Mermaid's Tears

Mermaids Cry Salty Tears in the Salty Ocean

The storms and wind from the remnants of IKE hit yesterday and we lost power at 7:00 am, several trees fell and two power poles were broken.

It reminded me of sitting through the rain bands of Gustav in Louisiana not that long ago, and made me think of the on-line friends in harm's way in Houston and the Gulf Coast.

I hope your power returns soon, and you are able to get water, ice and gasoline, the three things that seem so important to have immediately after such a storm.

Yesterday's plan was to solder some items and fire some glass, but without electricity I had to come up with things I could still work on because sitting around doing nothing was crazy-making.

So I made this little necklace just using my jewelry tools and wire.

I'm going to call it Mermaid's Tears. If a mermaid cries salty tears in the salty ocean, does anyone notice?

The stone chips are florite, which has a beautiful translucence to it. The little heart shape in the blue goes perfectly with the stone chips. The stone chips have such tiny little holes, I created these wrapped links with the florite on them, and it looked to me like undewater rocks that are encrusted with beautiful coral and life. The necklace is translucent, in the light it's luminous like the color you see looking up at the sky from underwater.


So the enforced power outage made me think about how to use the time creatively without electricity, and sit quietly by a big window for light, listening to music on a battery operated portable CD player.

It's not so bad here because we can drive down the street and the stores and restaurants still have power, not like in Houston where no one has power and there's no way to pump gas or even buy batteries if your supply runs low.

Hang in there, those of you still in harm's way. And for those on Galveston Island, where the seach and rescue is still going on, I put lots of thoughts of you into this necklace called 'Mermaid's Tears' and I hope you are safe and well.

We were so relieved at 2:00 am when the power returned, many thanks to those linemen we watched from a distance putting up the new power pole and to the others we didn't see who were instrumental in getting electricity back to this neighborhood. I translate that feeling in the millions for the Houston area, and wish you the same feeling of relief and return to normal living.