. Intermittently the bull would wax rhapsodic to the lady cows when the night was quiet enough to listen. Frogs hearts leapt at the baritone bull and declared their song to the sirens of marsh, and the house built on the foundation of a limestone chamber built in the early 1800's hushed a lullaby with strong kind spirits. When I was done,...I had a Heineken.
I haven't heard from him in two years but today he called. It was really good to hear from him, and felt bad because I had to get off of the phone prematurely due to an appointment.
A steady flow of people hunting for the fresh jewelry kept me busy enough to eat the rest of my lunch around 7:00. One client folded up a sketch I did and took it, I thought it was strange that artist get paid for pencil, ink and oil, but my graphite needs to come in a better form of carbon (clear, clean and well cut), my ink has to be chiseled, and my oil better be shiny, over $500 an ounce, and well crafted in order for me to get paid.
Another client asked me to put her huge stones all into one ring, but with a catch, the ring had to be small. Hmm.....
I sketched a ring for her, spent about an hour doing it, she didn't really like it. Then asked me to come up with some more ideas of rings that were traditional, but different. Oxymoron anyone? She wanted to take the sketch to show a friend I said no, because I never give my sketches out. Why did she want it if she didn't like it?
Guys in suits who weren't sure (they won't be until the 24th), and dudes in overalls with hands three hundred thousand times dirtier than mine making well thought out quick decisions and buying.
A client called from New Orleans and ordered a "What ever you can make in earrings and a pendant that matches the ring you made." piece.
Moms and daughters buying gifts for each other and yada yada yada...
Nip/Tuck was good. I think the carver is Sean's wife.