7 May, 2016

The Greydient Stallion….

Wow, Jodie….I can’t believe it.  It’s your birthday once again and I knew when I woke up that I needed to at least try to continue a small bit of a tradition!! (ha,ha,ha)  Okay…..so I know that I have not been the most prolific author as it refers to the speed and / or consistency with which I have been creating these “Crystal Chronicles”.  However….I am pretty solid in the fact that no matter what, I should at least attempt to knock out an installment on her birthday, inasmuch as I’ve written two of them on this day before.  The 1^st in 2012, and the 2^nd in 2015!!

So-o-o-o, here we go….inasmuch as I had not really decided what pieces I’d write about, I figured it would be easiest (at this point) to write about one of the pieces that I had at least already photographed.  Photographing my collection is also one of the exercises that I have not accomplished with any speed!!  What’s kind of interesting here is that although I’ve titled this installment “The Greydient Stallion, Run like the Wind, A Horse is a Horse”, I’ve only actually taken a photo of the Stallion!!  It is my 2^nd favorite piece in this group (my favorite piece is actually “Run like the Wind”, which I’ll talk about next), and I remember the story of how I acquired it the best!! (ha,ha,ha,ha)

It’s hard to believe now that I’ve had some of these pieces for twenty years or more….the Stallion is certainly among them. It is special to me because each time I look at it, I get to recall my very first trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market.  This has no meaning to you I know, but every 2^nd Sunday of the month there is a massive Flea Market held at the (famous) Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.  I used to love walking up and down, and around the entire market looking for interesting pieces that might be really cool additions to my collection.

I should note here that going to the Rose Bowl on those Sunday excursions came to be extremely therapeutic for me!!  It was an opportunity for me to get away from the mental turmoil(s) of the work week and engage in the creative exercise of trying to see if there were pieces that I could find, and turn into “little crystal dioramas” with interesting themed titles I could give them.  It also was very good exercise as I would be walking for easily 2 ½ to 3 hours or more, just taking in all the sights, sounds and people around me.  I loved it, and I miss the Rose Bowl to this day!!

Back to the Stallion….that particular Sunday afternoon at the “Bowl” had been a bit of a bust because I had literally walked the entire place and had not found anything that jumped out at me.  I was feeling kind of bummed, and there was a sign in a portion of the “Bowl” that said “Estate Sale”.  I’m thinking so what kind of items might be featured in an estate??  Probably not anything that I would be either interested in….or that I could afford!!  However….since I had never been to an estate, and since my day had been pretty uneventful at that point, and since I was not really ready to drive home yet, I figured I’d kill some time, and look at some of the things that the rich folks kept in their homes!! (ha,ha,ha,ha)

Anyway….my initial instincts were relatively correct in that a lot of the items did little to capture my interest, and I had made up my mind that it was time to call it an afternoon.  Okay, I might as well look at this last table of stuff and get the hell outta here!!  Then….I saw it….I saw this beautiful horse head in the midst of a bunch of other stuff.  WOW….I couldn’t believe it.  This piece is about 9 inches tall, and probably weighs about a pound.  I was blown away by the Grey coloring mixed in with the clarity of the crystal.

That coloring, which appears to be a flowing of color from Grey to White, back in the day was referred to (in design) as a “gradation treatment”.   I simply changed the reference from “gradation to greydient” in deference to the horse’s coloring when naming my stallion!! (smile)  Hence the name “The Greydient Stallion”.  It is not a small piece and I absolutely love it!!  As I also remember, I spoke with the lady who owned the piece, and she was very nice in letting me have it for a fraction of the price she originally was asking.  It turned out to be a very good day!! (ha,ha,ha,ha)

It was as if some higher power had determined that I should not leave with a bad taste for the Rose Bowl in my mouth.  It renewed my decision that I would make trips out to this flea market in the future!!  It was so eerie that I found a piece that I loved right at the very end of my day of browsing!!  This would happen to me once again at the Santa Monica Flea Market where I found my “Loch Ness Dragon”.  That installment is yet to come. (smile)

The lesson this experience taught me was that I need to make sure that I look at as much of the Flea Markets, Antique Malls, Crystal Shops, and unique stores as they have to offer.  The item I become intrigued with just might be found on the very last table or shelf that I look at!!  Of course, I know too that I will not cover every single inch of these locations, but I certainly will not be so cavalier in my assessing that the venue will not have anything that I would be interested in!!

I think finding my “Greydient Stallion” was my reward for persevering through what was a pretty mediocre exercise.  It became the “light at the end of the tunnel” mentality that I carry each and every time I set out to find new pieces to add to my collection.  It was a lesson I was very happy to learn!!