Tumbleweed Earrings - Pillar

On a drive through Texas, Walter and Doris Husbands, saw a tumbleweed moving down the road toward the car. Doris, who had never encountered one was unsure how to avoid it, but Walter, who was familiar with tumbleweeds, said, “just drive over it.” A mile later, tumbleweed in tow underneath the car, they pulled over. Doris made a quick decision that, unbeknownst to us, would change our lives, she took that tenacious tumbleweed home! After years of spray paint and tinsel, Halloween ghosts and Christmas ornaments, their tumbleweed fell apart into a spray of stems in a beautiful array of colors, and moved to a new home in the bottom of an old clay pot. Walter thought, “if I can get those bits and pieces to stick together, I can sculpt something unique.” The first try failed, so did the second and third and the 38th! With the process becoming more complex and supplies costlier his commitment faltered, but he always remembered those tumbleweeds resting in the bottom of that clay pot. Thankfully, he continued to believe and in September 2014, created his first “fossilized” brick of tumbleweed. Today the process includes gathering mature tumbleweeds from the Arizona deserts, debarking, dyeing with plant-based pigments, compressing the clean, dyed tumbleweed for 30 days, producing a brick of fossilized tumbleweed. Pieces of differing sizes, shapes, colors and grain patterns are cut from the brick, sanded, waxed, polished and used to make one-of-a-kind hand-crafted jewelry and gifts.