Okay. Here we go. Not to worry. The ramparts are built.
Fortifications have been erected. Let them blast away. Zippers…
carefully stitched onto my lips. They’re sealed. Blindfolds in
place. Shields up. Bang! Bam! Earplugs in. Can’t listen to the
incessant prattlings. I’ll take the tigers in the jungle. Give me the
leopards. The lions. Anything. A raging elephant. All predators
welcome. Well… not all. It’s the humans that worry me. Can’t help
it. Experiences cascade like gloom. Specters attack. More ramparts.
More fortifications. Slings. Arrows. Lightening bolts. The whole
kaboodle. Zeus. Thor. Can’t remember all the names. A touch of
anomia. Mixed mythology. Do I care? Bring 'em on. Varlet. Quick. My
shield. I’m ready. All right all right. A deep breath. The story
begins.
Once upon a time… no no no. It’s been done. There was a crooked man
who walked… I’ll keep it short. Curtail the embellishments. I was
at their house. They were all there. The whole family. Sons.
Daughters. Wives. Husbands. The father. The father and I are old
friends. Yes yes. I won’t lie. Here and there… a friend pops up. If
you have one you have more than most, they say. They say so many
things.
One of the children sidle up. The wife of the son of the father. She
has a stone. An amethyst. Pear shape. Nice color. Tip of it is
chipped. Smashed to smithereens. Can it be fixed? Yes. No. Well… if
you want to lose the size. She frowns. What should I do. Buy another
one. Can’t. It has sentimental value.
The table is laden with stuff. Paper. Crayons for grandchildren.
Large three quarters empty pizza box. I grab a crayon. Orange. Better
than blood red. I sketch. Here. Look. Zip zap. A pear shape. A
triangle at the end. I scribble circles. I’ll fill it with diamonds.
Cover the tip of the amethyst. I’ll angle the metal in below the tip
to create a shadow. No reflection at the tip of the stone this way.
Chips and smasherei will be invisible.
She smiles. I don’t care if I have to work on Matrix for a year. I’m
going to make her happy. At night… the computer. Fiddle and diddle.
Some rough curves. A couple of sweeps. Just to give her a taste
before I plunge head-in. I render the whole shebang. It looks great.
I send it on. Reply email is immediate. Go for it. I step another
step. Render again. How did I get that reflection on the first one. I
had lost my concentration and did something without knowing what it
was I had done. Can’t figure it out. I call Tom and Dick and Harry.
How did I do this? No one has a clue. But I finally figure it out. I
had drifted and pushed a wrong button which turned out to be right.
Right is wrong and wrong and right and often the twain do meet.
I send on the next image. Price included this time. Onward. More
Matrix. A little Photoshop here and there for touch-up. Don’t want
the diamonds to look too dark. Ignore if they’re a little blurry.
Overall effect is there. And then I’m done. Don’t ask how long it
took. It took long. Grow the wax. Cast. Set. Polish. Assemble.
Well… if the order is off the order is off. Maybe it was assemble
polish set. Who cares? It’s the final that counts.
Wanna see? Don’t ask any questions. My lips are zipped. Dig those
ramparts steeper men. Man the canons. Where’s my anti-criticism
cloak. Let the hurlings begin. Okay. Go. Look. You know where. Me…
I’m going to the movies.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits. Click it… and you will see represented on our
pages… an amethyst ring created by moi and made to hide a chip.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week.
Benjamin Mark