BMX BIKE PARTS FOR CHEAP

Brooch: Ralph and Robin – photo brooch made from a photo Tom took of Ralph from his studio window one day when Ralph, a long time subcontractor of TMD, came to pick up his "list". Ralph was driving his motorcycle that day, as he was many times when he came to get his list.
Brooch Materials: Bronze, anodized aluminum, acrylic, brass, stainless steel, photo
Panel Materials: Wood, acrylic, stainless steel, objects found on the slab of Ralph's house post-Katrina.

"Ralph & Robin"
I miss Ralph. I am always going to miss him.

I don’t know how Ralph found us initially. Maybe it was a flyer on a local coffee house bulletin board, or an ad in the paper or word of mouth that we had an opening for an “apprentice” level job makingjewelry, but his appearance and involvement with me and our studio was one of the more delightful periods in our history.

Ralph was enthusiastic, hard working, dedicated and responsible. He was working three jobs because he had a dream. That dream was to build his own house for his family, his wife Robin and a little boy Ralph Jr. So, he worked for us, did his own leather making work at home, and had two large paper routes that he got up every day at 4am to do before he did everything else. He worked and saved and eventually had enough money saved to buy a lot, right next to his mom’s house in an area of New Orleans known as Gentilly Woods. The lot was immediately adjacent to the London Avenue Canal, so this meant there was a big wall at the back of his lot that ran from way down by Dillard University out to Lake Pontchartrain.

Several years later he was ready to start on the house. He designed the house, contracted the project, did a lot of the grunt work himself and built a beautiful two story brick home with a two car garage and a studio workshop for his many projects and hobbies (he was big into radio controlled model boats). During a visit with him we walked the property and went out to see his fishing boat on a trailer at the back of the yard. I noticed puddles of water here and there near the base of the flood wall and wondered aloud to him about what they indicated…”Oh,” Ralph said, “They come and go, I guess there’s a little seepage from the canal comin’ through there. He wasn’t worried about them.

After working in-house with us for a number of years, and, having moved on quickly from the apprentice to artisan level, Ralph requested a move to become a sub-contractor for us. He had his home studio fully functional, was making some of his own jewelry and wanted to be around more for his son as Robin was working full-time as well in hospital administration. So, after that, we didn’t see much of him except when he delivered his work to us on his motorcycle (really a crotch rocket, we called him Mad Max) and at our annual company holiday party at the infamous Rock’N’ Bowl.

Ralph was into his hobbies to say the least — Especially his motorcycles. He actually installed a very large steel U ring with a huge hardened steel chain as they poured the slab for his house in what would be the garage where he would chain up his very valuable and expensive bike. That’s planning ahead! He was a member of a local motorcycle club and he and his pals would ride big circuits out on the highways around southern Louisiana on the weekends. At some point, they encountered another club with whom they, apparently, had a contentious rivalry with. In November of 2004, a member of that rival club escalated that rivalry to murder. On a Sunday morning, Ralph had gone out to get the morning papers. For whatever unknown reason, this rival club member decided to settle some unknown grudge by stalking Ralph, sneaking up behind him at as he exited the store and shot him twice in the back of the head.

I can hardly write this...I can hardly think it. There are murders all the time in New Orleans....always have been...probably always will be. And while most are rooted in the contemporary insanity of the disadvantaged drug-gang-teenager urban American gestalt, every now and again, one of these assaults strikes close to home, it penetrates the emotional perimeter of friends and family. This was, most assuredly...one of those. Senseless loss over a senseless slight or insult. Mind-numbing senselessness.

I made little silver "R" pins for all of his family members and our staff and we all went to his funeral. I had to make a lot more of those pins when everyone there got a look at them and I still get requests for more 6 years later.

August 2005
Robin and Ralph Jr. evacuated "the house that Ralph built" and New Orleans to Houston just days ahead of Hurricane Katrina in late August. Katrina came in on the 29th. The same storm surge that came down the Mr. Go (MRGO) and devastated the Lower 9th Ward pushed into lake Ponchartrain through the Rigolets outlet to the Gulf of Mexico and forced its way down t

"65 Roses" is what some children with Cystic Fibrosis call their disease because the words are much easier for them to pronounce.

In early June, my 29 year old Godson was about to be married. Three days before the ceremony, he was in a near-fatal motorcycle accident caused by an animal that ran out in front of his bike. Miraculously, in intensive care for a week, Doug survived yet another stumbling block in his life, having been born with CF and not supposed to live beyond 2 years. On Saturday, less than a week after our devastating storm, the wedding took place in a town still occupied by power workers from all over the country who were restoring electricity lost, due to Hurricane Irene. (I so wanted to do a stranger interview with one of the amazing crew who was staying at our hotel, but circumstances just weren't conducive; however, I was able to thank an exhausted worker as we passed one another in the hall. He was from Florida and had just come to Connecticut from Maryland).

To say this has been the most emotional week of my life is an understatement. Fortunately we were able to procure a room at an inn where not only did we have power, but were able to bathe in a nice hot tub of water! My last post was uploaded with a slow internet connection, so I was unable to respond in any detail to all of you dear friends who have sent best wishes our way.

We are home now, both sporting lousy head colds, but glad to be over the hurdle. Our pump is still working, but we're not comfortable drinking the tinted well water as yet.

Presently, I'm just counting my blessings that my dear Godson is happily celebrating his marriage to an amazing woman who nursed him through his accident. There was a whole lot of celebrating on Saturday evening, believe me!

I was so touched that "yellow roses" were themed throughout. The story behind the title is a touching one which I can share at another time. A donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation had been made in each guest's name.

PHEW, what a week!

"Compassion is not religious business,
it is human business,
it is not luxury,
it is essential for our own peace
and mental stability,
it is essential for human survival.”
~ Dalai Lama ~