Dragonflying

After I finished the bats, I needed to play with colors, so I went for a dragonfly motif. Dragonflies have great colors, and I love the way they skim and buzz. I have a friend who, as a child, believed that dragonflies would sew her eyes shut, but I’ve never known any to do that.

There’s a dragonfly story that is often used to help people cope with death. But I see it as more of a story of transformation and growth.

This is a version I found online at http://journeytoanewlife.blogspot.com/2006/06/dragonfly-legend.html.

In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs who could not understand why none of their groups ever came back after crawling up the stems of the lilies to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what happened to him. Soon one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface; he rested himself on the top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation, which made him a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain, he tried to keep his promise. Flying back and forth over the pond, he peered down at his friends below. Then he realized that even if they could see him they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

The fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation… is no proof that they cease to exist.

- Walter Dudley Cavert

So with visions of transformation whirling in my head, I made this bracelet, earrings, and a necklace playing with greens and purples and teals and aquas. There’s a lot of crystal in these pieces, as is only befitting dragonflies. None of these, btw, will sew your eyes shut. Really.