I never liked jellyfish. Ever since I fell onto a bunch of them when I was 4, I did not like them.
That summer my parents took me to a month-long vacation to a little town on the shores of the Black sea. The weather was great and I loved the water. And then one morning we came to the beach only to discover a glistening strip about 10 feet wide going all along the water. Before my parents realized what it was, I ran up to look, slipped and… SPLAT!
Millions of jellyfish got washed ashore after a storm and just lie there as a huge glistening mass. This made for one of the most vivid memories of my childhood. I do not remember the sting anymore, but I still have a still image of the shiny strip running the length of the beach imprinted in my memory. And it makes me shiver.
Ever since we've purchased a membership to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD, my kids kept telling me how beautiful the jellyfish were. My kids visited the aquarium a lot, but always with the grandparents, and I did not make it there until about 2 weeks ago. The visit was pretty exciting, and I enjoyed watching the fish, especially big ones in the huge 2-story-high aquarium.
And then we entered the jellyfish exhibit, and - OH MY! - they really were beautiful, all the different kinds and different colors moving graciously in the dark water. Jellyfish in one particular tank have impressed me the most. They were especially colorful and moved around a lot.
These jellyfish actually became an inspiration for a lamp I made. It is a triangular column with each side a rectangle 8 inches wide and 16 inches tall. It is made of four kinds of glass and two kinds of glass nuggets and holds a normal-sized light bulb. The design wraps around seamlessly and mimics the pulsating movement of a jellyfish.