Radical Jewelry Makeover Part I

Finally…. my post about the Radical Jewelry Makeover.

It happened here October 2011.  It was primarily an exercise in awareness, and the message of EthicalMetalsmiths.org is very important - so let's start there.  I'm going to keep it simple. 

Here is a satellite pic of Santa Fe from Google:

Santa Fe, New Mexico

For those of you who know the town, this pic is basically the entire place.  Rodeo Road and the Interstate skirting the south side, Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive are the main arteries north/south, St. Michael's Drive cuts through the middle, and then the ancient part of town, the Plaza, and DeVargas Mall up there at the top.  Santa Fe is larger than this, if you count Las Campanas, Eldorado, and the Community College and newer developments to the southwest - but this is the bulk of Santa Fe.  This is the area where most of the population carries out their lives.

Now this is a satellite pic of the largest gold mine in South America:

Yanacocha Mine in Peru

Please note the scale in both pics.  I put pink boxes around the scale in each pic.  They're the same scale.

In other words, most of Santa Fe would fit inside the Yanacocha Gold Mine.  (and it's only the 4th largest in the world).

Are you stunned?

I was.

Maybe a little naive of me, but the idea that if someone found gold near my home and would conceivably dig a pit the size of the town in order to get at it…

when, to quote wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold)...

"One estimate is that 85% of all the gold ever mined is still available in the world's easily recoverable stocks…" (my bold)

I'm stunned.

Which is exactly the idea behind the Radical Jewelry Makeover project.  

To point out that we can mine our own homes and see what can be reused instead of tortured out of the earth.

How much of that 85% is sitting in your jewelry box, never worn?

Gold and other precious metals can be easily recycled.  And mining for new metals is badly done.  I'm not going to go deeply into the politics of it - there are better sources available to prove the point (and I haven't even mentioned the human damage - the mercury, the cyanide, the child labor, the actual human torture that occurs) :

The BBC

Reuters

Wikipedia about the Potosi Mine

Travel Agent Central (!?!?!)

Democracy Now

Wikipedia about the Yanacocha Mine

PBS/Frontline

60 Minutes

and of course,

Ethical Metalsmiths

Do your research, before you buy precious metals (or gems), as either a consumer or a maker.  Find out where it came from.

Let's remember the real cost.

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Ok, rant over.

Part II will address the creative transformation the Radical Jewelry Makeover initiated for me....

:)

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Not so fast...

Over on the bg site I frequent, they are already shouting "HNY!" Happy new year, in case you can't figure it out :)

But... It's December 27th. There are 4 days left. Inside my head, I am screaming, "Nooooooo, waaaaiiiitttttt! It's going too fast!"

2011 was a hard year. It was hard, financially. I'm just not very good with money, and the recession hasn't helped.

It was hard, personally, emotionally. I took some risks and they have paid off, my life is richer for them. But there were also some losses and disappointments, which I took very hard. I keep looking at my heart charm and seeing that little heart, ripped open (see Shambhala) and trying to remember that's how it is supposed to be.

It was hard, healthwise - but not really. I'm fine! A little anxiety as frosting on top of the already-overstuffed anxiety layer cake - but I'm fine! Except for the bills... Too low levels of thyroid medication, as it turns out, didn't help much either. But I'm fine now! Almost.

And it was hard, creatively. Or rather... it was very rich creatively, almost too rich. I have way more ideas than I have time, and this year it wasn't just my own natural procrastination that got in my way.

When I did make time for it, it was very fruitful. The Radical Jewelry Makeover was RAD, a tremendous blessing, a very healthy kick in the pants. I need to write my thoughts about it, for it changed my creativity and thinking profoundly, and I want to complete that writing before the year is out... 2011, SLOW DOWN!!!

Overall, my creativity was fruitful and fitful, lots of stops and starts.

2011 was just so full of clutter.

Here's hoping that 2012 is more fruit than fits!

But please, please - can we wait until Saturday before we begin?! I'd like to get through this year in one piece first...


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