sea heart

[asakiyume]

(But first: saw on Twitter that protestors shut down highways in Boston and New York City for Mike Brown. Good. As one person on Twitter said, "The unrest is sacred, holy, and necessary.")

Some time ago, mnfaure sent me a sea heart--a floating seed of the Entada gigas vine, which grows in the Caribbean (also Central America, northern South America, and Africa). The seeds from the Caribbean and Central America can float along ocean currents and arrive on Gulf Coast shores. On this day in Pen Pal, Em's brother finds one (a detail that only entered the story thanks to another friend of mine, 88greenthumb, who first told me about them.)

Here's mine (thank you, mnfaure).



It has two little holes in it, which let you see it's hollow inside:



In the past, they were made into snuffboxes and lockets; I'm going to make mine into a container for a tiny letter.

Comments

[sovay]

a sea heart--a floating seed of the Entada gigas vine, which grows in the Caribbean (also Central America, northern South America, and Africa).

My grandmother had one of those. I don't know where it is now. I hadn't thought about until your post. Thank you.

"The unrest is sacred, holy, and necessary."

Yes.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Neat! Was your grandmother's a locket?

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Last night, one of the large freeways here was shut down by protestors. I know there's still action today, but I don't think it's of the shutting down the freeways variety. (Though I could be wrong.)

I grew up in the south, during the time of riots and unrest and...I always hope people will learn and change and...it never happens. It never seems to get any better. I often think that my generation needs to be gone before there can be improvements. (Based on what I hear old white men say at work.)

Those seeds are so wonderful!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think things do get better and are better, but there's a wicked, deep, vein of racism that's just going to take a lot more work than (formerly) complacent people like me ever thought. But I can take that shame and turn it around and put it into work and action.

[wuweibaby.livejournal.com]

❤️❤️❤️👯

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

^_^

[pinkroo.livejournal.com]

so very cool. Will you take a picture when you make it?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I will! ... I just hope I don't ruin it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Does the same trick as the coco de mer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_de_Mer

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yep--ocean-travelling seeds!

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

On the bad side, I heard that a man in a SUV tried to run down some protestors in Minneapolis.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

There are bastards out there, for sure.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Very cool seeds. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love them.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, those are quite lovely--reminds me of tessellated or marbled glass or ceramic--now I can't remember the name for it, blast and argh. But so pretty!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Like raku?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of cloisonné

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

*googles cloisonné*

Ah, I've never heard of that before; I consider my world enlarged. :D

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I see from your comment below that you were thinking of cloisonné, which is what I was thinking of when I read this description!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful, and bigger than I was expecting!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, really a good size!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Snuffboxes and lockets! Seriously cool.

If you ruin it, I'll send you another. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I **really** hope I don't ruin it. It's very hard--Wakanomori has a thin saw blade that will probably do the trick.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Very cool! I've never heard of them before.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Someone on Twitter said that Australian First Peoples used beans like these to make art (... and just now I searched and didn't find any art, but did find that they were used for food--not this exact species, but a near species).

[dinahprincedaly.livejournal.com]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/26/90-seconds-of-fury-in-ferguson-are-the-key-to-making-peace-in-america.html?via=desktop&source=facebook

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Not many people are going to actually read the transcripts--I'm glad there are people like your husband who *are* reading them and thinking about them.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

Absolutely wonderful, floating or as a locket. :) I love the shining surface.
(I have something rather like it, from the Pacific - but I don't know if it's the same species.)