Love is The Law

As a "straight" person, I grew up with a prejudice toward and a lack of understanding of people who were "gay". Age and experience, if we pay attention, enlightens our minds. 

Back in the mid '70s, a woman asked me to make a ring for her "girl friend". They had been together for ten years. She wanted me to carve a symbol of corn growing in the snow. She explained that this was a native american symbol of something that was impossible. This was to signify how hard their relationship had been to maintain in the climate that existed at that time for same sex couples. It was a moving encounter.

Ten years later her partner contacted me to make a matching ring for the first woman. I have never forgotten that experience and have had a particular fondness for the many same sex couples I have made rings for over the years.

I may have a picture of that ring but I have not been able to find it yet. However, several winters ago I was driving to work and passed a field and saw two stalks of corn left standing in the snow. It was the symbol that I had carve so many years ago.

I have been making rings for same sex couples throughout my career. These came to be called "commitment rings".  I never liked that term since it was clear to me these couples were no different from the couples coming to me for "wedding rings" and who are just as much in love and just as committed to a life together.

I would like to express my joy for my gay and lesbian sisters and brothers and my pride in the people of Minnesota for abolishing that arbitrary distinction.

Roman Glass

This pendant was made for a friend of mine. His daughter went to Israel on an archeological dig. The site was a 2000 year old roman ruin. Scattered about the site were pieces of glass from that era. She was allowed to take pieces outside the specified work area and brought them home.  These delicate shards had developed an amazingly beautiful patina, after all that time, that was like an opal. The piece we chose to set was very thin and the coloration was vulnerable to flaking off, both concerns in setting and wearing.  Also the coloration was faint.  What I ended up doing was to mix two part glue, which dries thick, with black india ink and put it on the back of the glass. This gave it strength and enhanced the color. I then sprayed the colored surface with clear enamel to protect the patina.

The setting is made from tiny pieces of driftwood giving it a look of something found along a shore.