Years before I dipped my feet into photography and writing my passions were oil painting and arts and crafts. Those of you who know me for over 30 years will scoff and laugh at this, knowing that my most hated word in German is basteln – which is effectively arts and crafts, cut and paste in the three-dimensional form. The thing is, I was pretty good at these activities, but somehow I got distracted elsewhere and came to resent arts and crafts in particular.
I couldn’t sleep last night for a number of reasons, so I started re-arranging my drawers, re-discovering a whole bunch of socks and undies which I thought had been swallowed up by the laundry monster that seems to harbour an insatiable appetite. I did end up with a bag full of divorced or widowed socks though, which I think I will relegate to the no-clue-what-to-do-with-you basket and turn them into cat toys eventually. An hour later I had pristine drawers that would pass even the strictest military inspection, but was no step closer to being ready for bed. If anything, I was itching to do something more with my hands, and writing was not top of my list, and neither was baking, my usual insomnia-busters.
A forage for chocolate and a cup of tea in the kitchen led me to yet another drawer – yes, my cutlery drawer looks like it belongs to a neatness freak now, all the dishes were washed, and the stovetop is spic and span. Ah, but among the not-so-secret secret stash of rubber bands I found a tube of superglue.
Hmmmm…
think think think…
Armed with the chocolate and tea in one hand and the superglue in another I headed back to my desk. Don’t worry, I didn’t add any superglue to the chocolate or tea, I believe arsenic is better for that. Nevertheless, my eyes wandered over to my messy accessories drawers and I started digging around.
Never start a project at 23:00 with saxophone music (in this case Eric Alexander) in the background! One thing led to another and before I knew it, I pulled out all my frog brooches, single frog earrings that had lost a partner, old rings that had fallen apart or were bend out of shape, and had what looked like jewellery carnage on my table. The cats were wise enough to stay away and so I began the rescue mission of the frogs. By the time I finished it was 02:00, but I was satisfied with the reconstructive surgery conducted.
One of my soul sisters called it personalised jewellery, which I totally agree with, although I prefer the term up-frogging or frogdivasising, neither word exists in any dictionary, but it somehow fits. My god-brother referred to it as cannibalism, which I objected to, but we agreed on approtech (appropriate technology). In any case, I made the conscious decision last night to start wearing my personal brand or logo in whatever capacity. I just might hunt out a canvas and some oil paints next!
FrogDiva Thoughts 