As promised, the tale of the swiss cheese washer!

Sometimes, our treasured possessions really DO go through adventures of their own.

Several months ago, I made a bracelet with rock crystal drops, frosted glass, and a single crystal inside a silver washer with swiss-cheese holes in it. I loved that washer, and it had taken me a while to design something good with it, worthy of it but that I also liked to wear. This seemed the perfect design.

And then I lost it. Upon coming back home one day, I discovered the absence of my favourite bracelet. I was vaguely certain that I must have left it at the art gallery, perhaps in secret repose behind the aloe plant under the window, to be carried off by a mystified attendee and I would never see it again. I sighed and accepted the loss.

A few days ago on a rainy afternoon, I was bringing groceries in from the car. I happened to look down as I opened the passenger door, and saw the unmistakable shape of the silver washer gleaming up from the slightly-muddy gravel of the driveway! I bent down and fished it out, reclaiming a few stray quartz beads lying around the washer as well.

Instead of accidentally leaving it somewhere, the bracelet must have fallen out of the car (or my pocket) at some point after coming home from the art gallery, where it stayed for the next few months. The bracelet had evidently been driven over countless times during the months it laid on the driveway--the thread was long since broken, most of the rock crystal beads gone, and the silver centerpiece warped and scratched. But you know what? I hardly even cared, I was just so happy to have it back.

You know what else? The warping was kind of neat, lending the washer a new, organic feel instead of the slick, space-age look it had before. The scratches were less desirable, but the idea of organic inspired me to reclaim my washer by texturing it with a ball peen hammer! The hammered finish removes any evidence of previous scratches, and transforms the washer into an earthy pendant wonderful for layering or combining with other small flat objects.

Below, I combined it with another, smaller hammered washer in copper, and a sterling silver Maltese Iron Cross charm.

 

I hope to recreate the original bracelet someday, especially now that I know where to get more of these washers. But I'm also glad for having lost and found it, for without that experience, I might not have thought to to hammer it, or brave enough to try.