The Magpie
One fall afternoon, while driving home, a magpie (pica hudsonia) flew across Chena Hot Springs Rd in front of me. A momentary glimpse of blue black with a flash of white, then I blinked and we continued on our separate ways. I wondered at how it was even possible to see one up here after the first snow of the year.
I had been waiting to use this stone because the figure of the fossilized palm root reminded me of two eyes. I set the stone in a sterling silver bezel, stamped with the scientific name for the Black-billed magpie. The flash of the dark paua shell reminds me of the blue-black flash of a magpie’s tail feathers.
Both the handmade chain and the pendant have a liver of sulphur patina to contrast the texture of the metal with the figure of the fossilized palm root.
