I've been lusting after some of the leather amulets I've been seeing on necklaces on Etsy. You can see some of them at Quisnam, Desert Talismans, Stregata, Infinity Stop and other shops. I've gone through my closet (and Dave's), a couple of thrift shops, even tried to talk someone out of a well-worn wallet, but no luck finding the perfect piece of old leather to become my personal amulet. When I tried to envision what it would look like, what I saw in my mind's eye was a Moroccan coin purse that I had bought at a head shop when I was in college, carried in my jeans pocket over many years and across several states. I could not remember when or where I had seen it last, but I couldn't get it out of my mind. The rust colored goat skin. The stamped design in gold. Opened and closed a thousand times. I'm talking the sixties here, folks. I hadn't seen it in like, thirty years or more.
In anticipation of selling our house and moving south, we were going through some boxes the other day. One was filled with stuff my daughter had left behind when she went off to college years ago. A old jewelry box. Pens and pencils. Pay stubs from an after school job. Her high school stash box. And at the bottom - you guessed it - the little worn Moroccan coin purse.
Sometimes you can call things to you. Important things like friendship. Like love. And small things that have little or no value except to make you a believer.
And a couple of new listings on Etsy:
I'm glad you found the coin purse....now it truly is your talisman. I love it. (Just wondering...what were you doing in a head shop?:)
ReplyDeleteWell, I was in college in 1966, so I was probably in a head shop to buy incense. Yeah - incense. That's my story and I'm sticking to it
DeleteI remember those folding Moroccan coin purses that were in every head shop!
ReplyDeleteI too have been getting inspired by those very same artists and now you.
How great that the first one you made has such personal history.
Where south are you moving to? We're embarking on our yearly snowbird fright at the end of next month... and none too soon. We're already to single digit temps and heading toward the minuses this week.
I thank the Internet gods every day for putting me in contact with all of you incredibly creative women out there. It was so much more difficult to find this quality of inspiration when I was making art quilts.
DeleteBut yes, a move to North Carolina where two of my three children live is in the cards for me, hopefully within the next year or so. They live in Winston-Salem which has an up and coming funky art vibe that I like very very much. I plan on reviving my old hippie dream of having a few chickens and a goat and an alpaca or two. And I want to be more involved with my two grandchildren - and the little one on the way!