To Chuck in Oct -- Red Beryl

 

I pondered this style of lettering for October. It has a spookiness to it. It's w huge no-no to use write a name in all caps when the caps are specifically for initial caps. But, it's OK to do that when you want to be spooky. I suppose there is a design lesson in there - the one about when it is OK to break rules that are rarely broken. My favorite way to break rules is to mix caps and lower case. It's rare that I opt for this kind of rule breaking. On the one yesterday and on this one, I was using non-exchangers for warm up - and yesterdays went further. This one, while I like it - did not motivate me to do any additional envelopes in this style. I think it works with 5 letters. I dunno. Maybe I will try again.....  Maybe I'd like it more if I had a way to tie it in with the stamp. I'm just using up orphan stamps.....

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How many people have heard of red beryl? Yesterday I invited a friend over to consult on the repair of a piece of furniture. He came after work with his boys, 8 year old twins. After the consultation, conversation wandered around and one of the boys was heading in a direction that I wanted to head off at the pass - aso I just inserted a topic-changer. I asked the dad, if you could be a rock or a mineral - what would you be?Without even pausing, he said, "Anthracite."

One of the boys said, "I'd want to be red beryl." The dad and I said, "What's that?" The boy said, "The rarest of all the minerals." He went on with more details. The dad and I were very happy to learn something new from an 8 year old. 

Of course, I had to Google and was delighted to find that there are 9 other rare minerals. 

https://topostreets.com/top-10-rarest-minerals-in-the-world/

While I am still on my sabbatical from surfing - I am delighted to have real humans giving me ideas for add ons. 

I will also enjoy hearing what kind of rock or mineral any of the readers would like to be. As a person born in April, the diamond month, I guess I'd choose diamond... which is strange - because I would never wear a diamond. I had a jeweler friend who had designed a ring that looked like a chunky signet ring. The top panel opened and there was a little drawer with big diamond in it. I can't remember if it was a commission or what prompted the ring.