I was walking past Goodwill the other day, when this little voice in my head said, “Hey! You should go check out the knick-knack aisle.”
I’ve talked about Goodwill’s knick-knack aisle before (when I found my ceramic koala). Usually, it is equal parts fascinating and horrifying, and the way it affects me totally depends on my mood.
I was in a receptive frame of mind the other day — willing to consider the cat nesting dolls made in China — and passing benignly over the pair of kissing angels — and fighting the urge to group all of the Paint-Your-Own-Pottery puppies together in a charming tableau.
It was when I was reluctantly talking myself out of the puppy-arranging that I saw it. A small handmade bust, only 5-1/2″ high. It looked so delicate and dignified and beautiful. Like the koala, I wondered what its story was. How did it come to be at Goodwill with a $2.99 sticker on its shoulder?
I’ll probably never know. But now it’s a small piece of loveliness in my studio/home office/sewing room. It radiates calm and, for that reason alone, seems quite extraordinary to me.
