Rejects- one wo(e)man’s trash another’s treasure- Chris Ritchey

I have been through a lot of “rejects” in my life – from boyfriends- to my attempts at “baking”- (oh we don’t want to count the number of rejects that ended up as the “dog’s dinner” and some that even the dog turned noses up at during the years). to programs and to people- there are some people.welllllllllllllllllllllllll we won’t go there either.

artwork Chris Ritchey

As I mentioned here https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/the-language-of-hands/ I keep finding ( even a year and bit on) artwork and projects that my son “rejected” that now hold places of pride in this old house.

Of course a mother always thinks everything her child does is wonderful and I never saw the slightly wonky tilt to the first vase , or the thickness of the glass- at least one could survive being dropped from a height it is so thick and also heavy or the chips and rough edges at the top of the “tear drop” vases- I still don’t see them through my tears, love and pride in my son.

A trip to the “basement” on Monday to find a special soup pot my husband keeps hiding- ( maybe it is his way of saying NO SOUP!!! NOT YOUR SOUP!!!) a flash of flourescent orange caught my eye – it was another of Chris’ rejects- the colouring was awful- I remember him bringing it in

“What do you think of this?

errrrrrrr Chris it isn’t exactly pretty, that colour welllllllll

Yeah it didn’t work out how I wanted it , this glass class is harder than I thought……

I never saw the vase again he took it to the basement to scrape off the offending colour. He had obviously given up and turned to something else

I rescued the “reject vase” – washed it like it was made of the finest crystal money can buy and thought of the journey- the learning curve to the finished product- In the case of “glass” blowing (CIA) the finished product was a tiny beautiful little royal blue vase delicately wrought with splashes of gold. It was small and exquisite not the least bit wonky . He handed it to me at an indoor soccer game in his final year at CIA- As he pulled the vase he was proud of out of his soccer bag he said

Here now you can throw away those rejects- this one is for you “

After Chris died and my beautiful daughter was in so much pain –
https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/a-letter-a-legacy-nikki-to-chris-ritchey-sister-to-brother/I wanted her to have this little item of beauty crafted with love- a treasure- from the one we treasured……………..

I will keep the rejects and treasure them – works unfinished – and a life unfinished but treasured non the less every single day ………………