I met an artist today. He creates jewelry as cryptic mazes of gold. They unfold, unclasp, and untwist to reveal rings, bracelets, pins, and necklaces within their larger form. He engineered each item to fit as a puzzle, only to open with clever intention. A hummingbird made of opals, gold, rubies, sapphire, and brass was placed on the glass box, he said, "Try to take this apart." I touched the corners of the wings and the circles which I knew would create a bend, then began undoing it to reveal a slender pin with an opal atop it like a staff. "I'm impressed," he said. "That usually takes most people a while to do." He fed my quiet curiosity with more goldsmith problems, then brought out clearly focused photographs of his archived work on wood and wet surfaces. His son took out his pottery and I told him what they look like. "That looks like a boot, house, landslide teapot." He laughed, "I dabbled with pottery a while ago. These are all by hand, I was horrible with the wheel."
"This looks like a whirlpool."
As I left, I aptly quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson, smiling, and they all smiled in return. "Very nice."