Photo by Rebekah RobinsonFun Fun Fun! No Daddys, no Bluebirds.
But this brooch is definitely worth a good go. It's interchangeable conditions are much like life. Nothing is static. Change stirs our hearts and minds and challenges us. We need it and it keeps us alive and real.
The best thing about this brooch though is that if you look closely on one of the 'accessories', Zarah has crocheted part of one with a magnificent electric blue plastiki (Google Plastiki the environmental boat sailing around the world...) thread.
Just gorgeous! And of course the hyper-yellow colour was the winner of the day.
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
photograph by Rebekah RobinsonLatest comment Kyla - 3 October 2009
I was drawn to this brooch from day 1. I loved the crafty homemade feel of it, the softness and simplicity. I was really looking forward to my turn with it. But when it came, I just couldn't find the right thing to wear it with. No matter how hard I tried. I also found I got bored with it in a way... there didn't seem to be any layers to it. It seems I loved it and yearned for it from afar... but once I had it I expected more from it and didn't get it.
Fun journal drawings by Ajay...
photograph by Rebekah RobinsonI found Jacqui's brooch was definitely one of the most universally appreciated of all the brooches. People found it beautiful, intriguing, and very cool. One stranger was so taken with it she just couldn't believe someone was so clever to come up with the idea and how beautiful it looked when it was just a piece of tin with holes in it. That day was definitely a brooch wearing highlight! I actually found it surprisingly difficult to wear, but could never figure out why. To do this day it remains a mystery. But no matter how it never seemed to feel quite right, it was always worth it to be able to look down, turn it this way and that, watch the light move across it, feel the texture of the cut tin and curved edges, and find another little detail in the picture that I hadn't noticed before...
And this cool drawing by AJ... in her 'brooch journal'
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
photograph by Rebekah Robinson
I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life
It makes my peas taste funny
But it keeps them on my knife
We wearers seem to refer to this brooch as 'the peas' but not one person made reference to said vegetable whilst I wore the brooch, and I wore it quite frequently because it was so just so easy to wear.
A statement I made in a previous post saying I might not wear it for a few days after the 'my mum would like that' comment from a young woman was obviously because if it is the sort of thing 'my mum' would like then I don't want a bar of it. I got over it, but it resonated I suspect, because the colour of the brooch is what I associate middle-aged women in education wear to be zany and somehow relate to their students. Despite green (and purple) being my favourite colours this is not the 'right' green, but y'know it worked. Tragically, this may be because I'm now in the middle aged woman - not quite in education - department, and a mum. Doomed to wear cheerful green and probably that other dangerously zany colour the middle aged woman fancies - burnt orange!
Anyway the brooch did work. No matter where it was placed it fitted, the colour contrasted well with all outfits, it wasn't too big or too small, it was quite 'girly' at times, it was 'structural' at other times. It generally seemed to morph into being spot-on for each outfit (when I say outfit, i just mean regular clothes)
The 'peas' are wooden different sized beads, painted green, set on rods with a bit of glue here and there holding them in place (I didn't like the glue as it felt like the brooch's quality was diminished) There is a long pin on the back that appears to be commercially made.
This brooch looked much better when worn rather than sitting in the box. It seems to come to life when it is attached to a body becoming like a little pet thingie-bob which I found interesting because the other brooches definitely feel like one is wearing a brooch not a possible life form.
*note: pin is indeed hand made not commercially sourced.
What I liked about this brooch the most, was that when you walked the spray of rings crashed against your chest making a soft chhh, chhh, chhh noise as you walked. You could feel them pull as they swung around with your movenment. People thought they were orchids, and would reach up and gently touch the bunch of rings like you would a spray of flowers.
I wish that the rings were chained together in a way that you couldn’t tell how they were put together. I loved wearing it.