The most common concern among my clients is love, but the second most common concern is work and career. Clients are either looking for work, wanting to change careers, wishing to start a business, or have concerns about various situations in their present job. I use a thimble to represent work and career issues in both my sets.
I used to sew some of my own clothes and some for my family as well. Back then you could make clothing for less than it cost to buy new, good quality clothing. Nowadays clothing is less expensive and fabrics for sewing are more expensive so I rarely take my sewing machine down unless I want to make something simple like a bag, or to repair a piece of clothing. I liked to sew, but it making clothing is not easy – it is hard work. I enjoyed sewing, but it was work nonetheless. That is how I chose a thimble to represent work. It was something small enough to fit easily in a bone set, and it had personal meaning for me.
When doing a reading I always look to see where the thimble is and what pieces are nearby. If the piece is far from the piece that represents the client with nothing really nearby, it can indicate that the person is probably not spending a lot of time thinking about their job. They may work that job because they need to pay the bills and have no plans to make their current job their career. It could also indicate that things are going well at work so they have no concerns in that area. Generally, these folks don’t ask about their career, of they ask after they have asked about everything else as an afterthought.
When clients do have work concerns, I usually find that there is a lot going on around the thimble. In some cases, clients have concerns about their co-workers or specific situations involving one or more co-workers. In those cases, I sometimes ask them to describe the co-worker they are having issues with and designate an appropriate piece in my set to represent that person. You could also add a piece or pieces to represent the various parties involved in a work situation.
Thimbles come in various sizes and can range in price from less than a dollar to over a hundred dollars for a fine antique in a precious metal. I bought a decorated silver thimble for my main set, but used a regular stainless steel thimble for my travel set for years. I tried replacing it with a ceramic thimble with an image that I liked, but it was much bigger than the original so I ended up putting it into the overflow bin. I finally bought an inexpensive silver thimble for my travel set as well.
You can get a simple metal thimble anywhere that you can buy needles and thread. Antique shops sometimes have fancier thimbles as some people collect them. Ebay is where I got my fancy thimbles and they have a wide array of styles, sizes, and prices. You could also use something else entirely to represent work and career – anything small that represents work for you will do. I think that if you read for others frequently you may want to consider designating a piece to represent work or career since you will probably find yourself reading for folks with concerns in this area.
Happy Bone Reading!