PETR CYLINDERS (Part 1)

PENULTIMATE WEEK IN IDAR OBERSTEIN

Day 1 (Tuesday): This morning, when I arrived at school, I found a series of agate cylinders on my workshop table.

I’m not sure who left them there or who they are.

The only thing I know is that they are precious, thus, without working, with the marks of the machines, freshly carved. I recognize that I look at them with desire and I imagine that they are a gift for me, but reality tells me that some colleague has left them on my table by mistake, or because he thought of picking them up later and forgot.

Day 2 (Wednesday): The cylinders are still on my table, just like I left them yesterday, no one has touched them.

Come on, nobody seems to have remembered them and that makes me think that maybe they really are for me. To make that number of cylinders in the machine of the school supposes its hours of work, and more in agate, with how hard it is.

I’m still in my business, I still have a lot of work ahead of me, so I forget about it.

At mid-morning Petr arrives at school, we say good morning and everyone gets to work. After a while, during the first break Petr asks me:

-Did you like the cylinders?

To which I reply with great interest: “The ones on my table? Yes, of course, they are beautiful, I saw them yesterday but I don’t know who they are”.

-They are for you.

-What are they for me? Yes!!!!!

Petr tells me that he went to a company that works with agate. There they dedicate themselves to make bowls with this stone and to do it, first they pierce the inside, forming these cylinders. They split them and go on, until they form a first hole on which to work with more precision.

These cylinders end up in the rubbish because for them it is only a way of roughing the stone. I can’t believe it. We continue talking for a while and tells me the name of the company and more or less where it is, of course, I do not remember (when I write things down when it touches). It’s a fantastic gift.

Day 3 (Thursday): I’m still preparing the pieces I want to take to Spain. The cylinders are still on my table just as Petr left them, I haven’t touched them.
I’ve decided I’ll take them, but I don’t have time left, with all I’m preparing to do anything for them, so it’s difficult for them to become part of a piece.

But I want to take them with me, I like them a lot and I think they will have a good place on my treasure shelf. I almost see them there already.

I’m still working on my pieces. At times it is difficult to accept that working with stones is slow. No, very slow. As much as I want to, I can’t stop anywhere.

The days go by and it seems that I don’t advance.

No matter how many hours I spend in the workshop I can’t break that dynamic, everything is slow. Although to be honest every night I arrive with finished pieces.

I think the month and a half that I’ve been working without rest is starting to take its toll on me. From Monday to Sunday. All morning and all afternoon. I start to lose motivation. I imagine it’s tiredness.