these may not look like much

... but they are treasures, to me. Twice a year, Ahmed brings his truck full of antique and new beads, silver jewelry, wood chests, garments, and printing blocks to the home of an artist I know, for a two hour stop en route to the next place, and all the artists on her mailing list descend happily on this bazaar. Some are jewelry makers who wanted the huge turquoise beads; one woman was buying dozens of these wooden stamps to print on fabric, another was going to use them for encaustic, and someone else wanted them for clay work. I'll use them with wax and perhaps for discharge. We'll see. Ahmed is from Afghanistan and so are the items he sells. He has laundry baskets full of large and small wooden stamps - most of them new, and much more ornate than these. I found these two simple small ones I liked, and when I asked whether he had any others, he replied "only some antique blocks." 'Bring 'em on,' I said. And I selected these two large ones, which are relatively simple and have a design flexibility I like. Of course, being antiques, they cost almost twice what the new ones cost. It figures. I am tempted to take them with me to QSDS - but they're heavy, so I'm not sure. I am packed and restless. Ready to go. Gee, it's a whole year since I took pictures in Columbus and posted them on the blog. I'll have to remember to shoot different things this time. Will post from there if I have a signal.