Original Russian spindle. Birch spindle. Supported spindle.  Gypsy spindle.

Description

Please read the story :).
Are you ready for another story from my life? Ok. Take a cup of tea with lemon & honey, the Russian way & I will tell you the story. This is how I was always listening to my Grandmother when she was telling me the story. She would be spinning & I had a little break from knitting , having a cup of tea with lemon & honey & listening to my Grandmother’s story.
The wood stove would be going, a lot of hot tea & homemade bread with homemade jam, what else do you need ? My Grandmother would be spinning on a spindle in 2 different ways, simply holding & turning the spindle in her right hand & pulling the fiber with her left hand from distaff and the other way she was spinning using a support bowl for her spindle, that would be the yarn for the shawls, she was telling me. I remember how she told me one day , Galyna, you are so good at knitting hats & scarves, & so fast, and now it is your time to start helping me with knitting the warm shawls. There was no pattern on the shawls, simply knit, knit and knit plain stitch all the rows only the borders had beautiful patterns, but not very difficult for me to remember. Yes I said, this is how we were creating Orenburg style warm shawls in my native Nikolayev region. I brought this shawl last year 2013 when I went to visit Ukraine. My Mother's older sister gave it to me. I am so happy to have this shawl, the family treasure, my treasure.
The listing is for 1 spindle . If you want the spindle with a bowl, please convo me & I will put a special listing with a special price for you. The spindle with a big "diamond" and Chinese sign is not for sale.
Many years ago after graduating from the Kiev Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages I got my Diploma & the Government was sending me to work in Odessa Region as a teacher of English. I decided to buy a ticket & go to Odessa by plane. I had my seat on the plane near the window , was very excited I would be a teacher, as I positioned myself I started to dream about my future job in Odessa region & suddenly one very attractive young lady, simply gorgeous , tall, in her 30’s with a long raven black hair up to her waist & very dark eyes & a big black leather bag leaning down towards me , asked me, may I sit next to you, I am coming from Carpathian mountain got all these grass, plants & roots which I need for my work.
To tell you the truth, I was scared, because I recognized her immediately , she was a gipsy. I said to her, sorry, I do not know, ask the flight attendant, but she ignored me & she just sat near me. Few minutes later she asked me if she could tell me my fortune. I was scared again, simply terrified, I was wearing a gold ring with a big ruby, my Mother’s gift for me for my graduation & immediately cover my ring with my other hand, the gypsy simply started to laugh & told me, do not worry, I like you, you do not have to pay me. But from my experience in my life, living on the South of the Ukraine, we had a lot of gypsies there, they can talk to you & simply later you will notice that your money or ring - are gone. So, I was really scared. She said to me, I do not need your hand to tell you the fortune, simply look at me. When I looked at her , in her eyes, I went simply numb, I could not say anything, I saw her black eyes only. But I remember till today all the words she told me. But the most important, yes she was right, I will be living in a far away country from my native country, but before that I would go thru a lot of troubles. Yes, gipsy Mariana, was very right. During the flight we did not talk at all. But when we landed in Odessa, she simply told me, please tell your friends about me, it is easy to find me, tell Marianna from Tairovo. Tairovo, that was a region where all gypsies live during that time in the suburb of Odessa. Yes I told about this to my friends later, told about gypsy Marianna. And now 30 years later I met with gypsy Marianna . I went to the Ukraine for the 1st time in 20 years. I was in Kiev & then I was going by plane to Odessa, and guess what, yes you are right the same beautiful gipsy Marianna was walking thru the isle on the plane, she stood tall , but this time her hair was in a different way, simply pulled back. I was already on my seat & watching the people coming, & again the same question, may I sit next to you, I simply could not believe my eyes, yes, the same gypsy Marianna. I jumped up & simply screamed, Marianna .I told her, that’s me the girl with golden ring with ruby, yes she recognized me. We talked a lot. She asked me if I want to hear my fortune again, I said no & smiled. Gypsy Mariana became older, but still the same beautiful black hair & black eyes. But this time with her hair do of a queen, held back by an antique golden single hair piece with a stick , but very unusual & very beautiful decorated with a big round diamond. I wanted to asked her about that hair piece but I was a little shy to do that. I told Marianna about my little hobby, spinning on a spindles and spinning wheel. She listened to my stories very attentively. When we landed in Odessa, Mariana simply opened her hair & let the hair run wild, & gave me that wooden stick , which was in her hair & said , it is yours now. And you will not believe, what was that, yes, you are right, the very old spindle decorated with a “diamond” & some black sign. I said, no, I cannot take this from you, it is probably very expensive, she simply smiled & said, thank you for telling about me to your friends. I asked her , please tell me about this piece , from where, who gave to you, she said perhaps next time we meet .
I could not believe myself I have this antique hair piece, decorated with a large exquisite stone, that appears to be a diamond and on the other side was a sign in black . The only time I seen such as this it was worn in a hair bun of an old Chinese lady , the wife of the sea captain, when I was meeting my Mom in Odessa - sea port of the Ukraine many years ago, when my Mom was coming back from the voyage ( she was a cook on a merchant vessel).
May be Mariana read her fortune?
When I came back home to USA, I started researching about that sign, as a result of my research, it appeared the word LOVE in Chinese calligraphy painting.
This is the Chinese character for "Ai" which is "Love". It's also been borrowed by Japanese and Korean languages, with roughly the same pronunciation in each language.
But note, until the last 100 years, it was written the same in Korea, but they now use Hangul characters instead for the most part.
This may be hard to imagine as a westerner, but the strokes at the top of the character symbolize the family & marriage. The symbol in the middle of the character is your heart. The strokes at the bottom are friends.
It can be said that the meaning is love your family, spouse, and friends with all of your heart, since all three elements exist in this character.
And now you will have exactly like Mariana’s hair piece , spindle, but sorry no real diamond.
I asked my Uncle Nicolay to create me some & we decided to put not only the “diamond” but some other colored stones: red- “ruby“, green- “emerald“, blue- “sapphire” ,
purple-“amethyst” , orange- “amber“.
You can see on the last picture how the lady in China wears this kind of spindle- hair piece in the hair.
The weight of the spindle is .7 oz ( 20g ) - perfect for supported spinning. Spins for ever & ever.
It is 10 ¼” long ( 26 cm)