Good Mourning Broken Hearts Club Band and Happy New Year! I won't mourn the end of 2008 as there's a lot of icky stuff from this past year that I want to bury. Probably hardest was the loss of my dear retired racing greyhound, McGwire, who had been my constant companion and source of unconditional love for 6 years. I got a design idea in my head (and a sketch on the wall) of a jet "dog bone" with a heart on it. Maybe a better brooch than a pin. We'll see when and if it manifests here in the studio. Speaking of things that break my heart.....

I'm trying to break out some more of my classic jet broken heart beads as we see here, using material from Tennessee. I left both of these hearts with mostly "natural" faces as I was feeling particularly broken hearted over the holidays. This first one is drilled side to side....

and this other heart is drilled at an angle through the lobe so that it hangs off kilter....

My main grinder broke down a few weeks ago and the motor is still in the repair shop so I'm doing the best I can. I'm looking forward to heading to Tucson in a month and will be doing my best to keep on sourching jet rough and finished items. A bloke from Britain who is doing a University dissertation on jet mourning jewelry just contacted me recently and I'm curious as to what kind of information he has and what I can find out from him. I would really like to be able to source at least a small amount of Whitby jet to add to my jet black palette of lapidary materials!

I would also like to pick up some Asturian jet from Northern Spain as I have recently discovered a guild of jet workers based out of Oviedo.

HISTORY LESSON: In Northern Spain the use of jet is associated with the pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James at Santiago de Compostela. I have a booklet on jet put out by the Hispanic Society of America in 1930. It says, "Shells, the special badge of the pilgrimage, amulets, rosaries, and images of Saint James were the principal items.....The jet carvers formed a guild in 1443, but their period of greatest activity was during the 16th and 17th centuries....The amulets, for protection from the evil eye, take the form of the higa, a closed hand with the thumb held between the index and middle fingers." Here are two scans of an image of an higa in the booklet. It's from the 17th-18th Century and shows Christ Bearing the Cross carved on the "forearm" above the palm side of the higa, with a silver mounting to be worn as an amulet. The text says this is 12.5cm by 4 cm which makes it about FIVE INCHES long by an inch and a half wide! And people say *I* make big beads for big jewelry! Luckily jet is lightweight, similiar to amber, so you can get a lot of black bang for your buck with this material.

So while the "higa" isn't a broken heart, it has a rich history and can protect from the evil eye. I'm sure that the less evil eye that there is around the fewer broken hearts there will be!

That's it for now Broken Hearters! May 2009 bless you with lots of healing for your broken hearts and may any heartbreaks you receive in the new year not get infected and make you heartsick!

Regards, Leo Sunshine