Touchstones to History Display

A number of years ago when I worked as a bartender, a regular customer and I struck up something of a friendship. We were opposite on a number of viewpoints, but we enjoyed each other’s company and the differences were never a problem. Years later, he passed away, and his wife came to visit me with a remarkable gift that he had written into his will. The gift included a piece of the Berlin Wall, collected during its destruction, and a container of black sand from the beaches of Iwo Jima, collected on actual invasion day! Not only was it a totally unexpected gift, but that he felt I would appreciate them left me humbled.

I held on to these items for a number of years until I finally came up with a good way to display them. I have a friend with whom I have a friendship rather similar to that I had with my gift-giving friend, and I felt he would appreciate and enjoy these items. The trick was to fully show off the two items, but keep them safe. I found some intriguing domes to put over them and used a remarkable piece of walnut for the base. It came out rather well, although taking a picture for my portfolio presented something of a problem. Turns out there is no direction you can shoot from that doesn’t show a reflection of the lighting on the domes – a minor issue, but it still took a fair bit of time to get this shot with a minimum of glare.

Touchstones of History Display