Carving Amber for the First Time. @mx025

It was the day after I saw Mauro’s work.
At the beach house, Ken-chan was carving amber too.
Nothing as intricate as Mauro’s jewelry.
Using a small file, he was slowly working a peyote design into the surface.
Watching him made me want to try.
“Want to give it a go?”
Ken-chan handed me one of the small pieces of amber that had already been divided up.
I walked to the village store and bought a small file and several grades of sandpaper.
I didn’t own a rotary tool.
Those were all the tools I had.
I had no idea what to make.
I had no design in mind.
Still, I started carving.
The amber was softer than I expected.
Rather than forcing the file against it, I let the edge sink in little by little.
Slowly.
Gently.
White dust fell away as I worked, and the amber gave off a distinct smell.
It felt as though I were shaving away a piece of some ancient time that had been sealed inside it.
That alone made me happy.
By midday, I would lie back in a hammock and open a beer.
Carve a little.
Hold the amber up to the sun.
Carve again.
Turn it toward the light and look through it once more.
I repeated the same quiet movements for hours.
Italian music drifted from the beach house.
The waves never stopped.
A breeze carrying the smell of the sea rocked the hammock.
Time seemed to move differently there.
What mattered was not what I was making.
I simply enjoyed the time I spent carving.
The hammock.
The beer.
Italian music.
The waves.
The smell of the sea.
Amber held up against the sun.
That was enough to fill an entire day.
Back then, I still did not know how to make anything.
But no one had to teach me how to enjoy carving amber.
@mx025
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