In Greek mythology, Perdix was the nephew and student of Daedalus (father of Icarus) whose sister had placed her son Perdix under his charge to be taught the mechanical arts.

Perdix proved to be an apt scholar and showed striking evidence of ingenuity. The stories tell of his invention of the saw after walking on the seashore one day, picking up the spine of a fish and imitating it by notching the edge of a piece of iron. Then he invented the compass by putting two pieces of iron together, connecting them at one end with a rivet and sharpening the other ends.

Daedalus was so proud of his own achievements that he could not bear the idea of a rival. He was so envious of his nephew's accomplishments that he took the opportunity to rid himself of his rival by pushing him off the top of a high tower.

Athena, who favors ingenuity, saw Perdix fall and arrested his fate by changing him into a bird, the Perdix partridge.

PERDIX

Design & Construction,Inc.

In 2002 my husband, Michael, and I started a home improvement and renovation company. We had finished building our own house, doing all of the work ourselves, and had enough people asking us to remodel their kitchens, bathrooms, and duplexes, that we decided to give our business a shot. We were a perfect team of form & design- that was me, and function & construction- that was him, and were very successful doing projects that allowed us to be creative with floors, tile, paint, concrete counter tops...

Running a construction company was hard, and in the end, didn't work with the life we wanted to build for our family, but so many great things came from that experience: skill, knowledge, organization, and a whole lot of awesome tools being some of them.

My husband went back to his first love-teaching middle school math (he’s not crazy... just really special,) and I went back to my studio taking my new education with me, incorporating many of the skills I learned in construction into my art. Recently I used a plethora of them on a Mixed Media piece I call
The House of My Head.

So, although we no longer run a construction company, I remain devoted to Perdix. After all, I owe him so much. I have enduring respect for his creativity and ingenuity, and his ability to survive because of his skills.