An Unexpected Heirloom

Last month I flew home to Massachusetts to see my grandmother. While there, I spent some time wandering through my late grandfather's greenhouse and sheds.

He was a garden guy, through and through. Tomatoes, herbs, gourds, flowers, grapes.. whatever needed tending that season, he was out there with dirt under his nails. And like a lot of people who spend their lives building things with their hands, he kept everything. His sheds are still packed wall to wall, tools, side of the road finds, decades old trinkets, the kind of stuff that only makes sense to the person who saved it. Some people would call it junk. I've never seen it that way.

While poking around, I decided I was going to "steal" something if I felt drawn to it. My eyes darted around until they landed on this old brass, trumpet-looking thing covered in cobwebs. It was so random that I immediately needed to get my hands on it for a closer look.

The patina was perfect. Decades of weather and time had settled into the metal in a way you genuinely cannot fake. When I flipped it over, I realized it was an old candlestick holder

Yup. Mine.

I packed it up and brought it all the way back to California. It sits on my desk now, right in the middle of all my other little pieces of inspiration, the objects I keep around because they remind me why I do this work in the first place.

It feels like the most fitting gift my grandfather could have left behind. He is the H in DEHV and if you see something Brass available in near future- you can thank him!