So, resin is a wonderful medium to work with. If you have a mold, or can make a mold, or you have a container that would benefit from some decoration, you can do literally anything with it. Having said that, there are a lot of things that you’ll never see me making, let alone selling.
When I was a kid, there was a second soundtrack that came out after the Lion King’s release in 1995 called “Rhythm of the Pridelands.” I LOVED that album. I loved it. It had all of the songs from the movie as well as some original songs sung by The South African Choir in several African languages, lead by Lebo M., a legendary vocalist most well known for his work in Ladysmith Black Mambaso. One of my favorite songs on the soundtrack was called “One by One,” the chorus of which is the following:
Ibala lami elimnyama
Ndiya zidla ngalo
Ibala lami elimnyama
Ndiza kufa nalo
I’d sing along to this song at least twenty five times a day. My mom was sick of it. Later, when I was older and had access to the internet, I looked up the meaning of the lyrics:
The color of my skin that is dark
I’m proud of it
The color of my skin that is dark
I will die with it
Now, I’m as white as the day is long, so I didn’t sing those lyrics again after that. Not because I didn’t like the song anymore; it’s still one of my favorite songs to this day. I just immediately understood that it wasn’t my song to sing.
I support BLM, but I’ll never be making BLM items. I won’t be making sugar skulls or Day of the Dead items. I won’t be making dreamcatcher items. You should absolutely be buying those types of things from black creators, Mexican creators, and Indigenous creators. It’s just not my song to sing.
