{"id":7880,"date":"2016-05-15T17:24:05","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T21:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7880"},"modified":"2019-05-15T13:50:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T17:50:34","slug":"restoration-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/?p=7880","title":{"rendered":"Restoration work"},"content":{"rendered":"

My mother bought this bracelet 40 or\u00a050 years ago, at a flea market or something. It’s sterling silver, from Mexico, and the stone is an amethyst.<\/p>\n

I always loved it. The stone had a fissure in it, which I thought was intriguing.<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0Dad took some jewelry-making classes and replaced the amethyst with turquoise.<\/p>\n

It was a reasonable enough choice, but I really hated it. I’m not a big fan of turquoise anyhow, but I thought it was completely wrong for this elegant bracelet.<\/p>\n

After Mom died, I asked Dad if he could try to put an amethyst in it again. He bought the stone, but was unsure how to work it into shape.<\/p>\n

I kept stone and bracelet, and got a quote from a local jeweler to replace the stone. $350 was too rich for my blood.<\/p>\n

The bracelet sat on my dresser in a special box.<\/p>\n

This winter, when a local art school was having a jewelry market, I brought the bracelet and asked around. I found Jeff Hunter, a lapidarist<\/a> who said he’d be happy to do the stone for $45.<\/p>\n

\"Photo
Photo by Jeff Hunter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jeff hadn’t worked with amethyst before, and soon learned\u00a0how soft it is. He shaped four pieces, but each one chipped or cracked.<\/p>\n

“This amethyst is giving me fits,” he reported. “I’m sorry it’s taking so long.”<\/p>\n

After two months – he could only work on it occasionally because of his demanding full-time job – Jeff asked if I really had my heart set on amethyst.<\/p>\n

Yes, I told him. But a\u00a0flaw is OK, because that’s how the bracelet looks in my memory.<\/p>\n

Today I got the bracelet from Jeff. It is so beautiful. I paid him extra and gave him a big hug.<\/p>\n

“Again, really sorry it took so long,” he said.<\/p>\n

No problem. Restoration takes time.<\/p>\n

“It’s good that it’s cracked,” I told him. “It’s like me.”<\/p>\n

Today I mark six months of being alive. A brain\u00a0artery ruptured<\/a> and my skull was sawn open<\/a> and I still have big dents in my head<\/a>, but I’m alive.<\/p>\n

Restoration takes time.<\/p>\n

Today’s penny is a 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My mother bought this bracelet 40 or\u00a050 years ago, at a flea market or something. It’s sterling silver, from Mexico, and the stone is an amethyst. I always loved it. The stone had a fissure in it, which I thought was intriguing. Then\u00a0Dad took some jewelry-making classes and replaced the amethyst with turquoise. It was … read more Restoration work<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319],"tags":[67,485,935,8,705,9,504,936,502],"class_list":["post-7880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inheritance","tag-67","tag-aneurysm","tag-bracelet","tag-dad","tag-jewelry","tag-mom","tag-recovery","tag-stone","tag-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7880"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7891,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7880\/revisions\/7891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lisaschnellinger.com\/pennies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}