![\"Amethyst](\"http:\/\/userblogs.ganoksin.com\/cosmicfolklore\/files\/2011\/11\/IMG_4146.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: sterling silver and a 38 carat amethyst. - commission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The thought had crossed my mind that our forefathers must have squinted a bunch. \u00a0Sunglasses, how did they gallop full\u00a0speed\u00a0into the sunset without the aid of a set of aviators? \u00a0Now, as I look around and notice the masses of people who have to wear corrective lenses, millions. \u00a0Without these lenses, we would\u00a0definitely\u00a0have masses of people moving about slowly, squinting, or holding their hands out to make sure they don’t bump someone. \u00a0It wouldn’t matter anyway, they wouldn’t be able to identify who bumped into them any way. \u00a0Would we develop our other senses? \u00a0Maybe a make over could consist of merely switching brands of soap.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: detail<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Lenses of glass, quartz, rose colored, blue lenses, making us see through the eyes of a struggling up and coming Picasso. \u00a0can lenses be ground from amethyst? \u00a0Amethyst was a gorgeous Greek chick that lived a long, long time ago. \u00a0I imagine that she had purple hair and eyes like an Australian\u00a0shepherd, kind of a milky lavender-ish clear. \u00a0She probably squinted.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: detail<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Anyways, Amethyst pissed off a lush god known as\u00a0Dionysus, who wanted to get everyone drunk and watch them\u00a0frolic\u00a0in their lack of\u00a0inhibition. \u00a0Somehow Amethyst pissed her off, and Dionysus made it his quest to get this purple Greek hippie chick hooked on the bottle, maybe just to see if she had purple pubes. \u00a0 Inevitably, the other gods liked the cunning and\u00a0tenacity\u00a0of this flower child, and granted her the power of total sobriety, the\u00a0ability\u00a0to resist the effects of\u00a0alcohol, despite her blood\u00a0alcohol\u00a0levels.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: detail<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Yeh, I don’t get it either. \u00a0Why is that such a great thing. \u00a0Or, maybe we misconstrue the story, and it is a punishment. \u00a0Who knows? \u00a0Anyways, the nobility through several empires rising and falling held onto this lore and named the purple quartz crystals after the purple haired chick from the story. \u00a0I’ve heard that kings would serve wine in carved amethyst glasses, but I’m with the camp that says that maybe the kings watered down their wine and used the story to explain why no one was getting very tipsy. \u00a0They didn’t have tea or coffee or colas, and none of these places has ever been known as places where it was safe to drink the water.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: shameless self-promotion<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
People have worn amethyst. \u00a0They’ve adorned crowns, tiaras, rings, faceted, cabbed, raw. \u00a0But, I think of the stone as having nothing to do with sobriety and more to do with passion, purple, sexy passion. \u00a0Purple is the color of royalty and whores, and I dig that. \u00a0Purple is sexy.<\/p>\n
<\/a>\n\tAmethyst in Brambles: in process<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Purple mountains, purple haired chicks, and\u00a0purple\u00a0haze, which is what I see when I try to look into the depths of a faceted amethyst without my bifocals.<\/p>\n
When diagnosed, the first thing I had to\u00a0consider\u00a0was frames. \u00a0I hate the idea of buying an\u00a0accessory\u00a0made in some sweat shop in\u00a0Asia\u00a0by 9 year old kids that get tossed out with the garbage if they loose a hand or a foot in\u00a0shabby\u00a0equiptment. \u00a0Some might be OK with WalMart or some over-marketed designer crap, but I wanted handmade. \u00a0When I searched for handmade glasses online, I found a guy in New Zealand, a guy in England, and a guy in Virginia who made glasses for reenactors of the Civil War. \u00a0The rest was crap made by\u00a0designers\u00a0who felt like they had made the big time when they got picked up by a label to have their stuff made in above mentioned sweat shops. \u00a0Etsy had a few made for steampunks, which wouldn’t have been very practical\u00a0for every day wear, as they had blinders built in to mask out your\u00a0peripheral\u00a0vision, of which I use all the time as a parent on the look out for the occasional sucker punch between siblings. \u00a0 \u00a0It’s not just glasses that are missing\u00a0from\u00a0the handmade movement. \u00a0Chicks can get anything handmade, from socks to hats to shoes, but the gambit of men’s handmade consists of a few people selling handmade shorts that looked like a 6 year old made them just after learning to sew a pillow case in her Brownie troop. \u00a0Surely there are more men than me that would gladly choose stylish, classic handmade clothes over corporate clothes dripped in the sin and greed of the assembly line. \u00a0But, maybe a spiel on handmade for men should be worked up for a future blog.<\/p>\n Forged tapered tubing for the ear rests or arms or whatever they're called.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Anyways, I’ve started on a pair of handmade\u00a0spectacles. \u00a0This pair is more of an exploration of engineering the\u00a0mechanics\u00a0of this device, hinges, U-Chanel\u00a0wire, the clamps, and the nose rest. \u00a0I had a struggle with figuring out how to make the U-channel wire that holds in the lenses. \u00a0I tried a few\u00a0attempts\u00a0at rolling the wire, using a drawplate with a chisel\u00a0attached\u00a0to dig in a channel, and even hand forging. \u00a0But, I got a tip on Facebook that there was a page there for jewelers interested in making eyeglasses<\/a>. \u00a0 There I met Brian Adam<\/a>, the New Zealander who I discovered when I did my initial search for handmade glasses. \u00a0He turned me onto a way to use a half-round wire\u00a0drawplate\u00a0to pull the U channel wire from a flat strip. \u00a0I didn’t think to take pics as I did this, but as I slowed down and had to think more about how to design the hinges, I did get in a few pictures. \u00a0As I said these are more of an exploratory pair of glasses.<\/p>\n figuring out these darn hinges<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n All of the mechanical engineering stuff is done, now for the metalsmithing to complete them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Me testing my measurements, but not finished yet. Do I look like Teddy Roosevelt?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Oh, and the workbench is coming along. \u00a0Here is the latest picture. \u00a0I haven’t been able to work on it much because of\u00a0Christmas\u00a0orders and Lora going out of town for this weekend, leaving me to work the shop alone. \u00a0Plus, it has been rainy and cold. \u00a0But, it will get done. \u00a0This is just showing some of the detail work on the actual work area of the bench, and also here is a detailed vector I drew up in Illustrator to help me keep my measurements correct. since it will not ever be fully assembled until I actually assemble it in the shop. \u00a0In Illustrator, I can use the grids to keep me on track with inches and such.<\/p>\n The box where the work area will be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t<\/a>\n\t