Cutting in time line

Some carve out time for themselves. Others carve themselves into time.

Dilemma of artists, writers, and scientists whether it is better to see what is unseen by others, or to be blithely dependent others at the edge of the known?

Changing is alway colorful; sometimes unpredictable if not carved in stone. (Chameleon on a Fig Branch carved of Grossular garnet and chromite from Transvaal-Cape Province, South Africa.(© images)

Thinking energetically about the sitting in the dark with dark matter…

A different view of the creation and future of the universe is proposed by an old and reputable university in Sweden: “Our universe is an expanding bubble in an extra dimension”.

Just how knowing how soap bubbles and economic bubbles work, how secure do you feel with this revelation? “The whole Universe is accommodated on the edge of this expanding bubble”. Great.

It was hard enough to sleep when pondering first the world was flat (and if you sailed off the edge, there were monsters…). Then the universe was an expanding box that you keep going to the end and unfolding only to find an endless cycle of boxes to collapse.

Now strings and bubbles. Sounds appropriate for New Year’s Eve.

Fruitful consideration of the other side. (© image)

As the American proverb says, “You can’t tell by looking at a frog how high he will jump.”

Practicing a princely pose before hopping to a proposal? (Toad on a leaf carved from Ruby and zoisite from Minas Gerais, Brazil.© image)

Like a visionary land developer standing in a barren desert and seeing a magical city – but on a much smaller scale – they say Gerd Dreher would sit for hours holding, rotating, staring at a raw lump of gemstone until he could see the life hiding within it.

“Gerd Dreher is widely regarded as the most talented carver of gemstones to have ever lived. His works – exquisitely detailed, extremely realistic carvings of animals wrought from crystals of ruby, sapphire, citrine, amethyst, aquamarine, topaz, garnet, and agate – are among the most highly sought masterpieces of the lapidary arts” Feb. 11, 1939 – Jan 4, 2018. (Houston Museum of Natural Science)

Nothing like a lovely purple flower to smooth life’s bumps?(Zoisite and ruby: Longed, Tanzania, with 18K gold.© image)

Toads and frogs…not just for dinner anymore.

Something about the creatures universally appeals to humans across ages and world cultures

An ancient pond

A frog jumps in

The splash of water [1686]

By Matsuo Basho, Japanese poet and master of haiku . (1644–1694)

In Chinese traditional culture, frog represents the lunar yin, and the Frog spirit Ch’ing-Wa Sheng is associated with healing and good fortune in business.

Still life painters of the Dutch Golden Age used frogs, well, because they were so common and stayed lifelike “fresh” for so long even when they weren’t.

And then there’s Aesop:

Frog and the Ox (limits on the impossible?), The Boys and the Frog (PETA approved), The Hares and the Frogs, Frog and the Mouse,(Karma by another name?) The Frogs Who Wished for a King (Is that how we got to this point?), The Fighting Bulls and the Frog (also quite modern), and The Quack Toad,(politicians take note)

Frog on leaves has withstood the wrinkles in time. (Heliodor Mined in Woyln, Ukraine. ©image)

Mouse standing on a leaf seems to be asking the frog for a tale before he croaks. (Carved ruby on zoisite, 18K gold tail.Minas Gerais, Brazil.© image)

These sculptures much more welcomed and cherished by home owners than the living ones, perhaps.

All in how you look at things.

Time for whimsy to carve and serve up a beautiful 2019

Happy New Year!

Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge.

About as transparent as things get. (Mouse on a mushroom: aquamarine, morganite. Minas Gerais, Brazil. ©image)

Starfish on rock with snail in background. Made from agate and quartz from Minas Gerais, Brazil.(© image)

Bat in flight carved from agate and quartz from Brazil (© image)

Peacock in fine feather of silver and gold-plated silver, quartz with black tourmaline (base), tiger eye, jasper, lapis lazuli, agate and malachite. Assembled from over 350 individual pieces (© image)