Waxtober 4

Today’s waxing came out mostly purple. In my late teens/early 20’s, pretty much all of my wadrobe was purple. I remember spending a small fortune on a purple suede waistcoat with black leather trim, though I wouldn’t say it was wastrel elegance as it was worn to death, first by me then later by Mr S who took a shine to the battered look and would occasionally mumble – purple… The colour of magic…

I remember being called a freak and a weirdo for wearing so much purple, I also remember laughing a few years later when purple was on trend and wearing purple was so common place it bordered on being tedious… Then a few more years on when people started declaring themselves as being spiritual and purple became part of the identikit unofficial code of dressing differently in the same way as other different people so you all looked the same… (Hold on, I just have to pause to laugh as I remember reading a couple of years ago that a bearded hipster tried to sue a company for using his image in their adverts without his consent… Turns out, it wasn’t him at all… Hold on a bit more… I still have to laugh a bit more at the thought of being so image conscious that you can’t distinguish your own face from a stranger’s…)

OK, let’s get my zen back on! Purple! A Regal hue, the colour of magic, mystery, spirituality, the subconscious, creativity, the flying people eater… I like purple mostly because it’s a blend of blue and red… The blue of serenity and calmness balanced against the fiery passion of red…

Anyway, back to waxing… It was one of those days where the temperature of the iron was not quite right, maybe slightly too hot. It’s a fickle process – a setting that works one day is not the so good the next or sometimes you pick colours and the heat suits one better than the other. The wax melted slightly quicker than I would have liked and so became very fluid, which resulted in lots of tiny bubbles appearing on the paper. Most of them vanished or just left vague little pox mark scars, though in the bottom right hand corner, there formed a cluster with metallic tones and a glittering shine that reminded me of Iron Pyrites, or Fool’s gold. I liked that the image as a whole has a feeling of being an underground cave or grotto or some kind of mine shaft… Then I noticed the thin metallic strip… A rich vein of precious ore? Was is the Mother Lode? Could it be real gold?

I wandered off to ask the Google Oracle how you can tell the difference between Fool’s gold and real gold. They are lots of ways, some very obvious, others not so, but broadly, speaking tests fall into 2 types, non-destructive and destructive. Destructive tests being where the gold loses it shape. This came with a caution. Although you can get a good price for gold, you shouldn’t use a destructive test if the gold is part of a crystalline structure. The unique shape and form will significantly increase the price. The one of a kind find being more valuable than than metal…

I took my mind back to the waxing… Hmm… The Fool’s Gold that accidentally appeared in the image… A lucky bit of sparkle, haphazard magic, but not really repeatable nor of much interest beyond the novelty of the illusion…

The Mother Lode… That vein embedded there… A reminder of your innate personal magic that runs through you like the lettering through Blackpool rock? Maybe? I think we all have magic within, though sometimes you need to dig down deep to see what it is… Should we test it? Yes and no… I think testing is good to discover what you can do that is repeatable… Testing is not so good if it becomes breaking down uniqueness and flaws until only a tiny pure amount of gold is left…

Remember the hipster’s beard… There’s a fine line between unique and uniform…