My Origins in Stone – Trinkets and Memories #26

Challenge Outline

Being a big fan of several Photo Challenges, I am now hosting one myself.I would love it if you could take part! This is the 26th week to date.  Please click here for the challenge outline. Please post a link to your post on this page and I will make sure I put it on my challenge page for others to see too!

I look forward to checking out your posts!

So without further adieu here is my 26th trinket.

Stone Necklace and Bracelet

My recent thoughts seem to be focused on home and family. Maybe because it is only a month till Christmas and I am looking forward to spending time with family.

I bought this wee trinket set on the West Coast of the South Island, aka The Coast, where I was born and raised. I was just about to return to Japan to live and wanted a little reminder of home to take with me.  These two pieces were made by a local artist, Rhys Hall. He works in stone picked up from the beach, usually greywacke, sometimes used togther with greenstone. Many of his pieces have a Maori design and he does some more edgy skull type pieces.

My pieces are very simple. They are small pebbles shaped and smoothed by the sea. The Coast is a wild and rough coast line, the beaches are stoney and ruggard, the sea is grey and powerful. As a kid growing up I spent alot of time on the beach and down on the tip a the mouth of the Grey river as my dad was a commercial fisherman.

I loved collecting small stones. They glistened as the waves rolled over them. I remember taking a good Japanese friend home to The Coast. We went down to the beach. He was so engrossed in picking up stones he never saw the big wave coming in until he was knocked off his feet and soaking wet.

When I wear these stones, I hear the crashing waves, feel the sea  spray on my face and taste the salt. They take me home. My Grandparents are buried in a cemetery on The Coast overlooking the sea. My dad would like his ashes to be scattered in the sea when that day comes. The Coast and its beach is a place I often visit, a regular pilgrammage to pay hommage to my roots, my family and good memories. I think when my time comes, it is where I will return to. Once a Coaster always a Coaster.

NZ

I love the simplicity of these pieces. They are heavy and cool to wear. They anchor me to home. They are not precious stone but from my precious home and place of my childhood so all the more precious for it.

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne