Polycystic Kidney Disease (and yes this is about jewelry)

I have a friend with PKD.  Polycystic Kidney Disease.  I'd post a picture of a polycystic kidney, but then you'd stop reading, and that's not what I want, because it's ugly. 

Okay, here's a link.  Don't click if you're squeamish:  Seriously, don't look at this before dinner
Normal kidneys don't look like that, for the record.

PKD is as painful and destructive as it looks, and it leads to kidney failure.  As a reminder, kidneys are important.  You need them to live.   So, trust me when I tell you that  PKD not something you'd like anyone you care about to have.

I'd never heard of it before I met her, but it's more common than you think.   And, as I indicated, it's devastating, and it's debilitating, and there's no cure, and not really any treatments. So, I've been aiding my friend in my own little way with her research fund raising efforts for the past few years.  This year, I want to do more. 

We're working on some PKD awareness jewelry, to be sold in my Etsy shop, with net proceeds to go to PKD research.   

So, instead of graphic pictures of kidneys, here are some more appetizing versions in silver; prototypes of what we're doing. What do you think?  Do you have a preference?  Is a silver kidney just too gory for you?  Do you have a friend or relative with kidney disease? Am I more nuts than usual?

Comments are encouraged and welcomed.  Comments about  the prototypes, not my mental health, that is.

Polished Silver

Silver with Hammered Copper

Pair of Kidneys

Hammered Silver

Did I mention I'd like your feedback?  I want to hear your preferences, people!

And for more information about PKD, check out www.PKDcure.org

Leigh

Copper

I will always love silver shiny, glowing, polished.

Copper, though . . .I love the subtle warmth of oxidized copper, the brash bright of polished, the way it changes over time as though it was alive.

This cuff, for example--it looks loved and lived in.  Reminds me of an old penny that has traveled through many hands before landing in mine.

This collar--simple wire, but coiled and twisted, turned into something with movement and weight.

And these earrings--polished, hammered, oxidized rectangles of copper sheet.  

I'm drawn to copper because of all the things I can do with it, but also because of the way it almost seems to live a life of it's own.   Heat it, and you can bring out different colors.  Treat it with sulfur, and darken it to black.  Rub it with ketchup (yes, ketchup) and bring back it's pinkish shine.  Leave it alone, and it will darken, gradually, browning, evenly, unevenly, until it's a warm deep autumn hue.

An ever changing metal with a personality all it's own, which is probably why I like it so much. 

Watch out, silver.  A new old kid is on the block, and moving on up the street.