Artist's Palette Ornament

Right here, and this one has the advantage of not being a supply the recipient has opinions about. Buying materials for a painter is a trap, because every brand is a position and you will pick the wrong one. My uncle Wendell has received four sets of brushes he has never opened and one palette he keeps on the windowsill. He mentions the palette.

It can, and it does it early rather than late. Whatever comes out of the first parcel sets the register for the whole round, and a palette opened at the start tells the room this is a taste game rather than a joke game, which quietly finishes off three novelty gifts still sitting unopened. Wendell has run that play twice. Both times he went first.

Yes, particularly for a host whose walls have anything on them at all. It is small, it needs no vase and no room in the fridge, and it does not compete with whatever the table has been arranged around. Wendell now brings one to every dinner and hands it over in the doorway with no bag, no card and no explanation. Hosts appear to prefer this.

Hand-painted blown glass, not plastic, with each of the nine wells applied individually rather than printed as a repeating ring. That is why they sit slightly raised and catch light separately from one another. Wendell examined it from about an inch away, which is his method for everything, and concluded that the raised edge was the only reason it worked. He is not wrong.

No. It runs 2.36 inches wide and 3.15 inches tall in blown glass, light enough for a mid-depth branch with no bracing at all. Weight is rarely the problem with a flat piece. Balance is, and this one hangs level because the thumb hole sits off center against the wells. Wendell weighed his on a kitchen scale before hanging it. Naturally.

Flat, face up, with a sheet of tissue over the wells so nothing rests directly on the raised paint. A shallow box beats a deep one here, because the risk is pressure rather than a drop. Wendell stores his in the box a watch arrived in, which he kept for years waiting for precisely this occasion. He was vindicated in December.

Other things people use rather than display: instruments, tools, equipment with wear on it. The hobby pieces in this range read as a working shelf when they are grouped together, and they lose that completely if you scatter them among the baubles. Wendell hung his beside a small brass instrument and declined to move either one. The pairing was not up for discussion.

It ships to whichever address you enter at checkout, so yes, it can go straight to the recipient. What arrives is a protective transit carton built to get blown glass through the post, not a gift box, and nothing is enclosed unless you send it separately. Wendell posted one to a friend with the invoice still showing. He regretted that.