One of my shyer correspondents is shy only about my using anything like her name online; she never hesitates to needle me about certain things, and last night I got a note from her asking, “Can’t you ever post a photo of something that isn’t made out of metal?” I’m guessing she means computers, but 30-year-old forks, while low-tech, still quality.
So be it. And, m’dear, I will go you one better: I’ll post photos of two things of recent vintage that have no metal in them at all.
First up, well, is Dash. I have to hurry: He’ll be chipped in another month or so, and then will have a (small) amount of metal in him. And given his penchant for picking things up off the floor and chewing them, I can’t promise that there isn’t some small bit of aluminum foil working its way through him at any given moment. (Polychrome puppy poop is an occupational hazard at this stage of his life.) The photo is a couple of weeks old now, and shows him after Carol gave him his first genuine bichon cut. He’s looking a lot more like an adult now, and is rapidly reaching adult size and weight. (As of yesterday afternoon, he clocked in at 11 pounds 5 ounces.)
The other is a kite I made earlier this summer, out of the translucent wax-finish “kite paper” that Waldorf schools use to make paper ornaments. (Why they don’t use it to make kites is unclear.) I’ve made kites with metal in them here and there, but this one is all organic, and even a little retro: The string is 50-year-old cotton twine, and the glue mucilage. I don’t fly kites in thunderstorms, and I generally don’t put metal in them. Ben Franklin was many things, but mostly he was…lucky.