mother-of-pearl · 11 mm · c. 1908
cut from a shell that was once part of a freshwater mussel in a river that no longer runs that route. you can still see the curve the shell had: it bowed slightly outward on what is now the face, and the colours are not paint but interference, the same trick a soap bubble does, performed slowly.
it closed the cuff of a christening-shirt and then, when the shirt was outgrown twice, the cuff of a blouse, and then, when the blouse was retired, it was kept in a paper twist marked good ones. you have inherited the twist along with the blouse-pattern and a folded note in the button-tin.
the grandmother who saved it was the one who taught you to tie a thread without a knot. when she handled small things her hands lost their tremor; the sewing room was where she was steady.
field-note · in low light the face turns lavender. it is the only object in the drawer that can be said to argue with the lamp.