Why the wine glass…
Thank you for checking out Mystic Raven Design. Each jewelry piece is unique and has its own inherent magic and mystical inspiration. Please message me if you have any questions or you want to commission a collaborative piece. Watch for new pieces being added every few days. I look forward to adding fiber art in the near future.
So, let’s talk about the wine glass at the top of the page. Surprisingly, I’ve had a few questions about why there is a wine glass featured on my store page. First, it really isn’t an intentional stab at making the page “artsy”. My niece, Mackenzie, was building the page for me and she noticed I used this wine glass quite a bit when staging and photographing my jewelry. She decided on her own to create a theme using the wine glass, assuming it was important, not just something I use to simply hang earrings.
After her page design was done, she asked me about the significance of the wine glass, my first reaction was, “It was convenient.” I use it in a number of settings and it is a simple way to display earrings and some necklaces. I put it on my back deck railing, hang some earrings, and tap the photo button on my phone. Natural lighting, trees and mountains in the background (I live in Alaska), instant photo success!
The more I considered it, though, I realized this particular wineglass is more significant than that and has a little story to tell. In fact, it is the last wine glass remaining in my house. It has become an icon of sorts.
Now you may be thinking, “Oh, she quit drinking.” No, that’s not it. In reality, I prefer vodka and soda when I am not drinking ice tea. (ok, sometimes the vodka finds its way into the ice tea).
You could say this glass was just in the right place at the right time. I have been using this glass for a few years as a prop and it tends to get tucked away with my jewelry supplies more often than it finds its way back to the cupboard with the rest of the wine glasses.
But on November 30, 2018, things got a little shook up. For those of you in Alaska, you can instantly tell me the significance of that date. It was the day that South Central Alaska experienced a 7.1 earthquake , the largest recorded earthquake in the area since 1964. I happened to be driving to work when the shaking began. (That is another story.) By the time I made it back home to see the extent of the damage, I had already spoken with my husband (who works out of the house) so I thought I was prepared for what I would find. I was wrong.
Most of the contents from every kitchen cabinet and the pantry, every shelf in the walk-in closet and master bath, had emptied to the floor. Ceramics, glassware (yep… including wine glasses!), can goods and other food items covered the kitchen floor. Mirror and paintings fell off the walls, freestanding shelves emptied… you get it. It was a mess.
The good news is there was no significant damage to the house. A few hairline cracks in the drywall, a bathroom door now didn’t close quite right, another door that never closed properly now closed without a problem. Like I said, that is the good news. There was some broken furniture but mostly just glass and ceramic ware. Months later, when I finally started photographing jewelry again, guess what I found with my supplies? That’s right. My silly little wine glass. The sole wine glass survivor.
Since glassware was by far the biggest casualty of the 2018 Shaker, the running joke in Alaska that year was that you knew exactly what to get your Alaskan friends and family for Christmas. To this day, we own just one extra special wine glass and you will see it displayed, tall and proud, throughout the store.
Sometimes all it takes is to be in the right place at the right time and sometimes, if our one wine glass could tell you, it would say it is even better to be in the wrong place at the right time.
