Thanks for the warm words, all! I appreciate, particularly, all the well wishes/prayers/kindness.
@Ravenscry - Here is a picture of the back of the buckle. In it you can see my truly psychotic new invention: a dissected foam earplug wrapped around the bar, then itself wrapped in a piece of scrap leather taped together. It is oddly efficient but too unhinged to repeat. It’s a cry for help, really.
Note: I’m not sure what the gibberish in sharpie is about. It must be some kind of shop jargon. I know it can be taken off, but I’m afraid to mess with it, so I’ve just left it on for now!
@CyanideRose18 - I totally agree that this has been a strange year for health all around! It seems like everyone I know has something “afoot” (the only word I think applies anymore!).
@TAH - This business with the “post” is brilliant. I would never have thought of such a thing (being much too busy, clearly, engineering an earplug/poster-putty solution). By laser, do you mean one of those little machines that does a tiny weld? I think they’re used for “permanent bracelets” and stuff like that? I’ve seen them used on YouTube but can’t remember how they work. The idea is that nothing is heat-soldered (I’m probably not using the right term), which would interfere with the patination?
@Ziacat - This might seem a little out there, but my friend recently (within the last year or so) had her stretched earlobes re-pierced slightly higher and somewhat off-center (as in, closer to her face instead of in the middle of the lobe) and—after the healing concluded—she was able to wear heavier earrings again! I think she wears the tiniest little posts imaginable in the old holes, as I seem to recall they are unlikely to close entirely again (but could be wrong about this). Whatever the case, it seems to be a solution!
I found out about Tommy Jackson’s death through a post on the Toh-Atin gallery’s Instagram around six months ago. I’ve also just learned a moment ago while double-checking that the same gallery’s owner, Jackson Clark, passed last month. What a depressing year!
I have a feeling it’s the same ring, as I purchased it at Garland’s! Whenever I shop there, I often wonder how many of us have looked at the same stuff: I remember someone in another post having seen my Charlie John hatband (or its cousin, at least, since there were two for sale when I bought mine a long while ago) on the site. The Joel Pajarito studs were also from Garland’s. They have a great selection of his rings right now—I would have snapped up a couple of those, too, if I hadn’t tapped out my budget on everything else!
. BTW, I just cut one of the bars in two with a lapidary saw, and abraded the outside down into the metal. it appears to be a single metal all the way through, not plated. Internally the color looks like nickel, so I believe you’re right. It’s very stiff. Much stiffer and less malleable than I’d expect for nickel of that gauge, but it does appear to be a nickel alloy through and through.
