THANK YOU!!!

I was very honored, and actually quite humbled, when I recently celebrated my 65th birthday. I thought I might get a couple of "Happy Birthday!" comments on my post and that would be it. However, @jaynie had other plans and totally caught me off-guard by arranging A Special BIRTHDAY GIFT for an INCREDIBLE WOMAN 😮

Some people sent HIVE/HBD:
@ambiguity @barbara-orenya @bdmillergallery @bigtom13 @dswigle @enginewitty @jamerussell @jayna @jlufer @joanstewart @justclickindiva @lizelle @mballesteros @melinda010100 @porters @priyanarc @soyrosa @unklebonehead @wesphilbin @wwwiebe @xcountytravelers @zord189

Some people gave big upvotes to the post:
@appreciator @gringalicious @usainvote @bubke @thealliance @adsactly @soyrosa @slobberchops @galenkp @bdmillergallery @barbara-orenya @nautilus-up @ctime @softworld @abh12345 @darsico @blewitt @enginewitty @brittandjosie @perzeus

There were also hundreds of other upvotes, comments on posts, and messages in Discord, and every one of them was very much appreciated! 😊

So, to @jaynie and all of you sweet folks who
contributed to making my birthday very special...

I think @jaynie had hoped I'd use the 'birthday money' to do something like go for a "spa day" or something similar. I already get manicures & pedicures on a regular basis, though, and would probably have to drive a good distance to find a place that offers massages & such, too. And I wanted something less ephemeral, anyway. So, I went a different route...

There is a Community on the Hive blockchain called SilverGoldStackers whose members have a passion for collecting precious metals (silver, gold, platinum, etc.) for investment purposes. I have been a member of that community for a couple of years. Because of the different forms in which precious metals can be offered — government-issued coins, private-issue rounds, bars, jewelry, and all manner of free-form pieces — as well as the artistic embellishments those items can have, "stacking" precious metals can be a pleasurable and fun experience.

Some of the members of SilverGoldStackers also enjoy melting and pouring silver into molds they have designed, or sometimes made, themselves. One such member is @raybrockman, whose work is marked with his "Toxic ☠️ Bullion" branding. Everything Ray does is a class act, or he doesn't do it at all. I have one of his pieces already and have been drooling over three or four others. One of my favorites has been the Sugar Skull design he unveiled a few months ago.

@jaynie knew that I would likely re-distribute anything I was given to other people through tips or contests, so she made me promise to spend the 'birthday money' on something that I really wanted, something only for myself. So, I decided to use it to defray some of the cost of ordering a Sugar Skull from Ray!

So, what's with the skull, you might ask...?

Skulls are often seen in the "stacking" community as symbols that take a stance against the unsustainable banking practices that are rife in today's world. Governments no longer back their money with silver and gold, but claim that it has "value" simply because they say it does. When they run out of money, they just print more, or use "rob Peter to pay Paul" tactics. Another of the pieces in my collection has this same skull theme: La Muerte del Dólar ("The Death of the Dollar"), pictured here.

Ray said he could pour his Sugar Skull anywhere between 5.5–8 grams, so I asked him to hold it somewhere in the middle of the range, around 6–7 grams. That meant that the 'birthday money' would cover almost a third of the cost, which I though was a quite substantial chunk! So, I placed the order with him via DM on Discord and sent the funds to him via PayPal.

For those who don't know, the Sugar Skull is an artifact of the culture of Mexico. It is frequently employed as part of the Día de Muertos ("Day of the Dead") celebration which honors departed ancestors and friends, in the same vein as All Souls' Day in the Chrisian tradition, the Samhain of the historical Gaelic peoples as well as neo-pagans, and in celebrations of numerous other cultures and religions around the world from the depths of Africa to China to the Australian outback.


How can we truly know who we are
if we do not honor from whence we came?


And how can we truly appreciate the silver if we do not honor from whence it came? So, thankfully, @raybrockman helped with that by providing plenty of photos and GIFS during the afternoon he made this piece for me! I never expected a play-by-play of the action and was thrilled to get these images in my DM! 😃

Silver melts at a temperature of 1,763°F (961.78°C) [source] so the flaming mass of molten silver is quite impressive in these animated GIFs that Ray shared! I was a bit surprised that the silver is still flaming in the second GIF, as I would have expected it to have to cool more before being released from the mold. But, Ray certainly knows what he is doing!

And there is the smoking skull, being held by tongs while still too hot to touch. This is such an awesome photo, with the smoke rising from the skull and the tray! Once the skull has cooled, he begins the finishing process.

There were two options I had for the appearance of the piece: blackened or polished. The first option is where the metal is slightly oxidized to have more of a matte finish, and the latter is where it is polished to a very shiny sheen. I opted for the blackened, more "antiqued" look.

When the item arrived in the mail, I was very surprised at how hefty it felt in my hand! The mass of the piece is 6.8 grams, and is now the heaviest piece in my collection. It is quite thick, too, as can be seen in the edgewise photo, below. It measures 0.5 inch (1.27 cm) thick at the top and bottom and 0.375" (0.95 cm) thick around the other edges.

Just for kicks, I decided to put it on my scale and got an "OVLD" (Overload) error. I had forgotten that my dinky little scale only has a capacity of 100 grams, and this piece is 211.48 grams!

6.8 Troy ounces * 31.1 grams/TroyOunce = 211.48 grams

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I really like this design! The only oddity I can't quite figure out is that is looks as if the skull has three rows of teeth instead of two. I'm not sure if that is artistic license to make the skull look more menacing, or if perhaps I am misinterpreting what I am seeing. Does @raybrockman or anyone else have some ideas about that? 🤔

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone for helping me add this piece to my collection! It is really appreciated, and I am grateful for all the love, support, and wonderful comments I received! 😊

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EPILOGUE:

THANKS to @jamerussell for the rose image which I made into a pretty page divider!

I made this skull divider, and it's free-to-use by anyone, NO CREDIT to me necessary!

 😊

SOURCES
   1 Wikipedia: Calavera
   2 Wikipedia: Day of the Dead


to learn more about either of these projects, please visit: @heyhaveyamet or @theterminal


11-Oct-2020

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