Ian Longley

I carried Ian's business card in my wallet since 1998 until last year when I finally went to see him and ordered a Christmas present for Ben. So it was a great privilege and pleasure to be stationed next to him at the Expo. In New Zealand, it's bad luck to buy your own Greenstone/Jade, so Ben's been begging for a Greenstone fish hook for years. But then if you knew Ben, you could never imagine him with any kind of jewelry, ergo the delay. Ben hasn't taken this off since Christmas, and Ian said when the cord goes, I can bring it back to him.

Towards the end of the one-and-a-half days, he was sketching his next idea.

Working with stones is a slow process; even slower than weaving. The pieces on the wooden boxes are "holding" pieces, or what I think of as meditation pieces. Ian said he didn't look at them but felt them while he polished, not knowing what kinds of shapes they would end up, but they came out beautiful to look at as well as to hold. I like to imagine Ian working on these pieces.

The front piece has my name on it; don't anybody go and buy it.