I’m still spending most of the time sitting and looking at it, and thinking about it, and looking some more at it, because quite frankly I don’t know what I’m doing.
And don’t even get me started on scale.
I’ve decided not to worry about scale…
As a consequence the whole thing is taking forever and I might have to take a break from it and make some jewelry.
At least then I’ll know what I’m doing.
Perhaps
–
The house so far.
All along I’ve had trouble with the second floor and where the windows will go because of the roof so I decided to cut it down and work on the first floor upward.
Instant relief…
So it went from this.
To this.
I made a mock up of a wall which turned out o.k.
I made a practice floor.
And painted it.
I worked on an Inglenook fireplace.
Which was going to have a firebox in it, but I’m thinking now the box may have to go somewhere else.
And then I made it some book cases.
I worked some more on the stairs.
Which are a complete mess inside because I just made them up as I went along. Who knows, next time I may very well know what I’m doing.
(Probably not)
They’re going to have a cupboard.
With shelves.
The whole thing just cracks me up ?
Now I have to just put a second coat of paint on the walls, make the room a larger floor, put a grate in the fire and paint the woodwork. Then I’m going to make it some beams and go onto the kitchen.
But I’m ashamed to say that yesterday I actually took my dollhouse from one room into another when the mess became too overwhelming – even for me.
Yes, I walked away from it.
I love the concept that we create from chaos. The fact that I can take perfect lengths of fabric and cut them into hundreds of smaller pieces only to put them back together again to make a quilt has always fascinated me. That individual tubes of colour can come together to make an image that wasn’t there before is like magic, but I’ve a sneaky feeling that my creations leave more destruction in their wake than the chaos that gives life to them.
Reluctantly today will be a cleaning day.
But before that, my progress so far for those of you interested in how not to go about making a dollhouse from scratch.
I’m not going to lie, maths was never my strong suit and so mostly I have to visualize things first before I can get the numbers down.
That involves a lot of cardboard and blue painters tape.
It started off like this…
Here I will show you only two renditions as, to be honest, there were quite a few of them.
A day or two into trying to work out the structure and fiddling around with all the cardboard boxes I could get my hands on, I started to get bored and so tried my hand at making some windows and stairs.
Because it’s never not a good idea to jump ahead and waste time carving out things that you’ll probably end up not using.
Look at those teeny nails ? I didn’t need to use them because the wood glue would have been just fine on its own, but I couldn’t resist.
And so after quite a few cardboard mockups and carved out windows and doors I decided to stop procrastinating and got the wood out.
It has to be said that there has been a lot of sitting and looking.
And then getting bored with it again and making something else I probably wont use.
But just look at that dormer.
I can’t tell you exactly when the house started to morph into something larger than I’d intended, but I think the dormers had something to do with it.
Because then I had to bump out the side wall to accommodate them
And, of course, add a chimney breast.
Or two.
But really it’s the roof that’s giving me pause for concern so I’m mostly ignoring it at the moment. Adding a few sheets of cardboard here and there when I feel a moment of inspiration (albeit short lived) but I’m determined I’ll get there.
Of course an engineering degree would have come in handy at this point, but no, I just had to pursue that sculpture degree for what use that does anybody ?
That for a long time now I’ve wanted to make a dollhouse.
I know. Don’t think about that too much for now as I don’t really understand it either.
All that needs to be said right now is that it’s been bubbling along inside me for years now and so finally I decided it was time.
As with most everything I do I tend to spend ages thinking about how to go about it – mostly because, as my very own number one cheerleader, I think it will be too hard for me and I will fail miserably. It was the same with setting cabochons. I would be making my silver pieces while all the time thinking about how to go about making a piece with a stone in it. I’d already made a cabochon setting in a class I’d taken at community college, but I made it again and again in my head as I sat at my table. Eventually, when I was finally ready, it was as though I’d been setting cabochons forever.
Same with this dollhouse thing, although I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as the cabochon setting – no matter how long I think about it.
So I looked around the internet a bit to get some ideas on how to go about making one and who knew (not me) how many people were making doll houses! It’s a remarkable thing to see. It kind of put me off a bit as I could see all of my ideas already made. It was as though I’d already made it – without making it – if you get what I mean.
But I continued to think about it until I knew that it was only a matter of time before I’d have to give in and open up this whole new can of worms because, as I’ve learned throughout my life, when I’m in I’m really in and now I was going to have to buy all of the stuff that I didn’t know I had to buy and then some.
The fact that I could most likely buy a couple of brand new, fully furnished, fantabulistic doll houses for less than the materials and tools I ended up getting didn’t deter me at all although it did confirm what those other people who live with me have been telling me for years now, that I’m a little, how can I say it nicely – obsessed.
Who wants to buy a new doll house anyway when you can spend ages regretting that you didn’t pay attention that day in school when they were teaching the Pythagorean Theorum. Now, had they told me then that I’d be needing that, or something geometrically similar, to figure out the structure of my future dollhouse roof pitch no doubt I would have been all in and at the front of the class, but… oh well.
All I can say is that now, with dogged determination, I am winging it.
I’m going to show you how I keep everything organized.
I wasn’t going to because half the time I don’t know what I’m doing – you’ll see that when I get to my feeble attempt at bookkeeping – but what I’m about to show you works very well for me and so for anyone who doesn’t want to take the six years that I did coming up with an efficient way of keeping their jewelry straight, this is for you…
First up – Storing each piece of jewelry so that it’s easy to find.
I separate my pieces into categories as such.
Necklace/Cabochons
Necklace/Silver
Bracelet/Cabochons
Bracelet/Silver
Earrings/Cabochons
Earrings/Silver
Rings/Cabochons
Rings/Silver
Use as many, or as few, categories as you want to. You might not want any and just clump all of your pieces under one umbrella, however, I tend to have a lot of pieces hanging around and find breaking them down this way works well for me.
Then I make each category a chart.
This makes me feel very efficient.
Each category uses the same chart and I just switch out the heading when I’m printing it. The Silver items don’t have stones I know, but if I use beads (I don’t usually) I can list them there.
I made this chart initially as I was interested to see how much it was costing me to make each piece and how much in fees I was paying. Especially as I’d been hearing a lot about how much Etsy was charging. I wasn’t really paying attention at that time, but started to wonder how much I was actually making on each piece I sold. Now I often see beautiful pieces on Instagram and Etsy which I doubt are making anything much at all for the artist.
I don’t have a column for Time here as I can see under the Net column if the amount I’ve made after Cost and Fees is worth my time. This really is a chart to keep everything straight.
Here you can see the chart in action.
This is just an example as I just pen mine in.
It’s pretty straightforward. Each item gets a SKU number (the SKU for the Kazakhstan Necklace therefore is NC3) and a brief description.
Under Gross I put what I’m going to charge for the piece.
Next is the silver column. I weigh the piece on a small scale I bought from RioGrande – HERE – and times it by the cost of the silver – which is $26.67 per troy ounce right now. You’ll find the market cost for silver on the RioGrande home page top left. This gets a bit tricky I suppose as the cost of silver moves and if I kept track correctly I would know which piece of silver cost what when I bought it and when I used it. Not happening. So I tend to just times the troy ounce by $25 right now and keep an eye on the market. If it dips or rises in price significantly I alter my calculations. The silver used in a piece is negligible at this point I think. In this column I also include the cost of the chain and clasp which tends to add up to $15 for the ones I typically use. So the amount of silver I used for the Kazakhstan Necklace after the chain and clasp was $7. I round these amounts up or down accordingly to keep it simple. – O.K. and also because my dad laughed at me when I showed him how I used to calculate this part down to the last cent.
Next I fill in the Stone column and then the Cost column is the Silver and Stone added together.
I don’t put the Fees in the sub total here because Peter says he just needs the actual material cost.
Yes. Peter does my taxes for me because – I don’t.
When I tell you that I can put three sets of numbers into the same calculator and get three separate results three times in a row you’ll understand why…
Don’t judge me.
I could lump the silver and stone together in one column to begin with but I like to know how much I spent on the stone as sometimes they can be expensive and later, when I come to see the price I’ve charged, I get worried that I’ve messed up my silver calculations (read the paragraph above) and reduce the piece out of embarrassment and then only realize once I’ve sold the piece that I’ve lost money because the stone cost an arm and a leg and I forgot etc., etc..
Then I put in a rough round up of the Fees charged for using PayPal, Stripe, etc..
I have a sheet which I refer to at the front of my folder which tells me how much PayPal, or Stripe, or Etsy (if I still used them) is for the amount I charged (Gross) for the piece. And so by adding the Cost and Fee column together the final Net column is what I will have made after all of that. Now I can see what I will actually get for a piece and depending on how much time it has taken me and how involved it has been to make I can decide then if that’s a good price for me and alter it accordingly if needs be.
Now all of my pieces have their SKU number and I’ve a rough idea of their cost they get their own box.
But, to make it more exciting, they also get bags.
Yep. Sometimes it’s even too exciting for me…
Now. This may look a bit anal, but I have a tendency to make a lot of jewelry so…
The bags you see below are the Mother Bags. (I’ve just watched an Alien movie so work with me here as I try to get the lingo out of my brain). Each Bag represents a category (again you might not need this) and each Mother Bag has smaller individually numbered bags in them ready to be filled with a piece of jewelry that corresponds to their SKU number on the chart.
Necklace/Cabochons are NC1, NC2 etc.. Necklace/Silver are NS1, NS2 etc.. Earrings/Cabochons are EC1, EC2 etc.. You get the idea.
You can decided what you need.
Then, as I fill them with finished pieces of jewelry, I put them into larger bags of ten. This means that I know exactly which box and then which bag a piece of jewelry is in when I need it. Of course you have to put the SKU number in the item description in your shop otherwise this method will do you absolutely no good whatsoever.
Yes. I’ve done that…
Here are the cabochon bracelets in their box ready to go.
I keep all of the charts in a folder so that I can enter a piece as soon as I’ve made it, give it its number and put it in its bag.
If I sell a piece I run a highlighter over it to know it’s gone. A different colour for each year… just for jollies.
And then behind that I have monthly records where I can enter pieces I’ve sold and also items I’ve bought. I can also keep receipts, etc here.
At this point you might be wondering – why.
And it does seem a lot as I write it here, but actually it’s not and it really helps me keep everything in order. The monthly Sales page (below) also helps me keep a record for the tax man as I have been known to spend hours and hours at the end of a year trying to find out how much I’ve sold throughout the year, and then, how much tax I’ve collected and how much ‘I think” I’ve spent on materials. Etsy and PayPal keep records for that I know, but well, I find this so much easier and it keeps my pieces organized at the same time.
So again this is pretty self explanatory and is again just an example.
This is where I write in how much the customer has been charged, by me, in total – including shipping and tax if any. The date it sold, the SKU number, how much it cost me to make (found on the first chart), the invoice number, the exact amount I’ve been charged in fees by PayPal etc. The exact amount it cost me to ship, and I also have a column where I can indicate which payment of a layaway it is if that’s relevant. (Layaways have a different baggie, but that’s for another time…)
I make two sheets for each month. The one above and this one.
On this one I just write the date, what it is I’ve bought, whether I paid via PayPal, or another way and finally the amount I paid. I really only use it for supplies but you could put equipment, etc., here also.
And at the end of each month I can calculate each column and put their totals on here.
The Supreme Commander Chart.
And at the end of the year I can add up all the columns and be able to tell the tax man exactly how much I sold and how much it cost me in materials without having to resort to drinking.
You’ll have to ask Peter how to do all of the other tax stuff because, frankly – not my thing. Sorry. As long as it’s all done I will just thank him nicely and make him an extra cup of tea.
And that’s how I organize. It sounds involved, but it really isn’t. It works well for me. If you’re like me and make a lot and are absent minded and can’t find something when it’s sold, this might work for you also. There are a lot of systems out there and I know many are much better than this one so use at your own risk…
If you happen to find that none of this is clear nor makes sense you’re probably not the only one.
I made my charts using Pages on my computer. You can use my examples if you wish or make up something that makes more sense to you.
I don’t do New year’s resolutions because they make me anxious and I just feel set up for failure.
I prefer to call them good intentions.
To be honest I have a lot of good intentions throughout the year which I often fall short on, but it always feels on-going for me. Like I haven’t lost my last chance of doing well on the test.
I love the potential of the New Year. It makes me feel hopeful. A fresh start to clear the way. and in many ways I prefer it to Christmas.
Just don’t tell Santa.
It makes my head feel lighter like it does when I have my hair cut. Granted my hair is pretty short, but that extra couple of millimeters really bring me down. God knows what I’m going to do this week as my appointment isn’t until the 9th and I can already feel it creeping down toward my knees…
So here we are again and my whole life is opened up before me. What will I do with it all because at 58 I’m really beginning to feel an urge to get going on my life plan.
Depression gets in the way of life plans.
I suffer with depression.
It takes away my umph and makes the sofa a thing of beauty.
In the short time (or sometimes long time) it takes me to wake up and get up I can have gone from being excited to make something or do something to knowing that there’s no point.
It’s like I’ve done it already in my head so why bother.
I share this for those of you who suffer also so that you know you’re not alone, because sometimes it makes me feel ridiculous. As though I make it up and that, of course, I can snap myself out of it.
An interesting thing, however, happened to me a couple of months back. I was having lunch with an old friend and she mentioned that she didn’t think that she had ever been depressed. That she felt down at times and fed up, but that she didn’t think that she ever had been really depressed. It took me by surprise as I really thought that everyone was depressed. That it was just a symptom of life. So maybe ‘snapping out of it’ for me is different than for her.
Just a thought.
Anyway, that said, I do feel excited for the new year.
I do have lots of good intentions and I’m ready to see where they take me.
Most of them involve creativity, but a few important ones involve moving onwards and upwards with my attitude toward myself. Those mostly regarding the negative thoughts that don’t just creep in as I always thought, but that live constantly with me.
Damn them.
So.
I have paintings to finish.
I have jewelry to develop.
I have books to work on.
(I love writing my books. It’s my happy place which is probably why I avoid it.)
I have good food to make.
I have less wine to drink.
I have more smiling to do.
(That’s almost as good as a haircut)
I have books to read.
I have getting out of bed as soon as I wake up to do.
I have more arguing with the Texas humidity to do so that I can take a walk more often.
Might have to give that one up and get the tread mill out.
?
I have getting a better attitude toward the tread mill to work on.
And I have the Noble Peace Price to attain.
(This is probably just an interesting pshycological consequence of being told I’d never amount to anything, but I’m just going to go with it. Can’t hurt.)
I could go on, but don’t want to get myself too excited that I have to lie down again.
The struggle is real…
So I’ll leave you all with a little lovely something that happened last night.
A grandson from one daughter and a wedding from the other.
What’s not to like.
Now we just have to figure out what to do with the boy…
A couple of biggies happened this year which seem to have blown me off course.
First my middle daughter got married in April which was lovely. My son and I arranged and decorated for it and I must say that Stephen turned out to be a great wedding planner – much to his mortification at being associated with lovely flowery things… and hearts.
Here she is with her sister.
Then.
And now.
Goes quickly doesn’t it…
We also went home to visit a couple of times. I would go back to live in England in a heartbeat but that trip wears me out and always knocks me back.
So the jewelry was put on hold for a while which I’m not sure was a good thing as it seems to have put me off track somewhat.
The final big thing was having the studio renovated which took far longer due to trips etc. than we expected.
I only wanted a new floor.
Really I did.
I had a concrete floor put in when we first built the studio and I thought it was going to be treated and have that lovely smooth finish and it would be practical and easy to clean. But no. The nice man who thought he knew better than me didn’t treat it and I didn’t complain and after a while it became pitted and stained and the worse floor ever to keep clean. I actually don’t think it was clean for ten years however much I swept vacuumed and washed it. It was a health hazard and when we hired a contractor to talk about renovating our house I asked if after that was done he would put in a new floor for me.
This is when my husband had the brilliant (I must admit) idea of renovating the studio first and then moving into it while the house was done.
I am incredibly lucky as my studio is like a small house. It has four rooms which we designed to be converted into a ‘granny’ annex if we ever moved so the store room was plumbed for a future bathroom and the kitchen area arranged so that it could semi function as such if we ever needed it to.
The kids have all up and left, except that the boy came back (still trying to impress on him the need to move back out, but I must admit I’ll miss him. You never know when a new flower arranging extravaganza will come up) and so we had looked, (I would say on and off for at least four years), for a smaller house to buy closer in town. The houses were great and we saw so many that we could have easily lived in but typically they had no gardens and definitely no room for an outside studio so eventually we decided to stay in this far too big for us house and renovate.
It took me forever to move all of my stuff out of the studio. I seriously believe I had more stuff packed in there than we have now packed from the house.
On a side note I don’t actually know what planet Peter lives on but he seriously doesn’t believe I need it all.
?
Now, except for most of my jewelry stuff, it’s all in the garage waiting for us to move back into the house so it can come back inside the studio to play.
The studio came out wonderfully and this week we finally moved into it and, I must say, I might not want to move out of it ever again.
Well that’s what I say now…
It’s not ideal to have your jewelry studio in your living room, but hopefully it won’t be for too long and perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to write more and to finish some of the paintings I have lying around and so not create as much dust and fumes as normal. I’m also going to be a grandmother in February so I think a baby blanket is in order. I’ve not tried Tunisian crochet before so I’m going to give it a go.
Only the colour will be a mustard because that’s how my middle daughter likes to roll.
?
And so that’s me.
I’m not completely convinced that I want to share my studio with Peter. It’s like an intrusion on my sacred ground, but as it was his idea to renovate it and it’s way nicer now than just having a new floor, I might have to give in on that score.
WARNING:
Although no flash photography was used in the making of this video, because I wasn’t sure if anyone would really be interested in what the studio looks like and so felt a little silly filming it, I kind of rushed it. Not super rushed, but enough to say whoa, hang on a minute there girl while I let the dizziness pass.
Enter at your peril…
So you can see that I’ve still a bit of unpacking and sorting to do and the jewelry area does look a bit out of place. I’ve yet to down-size on the clutter and decide what to keep in here or not as it does look as though it’s all stuffed in right now and as I’m not the tidiest person in town I think perhaps the less I have hanging around the better. The one downside is that we have to have the litter boxes in the room with us as there’s nowhere else for them. I’m not sure that I’m going to be o.k. with that. Also there’s nowhere to hang the wet towels right now ? I’ll have to think about that one. But as none of these are world problems I think we’re good.
On a stranger note I happened to google my name the other day and this lovely lady popped up.
I don’t really know who she is (although she does look as though she’s in England) so I thought I’d show you the real me.
Try not to be disappointed that I’m not young, blonde, and beautiful as I’m sure you were all imagining…
Also Youtube seems to have changed things around since I last posted a video so I don’t know how to turn the sound off right now.
To be honest I don’t even know if the videos will post correctly.
?♀️
So now you’ve seen my face I’m going to have to eat you.
Ha! you thought that was just for disposing of paper evidence didn’t you…
A couple of biggies happened this year which seem to have blown me off course.
First my middle daughter got married in April which was lovely. My son and I arranged and decorated for it and I must say that Stephen turned out to be a great wedding planner – much to his mortification at being associated with lovely flowery things… and hearts.
Here she is with her sister.
Then.
And now.
Goes quickly doesn’t it…
We also went home to visit a couple of times. I would go back to live in England in a heartbeat but that trip wears me out and always knocks me back.
So the jewelry was put on hold for a while which I’m not sure was a good thing as it seems to have put me off track somewhat.
The final big thing was having the studio renovated which took far longer due to trips etc. than we expected.
I only wanted a new floor.
Really I did.
I had a concrete floor put in when we first built the studio and I thought it was going to be treated and have that lovely smooth finish and it would be practical and easy to clean. But no. The nice man who thought he knew better than me didn’t treat it and I didn’t complain and after a while it became pitted and stained and the worse floor ever to keep clean. I actually don’t think it was clean for ten years however much I swept vacuumed and washed it. It was a health hazard and when we hired a contractor to talk about renovating our house I asked if after that was done he would put in a new floor for me.
This is when my husband had the brilliant (I must admit) idea of renovating the studio first and then moving into it while the house was done.
I am incredibly lucky as my studio is like a small house. It has four rooms which we designed to be converted into a ‘granny’ annex if we ever moved so the store room was plumbed for a future bathroom and the kitchen area arranged so that it could semi function as such if we ever needed it to.
The kids have all up and left, except that the boy came back (still trying to impress on him the need to move back out, but I must admit I’ll miss him. You never know when a new flower arranging extravaganza will come up) and so we had looked, (I would say on and off for at least four years), for a smaller house to buy closer in town. The houses were great and we saw so many that we could have easily lived in but typically they had no gardens and definitely no room for an outside studio so eventually we decided to stay in this far too big for us house and renovate.
It took me forever to move all of my stuff out of the studio. I seriously believe I had more stuff packed in there than we have now packed from the house.
On a side note I don’t actually know what planet Peter lives on but he seriously doesn’t believe I need it all.
?
Now, except for most of my jewelry stuff, it’s all in the garage waiting for us to move back into the house so it can come back inside the studio to play.
The studio came out wonderfully and this week we finally moved into it and, I must say, I might not want to move out of it ever again.
Well that’s what I say now…
It’s not ideal to have your jewelry studio in your living room, but hopefully it won’t be for too long and perhaps I’ll take the opportunity to write more and to finish some of the paintings I have lying around and so not create as much dust and fumes as normal. I’m also going to be a grandmother in February so I think a baby blanket is in order. I’ve not tried Tunisian crochet before so I’m going to give it a go.
Only the colour will be a mustard because that’s how my middle daughter likes to roll.
?
And so that’s me.
I’m not completely convinced that I want to share my studio with Peter. It’s like an intrusion on my sacred ground, but as it was his idea to renovate it and it’s way nicer now than just having a new floor, I might have to give in on that score.
WARNING:
Although no flash photography was used in the making of this video, because I wasn’t sure if anyone would really be interested in what the studio looks like and so felt a little silly filming it, I kind of rushed it. Not super rushed, but enough to say whoa, hang on a minute there girl while I let the dizziness pass.
Enter at your peril…
So you can see that I’ve still a bit of unpacking and sorting to do and the jewelry area does look a bit out of place. I’ve yet to down-size on the clutter and decide what to keep in here or not as it does look as though it’s all stuffed in right now and as I’m not the tidiest person in town I think perhaps the less I have hanging around the better. The one downside is that we have to have the litter boxes in the room with us as there’s nowhere else for them. I’m not sure that I’m going to be o.k. with that. Also there’s nowhere to hang the wet towels right now ? I’ll have to think about that one. But as none of these are world problems I think we’re good.
On a stranger note I happened to google my name the other day and this lovely lady popped up.
I don’t really know who she is (although she does look as though she’s in England) so I thought I’d show you the real me.
Try not to be disappointed that I’m not young, blonde, and beautiful as I’m sure you were all imagining…
Also Youtube seems to have changed things around since I last posted a video so I don’t know how to turn the sound off right now.
To be honest I don’t even know if the videos will post correctly.
?♀️
I had cut the clip from the first video and then I thought, why not.
–
So now you’ve seen my face I’m going to have to eat you.
Ha! you thought that was just for disposing of paper evidence didn’t you…
Perhaps it’s because the studio is being renovated and I’m make-doing in my dining room.
Perhaps it’s because we left for a visit home and I got all jet-lagged and everything.
Maybe I’m homesick and don’t know it.
Or perhaps it’s just one of those, ‘it goes in cycles’ things.
Whatever it is, it better hurry up and sort itself out because I don’t want to play any more…
I don’t think I’ll ever understand how one day you can’t put a foot wrong. Everything is going right for weeks and weeks and weeks and then bam! you go to bed one night and the next day you can’t make a darn thing work.
To be fair on myself, I am betwixt and between things.
I’m in the dining room trying to work and all around me my house is in boxes waiting for its turn to be renovated. It’s unsettling as I’m always thinking I should be doing something else.
There are always people in my studio, which of course is where they should be, but I feel as though I’m just in here twiddling my thumbs. Not getting on with anything ‘important’.
And to top it all off I just finished a few pieces that I ended up melting down because they weren’t doing it for me.
And so my world has ended.
Woe and more woe.
I look at all the beautiful pieces that people are making on Instagram and think – why?
Why me?
What has my life come to?
Will I ever be able to make anything again?
(Too dramatic?)
Well that’s what it feels like anyway.
Anyone else?
I must admit that since I stopped making my jewelry for charity I kind of feel that I’ve lost my purpose. Where’s the reason for making it?
I reached a mile stone for the amount I gave to charity and thought that perhaps it was enough. That considering the world’s horribleness doesn’t look like it’s going to be fixed any time soon that mine was a pretty futile effort.
I don’t know.
I enjoyed sharing what I’d learned with others, but now it seems I can’t even come up with anything remotely interesting so that’s also gone out of the window.
So if any of you have read the little box to the top right of this page you will have learned that I’m a recovering hypochondriac. Which is actually code for I take anxiety medicine. This makes me laugh because I had no idea that hypochondria was a form of anxiety. I just thought I was a full blown Woody Allenesque wimp – but with more hair. (Actually that’s not true as my hair is probably shorter than his. Unless he’s bald in which case I definitely have a smidgen more). The medicine helps, but I still have bouts when all kinds of illnesses come back to tease me. Some of which I’d never heard of before, and wish I’d never heard of. I mean vulva cancer. Come on!
I even had to stop reading one of my favourite murder mystery series because the detective’s sister is a doctor and so all sorts of intriguing illnesses are thrown into the mix. Of course I had them all. Even the ones that only men can get because, of course, the doctors could be wrong…
It’s known as hyper-vigilance. I can also have it when I’m in the movie theatre and someone is eating their popcorn loudly. It makes me cringe up inside and it’s all I can concentrate on. I seem to try to make myself as small as possible as if to protect myself from outside noises.
Weird right?
When I learned that it was all a form of anxiety I felt so relieved that I laughed out loud. O.K. and I felt a little stupid for not knowing about it before. Not that I wanted anxiety, but because it explained a lot of things about me. Some things that I’m still discovering. But it means I can now stop in the throes of it all and try to figure it out. Doesn’t always work but at least I know what it is now, and the medicine, however much I hate taking it, helps.
One thing that I’ve always suffered from, and I will say suffer because sometimes is debilitating, is a lack of confidence.
I’m definitely a perfectionist, which I actually like about myself. I don’t think this is necessarily a problem for me or actually the cause of my confidence issues. It can be frustrating, but I think it’s a quality that helps me strive to make things better and to always be moving forward. I’m not saying that this is always a good thing and I could definitely do with spreading the effort around a little more – like in the case of housework for instance.
Nah…
So here I am – again – in the middle of a mini self-confidence crisis, which no-one can help me with. Compliments (and believe me I’m not looking for any) in my top heavy world of insecurity actually makes it worse.
Right now I’m wanting to literally contact everyone that has ever bought anything from me for in the past ten years to ask to buy it back.
Yep. It’s that bad.
So what to do about it?
I want to answer – to give myself no chance whatsoever to mess up so that I won’t be caught in a mistake and people won’t be disappointed with my work (aka me) – but that’s an awfully small box to put myself in and I actually think it’s impossible so I figure that I’ll just have to ride it out.
Again.
Or maybe I could hit myself on the head so that I lose consciousness for a couple of days until it’s all over and I forget altogether what the hell I was worried about in the first place.
Could work.
But before I try that I thought I’d share the struggle because I know there are a lot of others out there who suffer the same way.
I thought I’d just offer a little tip, but then decided I would go ahead with another quick show and tell on how I make a simple ring – I want to say shank, but am pretty sure that’s not what it’s called and I can’t for the life of me think of another name for it…
Just not that good at words sometimes.
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So first up. The tip.
It’s not a big tip and probably everyone does it, but I used to get frustrated trying to straighten up wire. Don’t laugh.
Wire straightener – riogrande.com #116717
Personally I never use it, but if you want to straighten longer lengths of wire for viking weaving etc., I’m sure it would be pretty handy.
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Now for the ring.
This is just a simply way of making a ring shank. (I just looked it up and I think it might be called a shank after all). There are so many ways to make rings and everyone makes them differently, but I just wanted a simple band (haha! I think I have the word I was looking for. Came naturally when I wasn’t looking…) but with more support because the top of the ring is larger and a single band seems too thin for it. There are different styles also so chances are you won’t want to use this one. But just in case you do and have never made one before…
There is a chart for working out lengths of wire that you need for each particular ring size. I’m just too lazy to bother with it, but if you really want to be economical with your silver you should look at it.
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In this video I have already made the top of the ring as I wasn’t planning on making a show and tell.
As always be warned that I don’t edit but I do make the videos in snippits so you can skip around. If you click on the video it will take you to YouTube, but you’ll have to come back to the blog to watch the next one. The show and tells really are just for beginning jewelry makers that might need a little encouragement so the idea of them being out there in the YouTube universe kind of seems too much.
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Ring mandrel – riogrande.com #112390 – this is a stepped mandrel which would be more accurate.
NOTE: If you use the wire/length chart above be aware that different gauge wire would alter the fit of the ring slightly. If, for instance, the wire is thick the inside diameter of the final band would be smaller so that’s something to be aware of. Also this chart will make a perfect ring shape and I have taken some of that out so you will still cut too much silver for this particular style. If you do cut the wire to the correct length, however, you can hammer the ends and file them down before bending it into the ring shape. Not as fiddly, but I’m often down for fiddly…
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Diamond burs – riogrande.com #346063 – there are lots of different burs of different quality, but this is a cheap starter pack which includes various shapes. Once you’ve figured out which bur you use the most you can invest in more expensive ones.
Silicon polishing wheels – riogrande.com #332579 – again there are lots of different silicon wheels so it’s a matter of experimenting until you find those that work best for you.
Snap on sanding discs – HERE – you will also need the snap on mandrel which you’ll find at the bottom of the page.
Graver – this is a selection of gravers – HERE – I use one with a sharp point to scrape any solder that may have flowed into textured pieces. You’ll find them at riogrande.com also
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O.K. so here’s the thing. My buffing machine should be bolted down onto the table, but I’ve never got around to it. Don’t judge me…
I just haven’t found a spot that I’d like it to stay in and it’s usually o.k. However when I first started out I made the mistake of buffing a length of chain that I was holding too loosely and it whipped around the wheel (and my hand) and as I tried to jump away I pulled the whole thing onto the floor. This is when the knob fell off.
DO NOT DO THIS!!! (I can’t write that loud enough) I’ve stupidly done this twice (maybe three times, but I’m not admitting to anything). It hurts and it could have been a lot worse than it was. Fortunately I only broke the machine, but I nearly took my fingernail off and had to say ouchy ouchy more times than I’d like to tell you when the chain was wrapped around my hand so tightly that I didn’t think I’d be able to get it off especially as my eyes were watering as I tried to use my not so good at cutting left hand.
I can’t stress enough how dangerous the buffing machine can be. My new one, because I think I’m going to have to get another one, will be screwed down. Don’t make me come out there to smack some sense into you as someone should have done to me…
Just sayin’
Black Max – riogrande.com
3m yellow radial discs 80 grit – riogrande.com #326026 – There are different grits for different jobs, but I mainly use this one.
You can buy a selection pack of them if you’d like to experiment with each grit at – riogrande.com #326024
NOTE that I like to use the 7/8 size. You can buy the smaller ones here – riogrande.com #332595
I use this wheel on my buffing machine to finish my piece – riogrande.com #330541
And this is the smaller buff for my handpiece – riogrande.com #338130
This is the link to the new mask I have – HERE – So far I like it and it’s easy to get on and off. It seems to push down on my nose a little which made me sniff in the video, but I think I just need to adjust it more.
NOTE: The fibers from the buffing wheel and the dust from the Black Max will still be in the air when you turn the machine off. Normally I keep my mask on because of this. I do have a dust collector, but it isn’t connected to the buffing machine at the moment because we took it off so that Stephen could whip me up something less cumbersome than the set up I had. He never got back to me which is why I’m seriously considering cutting back on his food rations. With that and the knob situation I’m deciding if it’s really worth keeping him around…
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The video stops on this one as someone called me. Sorry.
It may seem like it in the video, but I’m not sanding an awful lot of the bezel thickness away. I’m just really skimming it over the surface to clean off the Black Max. If you want to try this just be careful to keep an eye on the blue masking tape so that you’re not sanding through it. You could also put two layers of tape over the stone if you’re worried you might damage it.
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And that’s it!
Hopefully it wasn’t too boring. As I said it’s really just to encourage new jewelry makers to have a go. I found rings quite intimidating at first and couldn’t quite figure out the best way to do it.
This is one way to make a simple ring band. Someone else would make it differently and probably far better, but it’s just a beginning and you can go on from there.
Hopefully you’ll be able to see what I’m doing in these videos as the first time I tried to make it for you everything at the end was out of the camera line and so was kind of a non starter 😉
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For this particular chain I’ve used 20 gauge fine silver. (You can use sterling silver, but it might be harder on your fingers). I’ve used a 9mm diameter mandrel to make the jump rings.
I’m pretty sure that I have seen some charts that will tell you which gauge of wire to use with which diameter jump ring to make different sizes of chain, but I haven’t been able to find them yet. If you’re like me, however, good old trial and error works just as well. You can make some test runs with copper first to save messing up with your silver. Your main concern will be to avoid using a diameter ring which is too small for the wire gauge as you want the chain to move well and not be too stiff.
O.K. So…
This time I only focused on making the actual chain and not how to make the jump rings. If you would like me to make a video on how to make and solder the jump rings just let me know
😉
MATERIALS:
For 6″ length of chain
30 x 9mm, 20 Gauge Fine Silver Jump Rings.
Round nose pliers
Awl for jewelry, leather or bookmaking
Draw Plate
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This first video stops abruptly because my son came into the studio. It was kind of irritating, but we did have a nice chat about how I could edit him out…
NOTE: You don’t need to solder fine silver. If you make sure that the two ends of the jump ring are lined up perfectly and there isn’t a gap where you’re going to join them you can slowly and evenly heat the ring until the silver fuses itself. This just needs practice.
LINKS:
Pepe Jump Ring Maker – riogrande.com #110189 – I have the older version of this tool. I really like it as it has a huge number of mandrels to choose from. You don’t need a jump ring maker, however, to make jump rings as you can wrap the wire around a length of dowel or something similar that is the width you’re looking for. Just be sure to wrap the wire as tightly as you can around the mandrel.
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I think the word I was looking for at the end of this video was ‘fluid’, but you get the idea. I haven’t found the need to anneal the chain once I’ve finished it, but perhaps if I used sterling silver I would. It just softens the silver up after you have worked with it so that all of the links move more easily. As I said you have to be careful when you anneal it if you have soldered the joins together because you don’t want the solder to re-melt. This is another good reason to fuse the fine silver instead of soldering.
LINKS:
Draw Plates – HERE – There are many different kinds of draw plates out there, but these are the ones I use. I’m sure for this purpose you could even make your own by drilling holes in a piece of wood.
Awl – HERE – Again there are loads of different needle tools out there. This one seems most like the one I use.
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And that’s it.
The only thing that might put someone off making this chain is that it’s fiddly, but once you get the hang of it it’s a breeze.
There are a few variations on this chain, such as the double Loop in Loop and also a triple one, but I haven’t made either of these yet as I’ve got to build myself up for extra fiddly.
I made a video on how to make the Link in Link chain for you, but right at the end, right at the crucial part where all the important stuff happens, I move my hands out of the camera view and you can’t see any of the good bits.
Here I’ve used two 3″ lengths of the Link in Link chain to make up this Mexican Fire Opal bracelet.
So a remake of the video is now on my to do list as it’s a really simple chain which you might like to have a go at making yourself. It’s fiddly, but once you get it down there’s nothing to it.
Just a note here on the videos I make.
I’m by no means an expert, but I don’t mind sharing how I make things with you. If you ever see something I’ve made and would like a, ‘behind the scenes’, just let me know. I’m not very good at making the videos. I can’t be bothered to delve into the tech depths of editing for instance, I’ve too many other things I’d rather be doing. So what I do in real time is what you get, so to speak, including all of my mistakes. And I do make mistakes which is annoying as oftentimes it’s just because I’m being lazy or not paying attention or I simply don’t really know what I’m doing and I’m making it up as I go along, but I think mistakes can also be good to share as it’s encouraging to see the ‘real’ stuff going down.
Well that’s my story anyway.
😉
I also get very bored, very easily and don’t know what to do next so a video challenge gives me something to do.
Except for when I’m depressed then we ain’t getting nothing.
But the sofa sees a lot of action.
I get depressed a lot.
Just one of those things.
I’m also a bit all or nothing. I’m either going full steam and don’t lift my head up, or at a full stop wondering what the point of it all is.
You know how it is…
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In other news. I went to the MFAH the other day to see the Royal Family which I really enjoyed. Well I enjoyed the Tudors and the Windsors. I didn’t care for the Stuart and Hanover paintings. Too wafty for me. I like the meat of the Holbeins.
I mean look at Anne with her lovely long neck.
I love the simplicity of this style of painting.
Unlike this style.
Which is a little too frivolous for me. I also don’t like all of the space around it.
Brilliant painting though.
He is George III. Mad King George. The one we got rid of in the U.S.
And here is Charlotte, his Queen, and interestingly enough the first black queen.
I didn’t know that.
Anyway. Back to the Tudors.
Lady Jane Grey.
What a tragedy.
Below is one of my favourite paintings of her in the exhibit.
According to the nice man on the audio tape it apparently was thought lost, destroyed in a flood, but was unexpectedly discovered rolled inside another painting years later in London with extensive water damage. It’s amazing how they were able to restore it.
You have to stand in front of it to feel the awfulness of it.
It was one of the only paintings in the exhibit that I felt compelled to go back to several times.
Then, of course, there was good old Henry himself.
Which was fantastical
🙂
Although this has to be my favourite.
I have to include one of the Earl of Essex of course because that where I come from.
He definitely looks like he knows how to get things done.
Thomas Cromwell
Of course he ended up with his head on the block.
And then there were the Windsors.
My people.
The Andy Warhol.
The Princess Di.
And this, my favourite, of the Queen.
I know. I know. Not quite her most flattering, but it was marvelous.
The one I stood in front of was the blue hologram (below) which doesn’t translate well from my photograph so I found you a decent one online.
It was mesmerizing. Almost magical.
Strange, but true…
Of course no good visit to the MFAH should end without a quickie to the African gold room.
A looksee at the wonderful little these things.
And a finish off in the what the hell happened in here room.
They make my rather large and peculiar butterfly necklace look rather mundane…
I’ve made these on and off over the years and thought I’d share with you how I make them if you’d like to give one a try.
So.
Same disclaimer as always.
I’m not a professional.
I don’t endorse any tools or materials, but just let you know what I use.
And last but not least.
I will deny any responsibility for your getting annoyed at the video in a court of law.
Moving on…
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I am definitely a make it and figure it out as I go along sort of person. I also forget from one minute to the next what I’m doing. Usually I’m not showing anyone else so I can generally get away with it 😉
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I like to put a design on the back of the pieces I make because I think it looks nicer if the necklace turns while someone is wearing it. It also serves the purpose of being able to work the stone out of the bezel setting when I’m making it and for releasing hot air when soldering.
NOTE: I soldered the box edges (the bezel wire) onto a piece of silver. I’m showing you on this larger piece of silver, but I had cut a smaller piece before I soldered the box sides on.
NOTE: Making sure that the flow of silver is continuous on the outside of the bezel wall is relevant to any bezel making. When I first started to make jewelry I used to be disappointed when I could see little pits along the outside of the setting. It took me a while to realize that if I took a little time to make sure I could see a continuous line when the solder flowed to the outside edge my finished pieces would look far better. You can help the solder flow by using your pick to spread it evenly or, if this doesn’t work, it might be that you haven’t enough solder and need to add just a little more. Even if it looks great on the inside it can still be pitted on the outside.
If you find that you need to cut down a piece of bezel wire that is too high for the stone and you have already soldered it onto the silver backing you can mark the sides with a sharpie, adjust a pair of dividers to the amount you want to cut away, and then run the point of the dividers around the bottom of the bezel wire. This leaves a fine line that you can use as a guide to file, or sand, the excess away. To make sure that you have the edge completely flat you can finish it up by then marking the bottom with a sharpie and sanding it in a figure of eight motion on a flat piece of sand paper until all of the sharpie has gone.
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I was trying to focus the camera closer to the work and so it doesn’t show that I’m just picking up small pieces of solder with my pick and bringing them back to the small cutouts.
Solder will stick to the end of the pick If you heat up the pick and ball up small pieces of solder at the same time. They have to both be hot. Then you can bring your pick back to whatever you’re working on.
I do the same thing when I’m soldering a ball into place except I replace the pick with the ball. I pick the ball up with a pair of long tweezers and take it over to the solder. The ball is thicker and more solid than the small pieces of solder so the ball has to be heated more before the solder will stick to its bottom. Then you can take the ball back over to the piece you’re working on. If the back plate is as hot as the ball, the ball should solder onto the plate with no trouble. If the plate is not hot enough the solder may come up over the ball. The temperatures have to be the same with anything you’re soldering and you have to bear in mind that each piece, due to its size and thickness, will take different amounts of heat to attain this. Only when both pieces are the same temperature can the solder join them.
I often shield a piece I’m working on with my hands to double check that I’ve got the pieces in the right position for soldering. If the light source is coming from one direction it can be deceptive.
If you’re looking for a shiny surface in the finished piece, obviously you wouldn’t sand the silver as I do. I like a more matt, buffed, look and so this doesn’t affect the finished piece.
You won’t always need to put a stopper inside the box. It just depends on the fit of the stone.
You have to look around the web for the Wolverine Ultra Silver Brazing Flux as it seems to vary in price and availability. I use mine by putting a small amount of it in a smaller jar and mixing it with distilled water until it’s fairly runny. Even though I keep a lid on it the water evaporates out of this very quickly so each time I open it I have to add more water. This seems to work well for me though.
Soldering pegs – I can’t find where the pegs are sold separately, but you can find some here – riogrande.com – #111039
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TIP: Unless you like living on the edge as I do you might want to measure the height of your prongs first 😉
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It would have been easier for me in the long run if I’d made up my mind about the small pieces of balled wire that I added at the end before I soldered the box onto the back plate. It’s not a problem to add things afterward, but whenever you solder anything onto a piece after you have added the prongs you have to be very careful not to re-melt the prong solder. I just kept the flame away from that area and kept a good eye on it, but you can coat the areas that you don’t want to be affected with that yellow oxide powder that I used in a previous show and tell. I just forgot about it – again… (riogrande.com – #504080)
As it was I cut the wire to the correct height and held them in place with tweezers using the same technique as with the prongs.
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And some older work using the box.
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Next up I’m thinking of making some more of these if you’re interested in another show and tell.
As you probably know by now my video skills leave a lot to be desired. I had wanted to make a, ‘why don’t you make one along with me’, video of the Cheetah Jasper necklace, but what with the glare and the constant fumbling around for my grown up words and then forgetting to explain what I’m doing I have decided that really this is just a show and tell.
If you are able to make anything of it that helps with your own jewelry making I congratulate you 🙂
NOTES AND LINKS:
Indian Jewelry Supply not Art Supply, but I’m not sure if they’re around anymore.
Turned out to be no dilemma at all as I only had 23 gauge anyway 🙂
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I use an acetylene/air torch and mostly pick solder.
Here I’m using the little silver balls to pick the solder up instead of my pick. I pick the ball up in my tweezers and take it to a pile of solder chips I have laying on my brick. I heat a little piece of the solder which then attaches itself to the bottom of the ball. I keep it heated as I move it back toward the leaf.
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I mainly put the little hammered balls under the pieces that make up the bottom layer. I do this to bring the pattern up off the back plate to give it some dimension. As I build the picture up I don’t use as many balls but instead lay pieces where I think they will best suit the design.
I generally have all of the solder ready to go on the bottom of each piece.
As I said, I’ll try to figure out a good way to video the process without the glare and try to show you how it all comes together on another piece.
I was going to write about my New Year’s Intention to work on protecting my boundaries without feeling guilty and how Joe from Little Women is my new, just be yourself, hero.
I was also going to tell you about the face rash I developed the week before I was due to fly to England for Christmas which I thought was shingles and which I just knew would prevent me from getting onto the airplane due to being infectious to pregnant women and children and how I would have to stay home alone to suffer my own sad and lonely holiday, but which simply turned out to be an allergic reaction to hugging a friend.
I was also going to tell you about how I’ve fallen three times since August due to not paying enough attention to where I’m placing my feet and how the third time I fell, on Boxing Day, although it seemed that I barely touched the floor with my knee, it resulted in a bruise to end all bruises which has systematically migrated from the tip of my left kneecap down to cover the whole of the front of my shin and which is, even now, moving around to the side of my leg and down to my ankle.
I was also going to tell you that Christmas was good albeit especially cold on the one day we chose to spend in London drinking cocktails in the Ice Bar (because why not spend 45 minutes in a room even colder than the already bitter outside) and taking the Jack the Ripper tour well into the dark, bitter evening. And how I was disappointed with the tour because I, and I think most everybody alive today, already knows the ins and outs and the hows, whos and whys of this particular serial killer and as most of the sites the guide took us to are now either modern office buildings or parts of London which did nothing to call up the horrors of the day we could have happily sat with the guide in a warm pub drinking beer as he pointed to the pertinent locations on a map. All I could think about the day after were the poor half frozen to death prostitutes waiting for tricks on dark miserable corners with nothing but the prospect of getting drunk silly on gin and orange to keep them warm. Which reminds me to look up the months that the murders took place as the idea of a knife piercing already bone-chillingly numb skin seems somehow worse than if the murders took place in the summer months.
Just me?
I could also tell you how my daughters boyfriend approached me ONE week before we all left for London and asked me to help him make her an engagement ring. Of course he had zero experience and had never made a piece of jewelry before and I had never made a prong setting, but we did it in spite of, or maybe because of, the fact that I told him every inch of the way that he wouldn’t be able to do it. A somewhat new approach for me from the encouragement I normally give my kids.
He did good
🙂
But then I decided to not tell you about any of this, but instead just wish you all a Happy New Year
This is my first video series and it’s been a bit of a learning curve to understand YouTube and what I wanted from it when I uploaded my videos on there so I thought I’d just give a quick explanation of my thinking here.
When I made the videos I knew there’d be some extra notes that I’d want to include as I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to talk and make the piece at the same time. I think I did pretty well with most of them, but there are one or two which I felt needed a little further explanation.
Also I’ve included a lot of links to the materials I’ve used etc. for those who would like to know and there are no notes for any of this on YouTube.
To be honest, the idea of anyone being able to watch this on YouTube worried me a little bit also. You guys may know how I muddle through and perhaps forgive me for it, but there’s a lot of stranger danger out there in the grown up world.
I’m hoping this will work out, but just let me know if you have any trouble.
Well a couple of weeks shy, and I’m finally beginning to sort myself out.
Now I know why the Victorians had the whole black thing going on.
It’s like a code for, Back off, I’m not quite right and might explode at any time.
Tell me, would you approach this woman thinking things are all happy and rosy?
Apparently, as you can see by her jewels, she’s only in half mourning.
According to the rules it’s just nothing but black for two and a half years after which then, and only then, you might add a little trinket to lighten things up a bit.
Of course Vicki had the whole thing down pat.
Even the dog was in on the game.
I just happen to be watching Victoria on PBS right now.
It’s always a shock to see the real face of Victoria after seeing her on t.v.
Almost an exact likeness except for the nose I think…
The same thing happened with Henry.
Must have just caught him in bad lighting.
Anyway, suffice to say, I’m feeling a lot better about the whole dad dying thing except for being a bit pissed off.
I find myself happily plodding away in the studio when suddenly I remember that he’s dead and spontaneously snap at him for being so inconsiderate.
Sometimes swear words are involved and I’m not sorry about them either because I’m generally just pretty ticked off by the whole thing.
On the whole I have to say I’m happier with this stage of the grieving however.
It feels more productive.
But I just wanted to share with you some goodies I bought for myself today.
Could these be my little coming out of mourning trinkets I ask myself?
Would they look a little strange hanging round my neck?
Think I’ll just stick with using them for succulents and tea, however, otherwise the people in the grocery store might really think I’ve lost the plot and could explode at any time.
Wouldn’t want any trouble around the egg plants now would we…
As those of you that read my blog know, I’ve kind of lost my way since my dad died, but I don’t want to give up just yet.
My trip home was good.
I only had a cry three times, including one where my sister lovingly tossed me a used tissue.
Bless her.
Probably why I’ve got the lurgy now.
I’ve come home with a sore throat, cough and achy parts.
Thank you K.
I ate all of the food on my list except for the pie and mash, fish and chips, and the pint of bitter.
So much food, not enough time.
The flights were awful. The most uncomfortable I’ve flown for a long while and took for ever. We did make it there and back in one piece, however, so I’m grateful for that.
I wasn’t as cold there as I expected, which is unusual for someone who usually curls up in a corner with a blanket and doesn’t come out again until all the heaters are turned up high.
In fact, at times it was just as cold here in Houston as it was in England.
We stayed at my brother-in-law’s house which is an old converted barn.
Actually I think it was the pig sty as the large barn is to one side.
I started a painting of their house before we left, but I just can’t get those pesky oil pastels to dry.
They’ll probably get it two years from now.
Our bedroom was behind the larger window in the roof, above the kitchen door.
The house has the original brick floors and some brick walls, but I really only had to curl up once.
Probably the red wine helped.
I’m thinking of painting the barn opposite also.
But not the big black barn.
It’s just all barn and windows.
Nice, but a bit boring.
This is the entrance coming into the old farm.
Before Christmas I made quite a few pieces which I shared on Instagram, but only got into the studio for the first time yesterday.
A friend wanted a piece with topaz and amethyst, but it was hard for me to find anything that I liked.
In the end I found these.
And this is where K and her used tissue comes in.
Usually I’m pretty good at replicating one of my drawings. In fact it always surprises me, but this time.
Well…
Don’t even talk to me about it.
So today I’m off out to get my hair cut, which always makes me feel better, and then I’m boycotting the studio until I feel better.
I’m going to sit on the sofa and switch off BBC and put on some old film.
An old black and white Barbara Stanwyck movie is my preferred choice, but I doubt I’ll be able to find one.
I gave it a smiley face there because I’m really happy that I’m going home to see my family, but even as I write this I can feel the anxiety tingling away in my chest having a party all on its own.
Big chicken when it comes to flying.
Big melodramatic chicken.
I’ve spent this week saying goodbye to all of my stuff. Slowly at first, but with more sadness yesterday and today.
(Did I mention the melodramatic part?)
That said and done I think it will be good for me to get out of dodge for a while. I’m ready for something to break up the vacuum of stuckness this year has hanging over it.
So yah for me.
(Still nervous)
On the upside.
Sausages in a crusty roll with Daddy’s sauce.
Pork Pies
Fish and Chips
Beef Pie
And last, but not least, I’m determined to have a dish from my childhood.
Pie and Mash with lots of liquor – and I don’t mean the alcoholic kind…
lum
All washed down with a pint of bitter.
Hey. If it was good enough for the Queen Mum it’s good enough for me…
So if I don’t come home fatter than I’ve ever been in my whole life, something has gone terribly wrong.
Might have to have the old arteries checked out also.
Best wishes and let it be a really good Happy New Year to everyone.
I’m just up and it’s midday. I keep telling myself, don’t think about it girl, just put your feet on the floor and straighten them knees up, but as I always over think everything I’m still waiting for that to work.
And then, when I’m finally up and remarkably find myself in the shower, I’m even more fed up because then I’m all wet and can’t be bothered to get out.
Also what’s not been happening is getting out and about in the real world, although that’s never bothered me much. Once I’m out it’s like, wow, so this is what civilization looks like, but once the initial surprise is over that’s it really.
And the blog.
What can I say, except that’s it exactly.
What can I say?
I’m boring myself to death in a dense pit of gunk so why bring everyone else down?
But every so often I feel that I need to at least write something. It’s like we had this thing going on and I’ve just walked off and not looked back.
I do think about everyone.
As I dragged myself through the post shower drying process this morning I even thought how nice it would be to go to Peru with Gale and eat guinea pigs! But then I thought of poor Guiness and how he’d be turning over in his little grave at the thought and how thankful he must be that he just died of a respiratory infection and not because he had been roasted alive in some charcoal pit in South America.
It’s nice to travel, but I guess you have to think about these things…
And I’m really worried about Cecilia all alone in South Africa going off on those safaris. Haven’t heard from her in ages.
So that’s me.
Still here.
Still crying over dad.
I mean, not always, but just enough sadness to suddenly be brought up short and go through the whole thing again in my head. You know, like how he had just fallen over and wasn’t really dead at all, but then they went ahead and cremated him anyway, even though he had three weeks in between where he could have jumped up and shouted ‘surprise’, so in actual fact the crematorium killed him and it all could have been prevented.
You know, the normal thoughts…
Well normal if you’ve got this low lying depression going on with a touch, just a touch, of psychosis.
I have been getting into the studio as some of you might already know because of Instagram. I’ve also had a few custom orders which always surprises me, and have sold quite a lot really. So that’s nice. It just takes me longer and longer to get in there.
I’m going in there after this although really I just want to sit on the sofa and close my eyes.
Grief is an awful thing, and guilt, because my sister is left in England finishing up all of the paper work and what else is required when someone dies.
And she still has dad under the stairs although she says that’s o.k. as she lets him know the soccer results every time she needs to get the vacuum out.
So just in case I’ve managed to bring anyone down into my gunk pit here’s one of my favourite Christmas jokes to cheer you up.
As I come to think about my blog and all the friends I’ve met through it, I find that I can’t quite ignore the bad feelings that have exploded leading up to this election.
I’m not completely sure what has happened to us all.
I’ve found myself caught up in my own fair share of Facebook propaganda and yet have been surprised when I come across some pretty aggressive comments between people whom I’m sure are strangers to each other and yet believe are otherwise friendly and accepting . One time I even came across a remarkable post linking Clinton to child sacrifice and blood drinking satanic rituals, but as I’m desperately hoping that the people who believe these things are now safely back to their right minds I’m left wondering how it is that we have become so outraged by differences of opinion.
It’s like The Stanford Prison Experiment, but on steroids.
When all is said and done, however, I refuse to lose any of my friends because of the intense negativity of this election.
I’ve decided to remove myself from FB for the time being, except for sharing my jewelry, and I’m also going to try to turn off the news for a while as we seem to be living in a world hell bent on destroying itself and the hatred and anger is becoming overwhelming to me.
You won’t hear my thoughts on the election on this blog, that’s not what I come here for, and I hope that those who have found they differ from my posts on FB will feel safe knowing that I respect their beliefs as much as I do my own.
I’ve mostly been doing custom orders which is kind of nice in that terrifying kind of way.
First there was this one which I made using the customers own stone.
And then a ring, again using the customers stone
And finally one with yet another customers stone.
This last one was hard for me as the stone was huge and very thick and was also bevelled on both sides.
When I took it on I thought it was a regular flat backed cabochon which would have been easier to set, but with the back undercut as well I had to spend a lot of time fiddling around with it to make it sit well in the setting. As a consequence I used a lot more silver than expected. This is actually the second attempt so there was a whole bunch of silver that had to be scraped before I even got to this point.
The lady wanted bees and honeycombs to complement the stone.
To be honest I didn’t like it at all.
Not the stone, nor the design and I know that if I were a better jewelry maker it wouldn’t have been a problem.
When I showed the lady she said that I was close, that if I just took all of the silver off and put a couple of bees in the corner I would have it.
On top of that I had set the stone bottom up as the carving was supposed to be on the underneath.
I felt really awful.
🙁
I didn’t blame her as to me it was always a horrible piece, but I just couldn’t bear to do it a third time so I finally apologized to her and returned the stone.
I think perhaps now I can’t do anymore custom orders because I hate disappointing people.
I tried to like the challenge of working through the piece, however, I wasted a hell of a lot of silver which I have since melted down, but it means a lot of work rolling it out again. I did figure out a lot of things through trial and error, but really I didn’t enjoy it at all and think it ended up with all my bad energy in it.
Even looking at its photo gives me a bad feeling so I’m pleased it doesn’t exist anymore.
If the lady is reading this I’m sorry.
I tried.
Then another custom order with a stone I cut myself this time.
Although one of its ball fell off.
Man!
After that I gave up jewelry.
Again.
Fortunately I forgot that I’d given it up fairly soon and decided to make a couple of pieces with some more stones I’d cut myself.
I didn’t cut this one below, but it’s definitely one of my favourite stones.
Nor did I cut these ones, but I am definitely working on never buying another cabochon again.
Yeah, right!
Here are some of the other stones I cut.
Such a proud stone mamma lol
And here is what I worked on yesterday and which I’m going to have to fix today
Call it OCD or what you will, but that left hand leaf is just going to have to go which means heating it off and putting a new one on. Which also means that I’ll probably have to reset the prongs again as they’ll most likely come off as well.
Jeez.
Then I think I’m going to try to stick to some simpler things.
Like the bangle below.
Why do I always have to make things so complicated for myself.
🙁
One day I’m going to make something that doesn’t have bits falling off it when I do the final polish.
Like just the other day around 55 years ago I was just starting on it, and now I’m still just starting on it.
I have an on again off again relationship with making a go of it.
It being whatever I think I’d like to be when I grow up.
I went to art school after school because a teacher told me I should and I didn’t know what else to do.
Two years foundation course and three years for my degree in Sculpture of all things.
I had a bit of a hard time telling mum about that little chestnut.
She thought I’d signed up for painting and didn’t know what the hell I’d be able to do with a Sculpture degree.
I wondered what she thought I’d do with a painting degree.
Paint houses and garden fences?
After art school I worked in London.
Reality hit me in my last year of school and I spent some evenings copying text from Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake to teach myself how to type on an old manual typewriter that I picked up from somewhere or other.
Not good on the fingers let me tell you.
Anyway, after a few disastrous interviews that the temp agency sent me on, like the one at the Bank of America in London where I not only had to sit in a little room, along with I don’t know how many other applicants for the one job, to do a maths exam, after explicitly telling the temp agency that I did not want a job which had anything remotely, at all, whatsoever to do with numbers of any kind, even my favourite ones, but I also had to go on to name all of the capitals of all of the countries in all of the whole darn world for heaven sakes.
Really!
Didn’t get that job by the way.
Canberra tripped me right up.
I then had an interview at a film studio. I think it was Twickenham Film Studios, but I can’t remember because it was a thousand years ago now. They opened a door to let me in and I swear I’ve never walked inside such a rambling confusion of stairways and corridors in my life. The place was so huge that if I actually got the job I didn’t think I’d ever get out alive. They would find my skeletal remains five years after I’d starved to death in some grimy corner of an abandoned stairwell the first time I was sent out to the coffee machine.
Fortunately I didn’t get that job either.
I eventually got a job in a large accountancy firm, (I know. Numbers. That temp woman never did get it right) called Arthur Young McClelland Moore, and although I didn’t last a month upstairs in the pencil ordering department because I was apparently too shy when it came to talking with suppliers, I wheedled my too shy self into a job downstairs in the graphics department where I ended up manually cutting and pasting type for brochures and booklets and the like and even got to draw overhead projection slides.
Go me.
Then we moved to Malaysia, and so, after my two whole years of working in London for a living, I had to quit to follow P into the oil and gas insurance biz.
So that’s me.
After Malaysia came America, where 27 years ago I was assured by the said oil and gas insurance guy we would only live for two years, and then kids. Three of them. All wanting to live in the same house as me.
Somehow my life just drifted by.
I tell you this because I feel I’m in some kind of almost land right now.
I’m almost back to blogging.
I’m almost over crying about dad.
Except yesterday my sister told me that a large old black lady came by dad’s house this weekend when my brother-in-law was there, thankful to be able to tell someone how much she was sorry about the old man who had lived there as he used to always carry her bags for her when he saw her coming down the street.
Strangers strangers everywhere making me cry again.
And laugh because who knew there were so many of them out there. They mostly only knew him as the man with the dog, but still needed to come up to tell us how much they liked him and how sorry they were to hear that he died.
So yesterday I bought a domain name and worked on a new site.
Just for kicks perhaps. But I think because I also liked him.
A lot.
It’s not open yet and perhaps it never will be as I’ve got Cold Feet, but who knows.
Maybe it will remind me that this is all I ever needed to be be when I grow up.
By the way, the first paragraph of Titus Groan is one of my all time favourites.
‘Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls. They sprawled over the sloping earth, each one half way over its neighbour until, held back by the castle ramparts, the innermost of these hovels laid hold on the great walls, clamping themselves thereto like limpets to a rock. These dwellings, by ancient law, were granted this chill intimacy with the stronghold that loomed above them. Over their irregular roofs would fall throughout the seasons, the shadows of time-eaten buttresses, of broken and lofty turrets, and, most enormous of all, the shadow of the Tower of Flints. This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. At night the owls made of it an echoing throat; by day it stood voiceless and cast its long shadow.’
I persevered through the Houston heat and that one bizarre time when at the same time of year I nearly froze to death it was that cold.
Honest I did.
But yesterday even the good ol’ Texan boys were complaining.
Grown men moaning about the heat.
And I was with them.
I’ve never been so overheated in my life.
I wasn’t just sweating, it was coming off me in planes.
Sheets of wet sliding off my face.
My face looked like a wet rhubarb and I gave up on trying to keep what little make up I wear on my face.
Just wern’t ‘apning.
I had to go au natural, which actually wasn’t natural at all because no one looks the way I did yesterday.
Ever.
Oh I checked it out alright.
I looked at every last vendor there and no one looked as much like a wet fish as I did.
And I bet you no one had to change their clothes three times!
It was bad enough at the beginning after setting up, but then it rained. Not a lot, but just enough to make the humidity virtually unbearable in the hour or two afterward.
We can’t have a good old cool down after a sprinkle can we.
No, Houston has to turn into the hothouse of hell.
It did let up later in the afternoon until the thunderclouds decided to roll on in.
Fortunately, (or not), they did seem to pass either side of us. I say not because at that point I was actually praying for a catastrophic storm, or even a small earthquake really, that would mean we’d have to go home.
Not one to abandon ship at an art fair, because that’s just not cricket is it, I was at one point seriously considering emailing the show organizer and telling her that my leg had just fallen off and that I had to leave. Sorry.
I trooped on though and have now vowed that it was my last.
I had four sales including the one from the friend who helped me with the booth.
This morning I still can hardly walk.
I’m telling you.
I almost died out there.
As I was in the shower later that night I tried to turn my misery around and thought about all the people in Syria and Yemen and how they must feel just living day to day in awful conditions with oftentimes no water or food to boot.
It made me feel a little ashamed that I couldn’t make one day without completely falling apart and so I determined to continue to make my jewelry for them as it’s the least I can do.
Although not at art fairs unless I can find a good one in Houston that’s indoors for heaven’s sake.
For the love of god, are the people who live here even aware that it’s completely abnormal to even consider outside activities in 90 degree heat with 90% humidity!
And I was one of them, but I’ve come to my senses at last and not a minute too soon.
Before yesterday I was even considering applying to the three day Bayou Festival they hold here twice a year.
As I write to you on this fine morning I admit to having just deleted the FOUR new games I gave in to midway through this week.
Shame on me.
But it did bring home to me more than ever the fact that this addiction to wasting my precious time is wasting my precious time.
I was reading again.
I was like almost finished with the book I’ve been reading for over a year now.
And then – nothing.
A black hole of word games sucked my life into a mindless funnel toward zombie land and I was gone again.
But now I’m back.
Until the next slip.
Not going to happen.
Maybe.
Despite the relapse I’ve had a fairly productive week and I sold quite a few things.
I’m now over $60,000 for charity which although amazing seems to have had no impact whatsoever on saving the world.
Man.
Can you say disappointed or what!
But, kidding aside, I do want to thank everyone who has bought a piece of jewelry from me.
🙂
The new lovelies this week are.
A pair of earrings with beautiful purple Luna Agate stones.
This shop is expensive, but I just can’t resist the stones there. It’s sometimes hard to use them as they make the jewelry so much more expensive.
This Ocean Jasper was from there also.
And here’s its back.
Then I made another one of these for someone using one of my new favourite stones.
Rare Purple Chalcedony.
And this one with a piece of Carnelian that I cut myself
😉
Next up I’d always wanted to make something with one of these dentritic stones.
It came all the way from India. I prefer not to buy from outside the US, but look at it
🙂
And then I fiddled once more with this piece which has been giving me some trouble with its stone choice.
I think finally I’m happy with it.
I also made a couple of chains, some simple silver earrings, and cleaned up my work table to the point where I’m shocked whenever I go into the studio and see it again.
Simple joys.
🙂
I’m still having trouble avoiding purchasing stones, but look at this
And this.
Seriously.
I had to have them.
No hope for the wicked as my old mum used to say….
Just as a side note those are not my fingers. He seems to have cut the top off of one of them, something to look out for when cutting my own stones perhaps…
And on a completely different topic.
Just look at our orange tree!
We bought it last year and I forgot what it was. I picked one thinking it was a lime and cut it open. Wow. The combination of the gorgeous green outside colour to the vivid orange inside was incredible.
O.K. so I didn’t actually know Charles Dickens, but I’m pretty sure I spotted him in the street that one time in my other life.
Think it was him, those Victorians look all the same to me…
So today, rather than wallow which I’m apt to do, I finally decided to implement Stage One of the rest of my life.
I think it will be somewhat easy with mostly difficult spells so sounds simple enough…
First up I have deleted all of the games I have on my phone. A huge beginning of which I’m immensely proud.
Of course it’s only been two hours, but I’ve only missed them once so far so I think it’s going well.
As a consequence I’m up and out of bed literally 45 minutes earlier that usual. This could change of course as I haven’t yet banished the computer from the bedroom.
Small steps…
I decided to launch Stage One as I’ve been having a really hard time with the death of my dad. It’s kind of taken me by surprise as I wasn’t so bad when my mum died.
Feel a bit guilty about that.
🙁
Maybe it’s because of this that for a while now I’ve been aware that my life has become rather middle-aged and flabby and It feels as though I’m living in a static world of nothing much in particular, so I think now is a good time to either make my move or forever hold my peace.
And so the first step toward my Brave New World, (didn’t know Huxley either which is probably a good thing as he’s a bit too intense for me in that extremely negative yet prophetic way of his) was to banish the phone games.
I feel rather liberated…
And now, with all my free time, I’m going to find some more positive things to waste my time with.
It’s nice here, it is, but I just don’t want to go out fishing on a bay in which you can’t see nuttin’ but water.
It’s just not my cup of tea.
Talking of which I must have had somewhere in the region of five billion cups in the five days we’ve been here.
I’m kind of all tea’d out now.
Might have to take to vodka…
So I don’t mind really because P doesn’t get much time to relax and he loves fishing and I get to play all day when I’m at home so it seems only fair.
Except I just can’t get down to anything.
I’ve brought my oil pastels, my sewing stuff and the book I’ve been reading for a year now, and I just can’t seem to get in the right frame of mind to do any of it.
I’ve taken to watching Lifetime movies, that’s how bad it is.
Might put one on in a moment.
Here’s all I’ve done so far.
A vase of flowers. Half finished.
And a half hearted drawing.
I’d started this one at home and brought it with me, but I can’t even be bothered to finish this one either.
It seems that I will talk with anyone, and actually I do, but really I’m a scaredy cat who frets until I’m there and doing it.
Then I’m like.
Who are you? And what did you do with Deborah?
But not in that, Be gone from me Satan way.
In a good way.
I almost left the page, then I thought Do It! And so I did it.
It still makes my heart skip a little, but I’m sure there are worse things I’ll encounter.
Like my next trip to the dentist.
I also thought that as I’m pretty good at watching a video and picking things up through trial and error that perhaps I should save my money, but I think I really want to go mingle with like-minded people and see what happens.
Can’t be a hermit forever.
In other news.
The tank is back baby!
This is the old one going home to his empty friends
Doesn’t help calm the nerves that they put that bright red sticker on it.
And here is it’s replacement.
Looking a little lost with his clown nose.
Anyway he soon got right to it and we made a couple more necklaces.
It’s like my old nan used to say.
The back should be as good as the front.
Could do with a little more work under that second leaf on the right though…
Yesterday I ruined my painting.
This is it started.
I haven’t got a photo of it ruined as my darn phone keeps telling me that I have no storage.
It never used to have this problem so I think it’s all just a dastardly plan to get me to buy a new one.
They think I don’t know about their dirty tricks.
It’ll probably work though…
And now I’m off to Austin to visit B, my eldest.
We are going to have a weekend of watching movies, doing some stitching,
I’ve still not finished this.
Or this.
And just hanging out.
And so I leave you with a Rumi quote.
Not really into all that touchy feely stuff, but this one kind of makes me feel very centered.
When the gauge gets down to around 4 on the regulator thingy I start to get anxious.
The inevitability of having to drive that bottle down to the shop one more time and bring back a full one starts to weigh on my mind and every time I light the thing up I know I’m just a little bit closer to the end of the world.
D day awaits me tomorrow.
I’d have it delivered if it wasn’t for the fact that I live in the Stepford Wive’s neighborhood.
They’d probably have a committee meeting to throw me out if they knew the goings on in the studio.
I think I’m safe though as I’m pretty sure they think I’m the house cleaner.
So today I could paint. I could make some non soldered pieces – I’d like to brush up on the old cold connections and work on some riveting.
I could clean the house.
I think, however, it’s going to have to be the cinema.
Bourne has been waiting for me and I hate to disappoint him.
Yesterday we went to the Summer Chills here in Houston to see Agatha Christie’s, The Spider’s Web.
I love going to the theatre, and I especially love it now as we make a point to go see these summer murder mysteries with all the family.
It’s become a tradition.
Except S hasn’t been around for a while.
He sayyys he’s working in his namesake town, Stephensville, but how likely is that.
I personally think he’s been kidnapped into slavery again.
Or he’s working undercover to throw down some huge drug ring in the middle of Texas.
Negotiations have obviously been thwarted if it is abduction, however, as first he was to come home the end of July, now he’s to stay there through September.
They let him answer his phone occasionally so that’s kind of them. Most of the time though we don’t hear a peep out of him.
Kidnappers can be so inconsiderate like that.
Here’s his picture so if you see him would you alert the authorities.
Although he’s grown a bit since then.
Like 20 odd years, but I’m sure you be able to pick him out in a crowd…
I haven’t done much since we last met. I made the simple things a simple bracelet.
I’m quite pleased with the simple things except they take me ages to make as I’ve to cut each piece out individually.
I started on another oil pastel painting.
I’ve decided to call these paintings Happy Art, because they’re not really real art, but make me happy.
I should have known something was up when it took me five years yesterday to solder two caps onto the ends of some wire.
I should have walked away then.
But no.
I had to persevere didn’t I.
I had to finally, after hours of fiddling around and trying again and again, finish the piece and decide to buff it.
Didn’t I.
One rotation, that’s all it took, one rotation of the buff and the same mood that had obviously been lurking around during the whole time I was making the darn thing, and that was it.
The wire wrapped at least twice around my hand, if not more, so tightly that it’s a wonder it didn’t rip my finger off. Fortunately for me, (well more than fortunate really), the wire snapped. All three strands of 18 gauge half-hard silver wire. Otherwise I don’t know what would have happened.
That’s how much it had twisted around my hand.
Twice around my hand and then spiraling off when it couldn’t go around anymore into a mass of twisted wire before snapping.
It hurt.
Please.
Please!
Always use the buffing machine with care and your full attention, and don’t use it on things that it’s not meant for. Like chain or wire.
The dent in my fore finger was so deep I didn’t think it would ever go back to normal, and with a bruise on my pinky and a gouge out of the underside of my forefinger, I consider myself to be extremely lucky.
For a minute I didn’t think I was going to be able to cut it off with the snippers in my left hand and all I could think about was tiny baby toes getting wrapped up with a thread from their blankets, rotting, and falling off.
I know.
Don’t ask.
But it was fine. I had a little cry, because right now it’s all just piling up, and turned the buffer off and shut down the studio for the day.
Should have done that right at the beginning.
Today’s not much better. I don’t seem to be able to get myself moving and it’s taking me ages to do anything.
I know why. My sister sold dad’s car and we made the decision to sell his house also. I was doing o.k., but then smacked into emotions about the house that I didn’t know were there.
And then P had a birthday and dad’s was always the first card to arrive.
It had to happen, and will happen again. This year will be a first for everything.
Just putting it out there.
But I was happy with the pieces I’ve made, which most of you have probably seen on Instagram or Facebook.
It’s like I have no surprises any more 😉
First up the Carnelian.
I broke the stone I made it for so had to cut another.
Looks like a jelly bean doesn’t it.
Then there was the chrysoprase.
A bit blurry.
Sorry.
Then I used up some more of my scraps using the blob of silver I’d heated and rolled and heated and rolled till my arm almost fell off.
I quite like these and am making a bracelet to go with them now, but due to The Mood it’ll probably take another five years before it’s finished.
Next I made a little something for somebody.
I quite like the rustic look of this one and might try it again.
Then I bought some lovely East Java Purple Chalcedony off of Shirl and Bruce and made this little one.
Designs by Shirl is one of my go to cab shops. They’ve always got some interesting things going on.
Then there was the quartz.
The piece for which I almost lost my finger.
And its friend.
Who was much more well behaved.
I like this one as the back of the stone is a pyramid (I’m sure there’s a term for that) and so it juts out slightly from the hole I cut in the back.
Anyhow, those are all the newbies.
My next challenge is taking the acetylene tank down the road to get a new one.
I’m putting that little treat off until I don’t feel so accident prone.
Hasn’t stopped me from buying up all the cabochon’s on Etsy though.
Or a new saw.
I didn’t want to buy it.
Really I didn’t.
Just look at it in all its funky self.
I didn’t want to encourage it.
I’m not that fancy gadget tool kind of girl.
But, although my trusty German beginners saw has done me well over the past years, I decided to bite the bullet.
And I’m glad I did.
It’s a beaut.
What I love most about it is the tension lever. I do find it a little more awkward to change the blade or open it up for piercing, but only because I haven’t found a comfortable way to hold it yet. The old saw just sat nicely in-between my chest and the bench, but because you don’t need the tension of your body for this one it seems to wobble around more and it’s just a little more fiddly, but aside from how to hold it as you put the blade in it really is easy to load and it saws like a dream. It almost seems to do half the work for you.
I love it. and recommend it.
I perhaps wouldn’t have got the 5″ one, however, as it hits me in the Optivisor if I’m wearing one. I thought it was a good idea, but as I buy my sheets in 6″ squares, it doesn’t accommodate the width anyway and I feel that the regular 3″ would have been fine.
Because of the asthma I’m also going to have to invest in a dust collector.
I’ve seen a few that will work for me and just have to make up my mind.
I need a hose that goes to two places on my bench. One where I buff and one where I use the Foredom to sand, etc.. I already have a fume extractor which I’ve started to put over the pickle pot as well as over the soldering area as, as the fine doc says, you can’t fix stupid. Actually he said fume damage, but I knew what he meant.
So I may go for this one.
Or this one.
I’m thinking the Dura-Bull as it looks easier to change the filters. Depends on it fitting under the table with the hoses sticking upward however.
So, maybe it looks like I’m not giving up jewelry again after all.
Maybe just taking a break.
Here are the newbies.
I broke this one so I’m going to have to re-do it.
Perhaps this was the beginning of the funk.
You know. When everything goes so well.
And then not.
So my heart really wasn’t in this one below.
Although it turned out well.
Or this one really.
I have enjoyed making the torc collar, or whatever they’re called, for the pendants.
I looked everywhere for them as I knew that my work would be better suited for them, but couldn’t find them anywhere. In the end I asked a jeweler whom I’d noticed used one. She told me she’d made her own which I had thought about doing myself, but for some reason thought that they wouldn’t hold up well. So this gave me the confidence to go ahead and make one.
I used three strands of 18 gauge sterling silver wire which I capped off and soldered a lobster claw clasp to.
This is the jeweler I asked.
I really like her jewelry.
You should go check her out if you haven’t already.
So that’s it really.
Spud’s all jewelry’d out.
And I’m off out to do some painting, which I’m sure I’ll really, really enjoy until I decide to give that up also.
After Dracula I had decided on either Rebecca or Anna Karenina, but when I listened to the preview readings of the audiobooks I didn’t fancy either of their voices so I search around aimlessly until I came upon South of Broad by Pat Conroy.
Bit of a difference I know, but work with me here.
I think everyone must have seen The Prince of Tides with Nick Nolte and Barbara Streisand, but I hadn’t ever thought about anything else he’d written until I listened to an interview he gave on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR. He was talking about his book The Death of Santini and I was fascinated, until I forgot about him again.
Sorry Mr Conroy.
As I listened to the preview of South of Broad I was hooked.
What a warm, relaxed feeling that Southern accent gives. I could listen to it all day. I don’t know if Mark Deakins who narrates it is from South Carolina, but who cares…
And the words, in the sentences, that make up the paragraphs.
What can I say.
Pure bliss.
I’ve nearly finished it so I’m sure now I’ll have to go through and listen to them all.
You may never hear from me again…
I’ll be on my veranda drinking cold lemonade with my audiobooks.
If only I had a veranda.
And some lemons.
Not a lot going on in other news except that I have just found out that I have asthma. Turns out that instead of keeping me for two days in hospital and signing me up for five thousand heart tests when I went to the doctor with the heavy chest and shortness of breath feelings, they should have just looked more carefully at the chest x-ray they took when I first got there.
But at least now I know my heart’s O.K. and that, as P points out, they actually found one.
At first I laughed when the pulmonologist told me as asthma was the last thing I expected to hear, but of course then I thought that he had also got it wrong and in fact I have silicosis which he had overlooked in favour of the lesser deadly disease because I don’t look like the silicosis sort.
I started preparing myself for the inevitable lung transplant.
So when I went back to the doctor after having the ‘breath tests’ which the man kept referring to as ‘breast tests’ (was it just a lisp I asked myself or had the v-neck of my t-shirt got stuck around my waist again?) we had the, ‘ So, how do you know exactly that it’s not silicosis because you know I work with clay and other fraught with danger chemicals in my studio’, chat.
He said that I didn’t have silicosis.
I questioned him again, just to make sure.
He said no (again).
I didn’t have it – yet.
He could have left that last bit off because of course that means there’s still a chance that I could contract it in what’s left of my lifetime (I’m opting for the 40 more years version) and so my hypochondriacal self will obviously be having a field day with the possibility of contracting silicosis from now on out.
Girly you really need to get a grip.
So now I have two inhalers and some other medicine. I sometimes wonder that they don’t just give out this stuff like candy. I’m going to have to tell him that I can’t be inhaling that stuff everyday forever when I go back in six weeks.
No-one got time for that…
But I’ve definitely been more diligent with putting on the old fume extractor since.
And so here’s a new lovely.
And some new drawings for some Willow Creek Jasper.
Although I must admit I’m having a bit of trouble getting excited about them.
Don’t know why, but perhaps I just need a break.
A painting break?
Not a pottery break. I’m too silicosis’d out for that right now.
I know for sure that I need a break from going to the darn doctors every day since the beginning of eternity.
And I thought you might like to play along with me.
By the way, Dracula is great. I much prefer it to Frankenstein except that it’s spoiled somewhat by the fact that the Gary Oldman/Keanu Reeves movie is so true to the book that I can see it all playing out in front of me again. I really wanted to imagine it differently this time.
Oh well. Rebecca next…
Or Anna Karenina.
Don’t know.
So onto the project.
I bought a lovely piece of Sage Amethyst and thought I’d make another of my boxy pieces.
So if you fancy making one here’s how I did it.
I drew a rough design around the stone.
Then I took a length of bezel wire that is the same width as the depth of the stone and shaped it into the top three sides of the box.
You can just about see it below.
See.
I sniped it to sit perfectly on top of the stone.
Then I bent another piece of the bezel wire across the top of the stone.
And soldered it to the bottom part of the box.
(Prepare for fuzzy photo)
I turned it over and soldered what will be the top of the box onto a piece of silver leaving enough overhang on the bottom edge to create a lip that will cover the top of the stone slightly
Then I cut around the sides of the box.
(Another fuzzy photo)
and checked out how it fit to the stone.
I actually thought of leaving it right here as the plain silver looked so good on its own. But you know me and my fiddly ways…
Here’s the lip.
You can see above that the area where the sides of the box and the stone meet doesn’t lie flat on the block. Annoyingly I had forgotten my own instructions and chosen the wrong bezel depth so I had to adjust the lip slightly so that it didn’t lay quite as far over the stone as I would have liked. This allowed the two pieces to sit flush.
Had the sides of the box been deep enough I wouldn’t have had to kick myself and swear (just a little – I’ve had bigger problems) but as I’m all about problem solving I manned up and moved on.
So much for paying attention.
Then I forgot all about it when noticed a half set little Tiger’s Eye just laying around on the table doing nothing much in particular and thought it might look good with the amethyst.
The colour actually looks a lot better with it than this photo gives it justice and, as Snow White would sing anytime she had chores to do – Someday my Prince will come – It was as if it knew its soul mate would eventually come.
Somehow thinking of P when I’m doing the washing up doesn’t quite have the same effect on me..
As the sides of the tiger eye bezel wasn’t as deep as I wanted it I decided to make it another.
Now I don’t know if you remember, but I had an awful time fiddling around trying to get this vice thing to work for me.
But now I can tell you it’s my new best friend.
I just wasn’t being stern enough with the screws on the top.
Now I’ve figured out that I just have to be firm with it the thing holds the tubes, and whatever else you want it to hold, like a champ.
So I cut another length of tubing to fit the tiger eye.
And placed the cut off bit back in the vise and made sure to sand the ends completely flat.
You can file right down the vise and not damage the file, or so the Internet says, and you know the Internet is always right…
Once you’ve done that you can use your nifty bur to drill down into the tube to cut a seat for the cabochon to rest on.
As you probably know you can purchase cabochons, tubing and bur sizes in various millimeters so that they all correspond to make setting a stone a breeze. Once you get the hang of the annoying vise…
See here how it sits so pretty.
Took me over a year to figure out the easy way to do this.
Man I’m slow…
Next I cut out a matching hole on the top of the box.
You can just about see below that the tube has been soldered to just stand proud of the top of the box. You want the tube to fit snug into the hole you’ve made so that the solder joins the two completely and you want just enough of the bezel showing above the box to be able to push the sides over to hold the bezel.
Next I filed the bottom flush.
And cut out a backing sheet of 22 gauge fine silver to fit both the top box and the stone.
Before soldering the top to the backing plate, however, you have to pierce the back so that air can escape as you don’t really want another explosion in the studio.
Just sayin’
My tube sits all the way down and will be soldered to the back plate so creating a sealed chamber around it inside.
My preferred way to do this is to trace around the pieces to be soldered with a Sharpie pen.
This way I can play around with some ideas and then saw out my design.
After I have done this I can then go ahead and solder the box to the back plate knowing exactly where the design will lay by matching the top to the Sharpie lines.
I then drew in the bottom part of the stone again and drilled some holes for the prong setting.
I like to solder the prongs using a charcoal block. This way I can place each prong into the hole I’ve drilled and gently tap it with a hammer so that it sinks down into the charcoal a little. I place each prong as you would close a bezel up, tapping the next prong on the opposite side, etc., etc., until they are all in. This way seems to keep them more secure.
Then I place a little blob of solder at the base of each prong and place the leaves around the bezel and after soldering
See if I haven’t completely messed up and that the stone fits correctly.
Here is the pierced back.
And my grubby finger. Oh how we suffer for our art…
Here I have cut the excess silver from around the box and stone and have cut the prongs down to their correct height and finished them by shaving some of their thickness off and smoothing out the tips.
Here’s it’s sexy shot.
I fashioned it a simple, yet charming bale and soldered that to the top after I finished up the back design.
At this point we know that it would be an extraordinary thing for me to have managed to photograph every stage of the pendant’s making.
Extraordinary I am not.
I forgot to show you the back.
You’ll have to improvise.
Sorry.
Here is the piece sanded, patina’d and buffed.
Turns out that I’m not completely happy with it because the top left hand of the stone doesn’t sit as snug as I would have liked it to and the prongs are set too far out on the left hand side. I think it happened when I had to fiddle with the lip to fit over the stone.
🙁
But I will bravely continue on with my struggle to produce technically perfect little pieces of lovelies.
I’ll never surrender…
And here’s its back.
Finished while you weren’t looking.
And here’s another piece I had on the back burner.
Not just any old bur, but the sharpest bur in the box bur.
Middle finger – sanding disc cut.
Yep the edge of the disc managed to slice open the side of my finger at full speed ahead – which kind of hurt.
And it had to be the coarse disc didn’t it…
Right forefinger – water bottle cut.
Man!
Who slices their finger open on the cap of a plastic water bottle!
They’re all wrong. Too much water is obviously hazardous to your health.
I haven’t cut so many of my fingers at one time – ever, and all of them are really sore and needed Band-Aid attention.
Previous to that, in this same week, I suffered a scalpel blade cut and yesterday a chain swipe around a thumb as I was happily buffing away.
Don’t do that.
Buffing chains is not cool and can kill you.
I just like to live on the edge.
I blame it on Mary Shelly as listening to Frankenstein had seemingly lured me into a deep hypnotic state from which I obviously couldn’t wake up from in time to prevent these bodily dangers.
Darn you Mary Shelly.
Or was it the narrator?
Probably more likely.
What can I say except that Victor Frankenstein is a complete weeny and is frankly getting on my nerves a little bit. He needs a quick kick up the you know where so that he can just buck up and stop going on and on about how tormented he is all the time.
Such a drama queen.
And that wretch the Monster. Good grief. He learned an awfully excellent vocabulary in the short time he’d been exposed to the German mother tongue and showed an extremely enlightened compassionate side to all fellow creatures for one so primitive.
I almost kind of liked him.
Until, of course, someone ticked him right off and he threw all decency out of the window in one hell of a toddler temper tantrum and decided to kill anyone who he decided had done him wrong.
No hello, no how you doing, no nothing.
Just straight in for the kill.
Talk about bi-polar.
Now don’t get me wrong I am enjoying it, but Dr Frankenstein’s final telling of his story as he searches once again for his offspring, this time hopefully to put an end to it all, is getting just a little mind numbing.
Dracula next.
Dum dum dum…
–
Here are my newbies.
For all his woe is me drivel I have to admit that Frankenstein seems to have definitely steered my designs toward a new path. Now, if only I can keep all of my fingers intact I might be on to something…
Yep. Still here. Still a bit P O’d about you know what, but soldiering on… 😉
The weekend before last I did the art fair. This is when I wished I didn’t live in Houston.
Because of the weather.
Had to change my clothes three times.
I’m so over it.
I didn’t do as well this time. I think it was my attitude. My booth mate couldn’t make it because we had a rain date due to the fact that the heavens have decided to dump every last drop of water it has on Houston right now. I seriously wouldn’t mind sharing it with Alberta.
I can’t imagine what they are going through.
My booth was in-between two friends, but I just felt a little sad and wanted to go home about an hour after unpacking everything.
Was probably putting out some pretty negative vibes and everyone decided to give me a miss.
That’s o.k.
Dad would have blamed it on Kipper Season.
So back in the studio I’ve decided to concentrate on stepping it up again. It’s taken me a little while to be bothered with it all, but here’s one of my latest pieces.
It seems I still need to pursue the flower design even though I thought I was over it.
I do like this turquoise though.
Just a beautiful colour.
For my next piece I think this is where I’ll stop.
I like how simple and clean it is. My pieces are sometimes a little overworked.
I don’t regret how involved my other pieces are as it has really helped me figure out the whole soldering thing which I have discovered is much less tricky than it wants to be given credit for.
I wrote once about how everything has to be perfectly prepared before you even begin to think about soldering two pieces together, but now I don’t think that’s necessarily true.
Of course to a degree everything has to be fairly clean and flush but, and you’re welcome to disagree with me, I’ve found that it really is all about the flame.
Of course I forgot about all of this when I was soldering, or at least trying to solder, the piece below, but eventually I stopped struggling with it and got, Go on, give it a go Gertrude, out and sure enough, as I’d already learned quite some time ago now, the flame wins every time.
If, my friends, you can only remember one thing from now on let it be this – size does matter…
Here’s the piece waiting to be soldered.
Looking innocently like any other piece I have worked on.
Except it wouldn’t for the life of me solder even though I heated the hell out of it.
Even the silver wouldn’t melt whereas when I first learnt to solder I couldn’t even show it the flame from the next room without the bezel collar turning into a molten mess.
As I have come to find out over time the key to soldering is simply to heat everything up to the same level. If the nozzle on your torch isn’t capable of doing this, nuttin’ ain’t ever gonna solder.
Period.
You don’t really notice this with smaller pieces, but when you start on the larger ones until you get the hang of it you can lose a lot of hair pulling it out with the frustration of it all.
Tip. Unless you really like bald don’t keep at it. You pretty much know when you’ve been slogging it out too long. If it isn’t going to solder it just isn’t going to solder so turn the torch off, walk away and go wash those golden locks while you still have them. Willing it with your bloody minded laser vision isn’t going to cut it.
Believe me.
I know.
So when I first started I had a 00 tip for my Smith acetylene torch head. This was great until I spent several agonizing hours (read days) trying to solder one of my first larger pieces. Dad and I had many, what the hell’s going on now! conversations before I realized that the 00 just couldn’t heat up the larger area of silver.
So I bought a 0.
This has done me very well and now I only get the 00 out if I want to repair a chain or something small like that, so I was a bit surprised when the 0 wouldn’t work for me. This piece really isn’t any larger than some other pieces I’ve made, except the back plate is a thicker gauge so it could have simply been that.
I don’t have a 1 which is why I had to get, Go on, give it a go Gertrude out.
She’s only a number 2, but man does she fire up.
I bought her a while back when I wanted to melt down my silver leftovers.
If you remember I started out on that terrifying adventure by purchasing a number 4.
Nearly took my head off.
Don’t chance it folks, the number 2 is more than happy to melt anything down for you. She still takes you by surprise every time you light her up, but not to the heart attack level of the number 4.
Now with Gertrude’s super power on my side the problem was everything heating up too much so I had to be very careful, especially as I tend to only use easy solder instead of working down through from hard.
But by paying attention I even managed to get the prongs on without a meltdown.
The thing I did find, however, was that because I had spent so much time heating it all up before getting Gertrude out, the bezel collar had become very crumbly and just seemed to fall apart. I’d never come across that before, but as nothing else was affected I just took the collar out and made a new one.
With a little filing and fiddling I managed to get it back in there.
Now, here are the two things I did learn.
The first from an old guy that I met at the last art fair in October.
Flux the whole piece of silver and not just the area your soldering. O.K. so everyone in the whole world must know this except me, but It really does protect the silver and keeps the whole thing cleaner and you don’t have so much mess to clean up.
The second is something that again everyone must have already known.
After liver of sulphuring, or Black Maxing as I prefer, you can put the darn thing in the tumbler and it does wonderful things…
Now.
Tell me why I’m the only one who doesn’t know these things….
I’ve always had a really hard time cleaning up the pieces I make and getting the finish I want but, fingers crossed, this seems as though it might do it for me.
Of course I hadn’t used my tumbler for such a long time because I don’t like ‘shiny’ and didn’t realize that it could do other things that the belt had rotted and broke as soon as I started to get excited about the results.
But.
I have a new belt now.
Mwahahaha.
Here is the piece, and his friend, almost finished.
He hasn’t been in the tumbler yet so I’m hoping he’ll be super great after that.
If not the tumbler’s going straight back in the cupboard…
Now you might say that this is magical thinking at its best, but I know that when you enter the dark world of odd numbers there’s just gonna be trouble in store.
Just take a look.
1 3 5 7 9
Now you can’t tell me that all those odd numbers don’t look dark, angry, and downright depressed compared to their round and jolly even compadre’s.
2 4 6 8 0
O.K. so the 0 is a bit ominous…
Can’t see it? Then I can’t save you from the consequences of ignoring the possibility of imminent every other year danger.
Sorry.
But, I’m beginning to think I was wrong as so far 2016 has sucked, more so even than 2011 when both my mum and father in law died within a month of each other costing us a small fortune to go back and forth to the U.K. for their funerals. Not to mention the waste of time and energy it took to unpack from the first trip just to load it all back up again.
Oh, and let’s not forget the distress and anguish part.
To be honest this mess of a year did start back in December of 2015, as though it was saving up its winning card to throw onto the table right at the last minute – just when you thought you were safe – so perhaps that’s what set 2016 off on the wrong foot. But let me tell you, from now on the even years have got a lot of making up to do…
The story so far…
December – Cervical scare. Hospital procedure involving Victorian leg tights, deli cap, and stylish hospital gown. Waited a month. Nothing wrong…
Also in December – Kidney’s took a 50% function hit involving blood and pee tests – nothing like keeping your pee in the fridge alongside the dairy to keep life interesting. Two weeks of scouting out unsuspecting, healthy looking, kidney donors in the supermarket – only those in the fruit and veg section of course, didn’t want any of those vitamin deprived kidneys hanging out in my body, and the making of an extensive reading list to keep me going through dialysis.
January – Kidney tests came back A Okay for no apparent reason whatsoever except, I suppose, to keep the hypochondria fed and watered. This lead to a small smacking of the doctor to let him know that it sucked to be fooled into false diagnosis’s even though it wasn’t his fault. He should have known better than to pull his chair up that close to an anxiety ridden hypochondriac.
Also in January – Mammogram scare. Another month of terror. Hanging around. Tests, tests, and more test. Turned out to be a cyst… or did it. I can see that little blot on the landscape may well be hanging around in the depths of my overactive imagination for some time to come…
February – Ovary scare. Loads more tests culminating in the making of a, who get’s what, list. The studio was divvied out and preparations for the Viking send off in the pool were arranged. Couldn’t be doing with all the expense and ceremonious inconvenience of a regular funeral, rather a floaty, a large G&T, and then get the ol’ jewelry torch out for me.
March – Dad died. All of a sudden. No warning. No nothing.
April – Well this week really. Apparent heart attack… O.K. so that was jumping ahead a bit.
On Monday I went to the doctors having had chest pressure the whole week before. They wheeled me right down to the E.R. which was kind of embarrassing, and distressing as apparently there was a 6 hour wait! What! I almost decided to go home when my name was called. For some reason they like to check out the high blood pressure, chest pain, quiet, pale people sooner rather than later. So six tests and two days later I came home. Can’t say they weren’t thorough.
Turns out it’s probably anxiety, although I’m pretty sure it esophageal cancer. You know a hypochondriac is nothing if not vigilant…
So, taking into account that, alongside my dad, all those other lovely people have died. Bowie, Prince, Victoria Woods, Ronnie Corbett, to name just a few, 2016 pretty much sucks.
But, I know its number and where it hangs out so 2016 better be darn well careful from now on is all I can say…
So back to life…
Before the trip to the E.R. I finished the sad girl painting.
And this little lovely although I’m not enjoying how it looks like a bunny.
This, which seems a bit too chunky.
And just before all the excitement I began this
Which has a long way to go if it’s going to hang around with the others.
The afternoon they released me from you know where I started these.
And it was wonderful to get back in the studio.
I finished them yesterday 🙂
I call them my little freedom lovelies…
And now I’m putting chains on all of my older pieces in time for the art festival.
To me this is the most boring part.
So friends just to finish. I started this blog as a way to put myself out there. I wanted to show myself that it’s not worth living with a lack of confidence, and to face all of my insecurities. And it’s working. I’m growing as a jewelry maker and I found along the way that I wanted to share all of this, warts and all, so that anyone else who struggles knows that’s it’s o.k. and to just do it. In the long run, none of this matters.
So I share my mistakes, my anxieties, my hypochondria, all be it tongue in cheek. I am o.k. It’s all good. And I want to laugh in the face of it all (except for my dad) and just get on with making the most of it all.
None of this is meant to get you down or elicit sympathy, although chocolate never hurts…
I decided to give myself a pick me up after, you know what, happened.
Now, whenever I grind a stone, I can imagine my dad did it with me.
We’ll be in it together.
Trouble is when it arrived my immediate thought was to phone him to tell him the exciting news. He would have laughed at the thought that his daughter had bought yet another piece of machinery and perhaps wondered what happened to her and all the girly things.
But of course I couldn’t phone him so instead I took a photo of it and sent it to my sister and told her to show him.
He’s under her stairs.
He was on the porch for a while, then she put him under the stairs until we can decide what to do with him.
She can’t look at him yet. Also she’s had to give up watching soccer as she used to watch it with him every Thursday when he came to her for dinner which is a shame as she loves football.
For reasons only known to him, dad supported Queens Park Rangers. Traitor to those of us who know that West Ham is the team to beat. Well according to P that is.
My nephew called QPR and apparently we can spread dad’s ashes on their football pitch if we want to.
Who knew!
Lords cricket ground won’t have him though as, although he loved the game, he wasn’t actually a member.
I just can’t get over how many dead people all those cricketers and footballers must be playing on.
Do they know?
It’s almost as bad as all those dead people laying underneath the aisles of the churches.
Gives a whole new meaning to not stepping on the cracks.
Anyhow, in other news, I was thrilled to break the $50,000 mark and my new goal is $60,000. I did wonder if it should be $55,000, but then threw caution to the wind and decided to dream big.
Well, that was the longest month of my life and I don’t think I’ll be getting over it any day soon.
Loved my dad.
I think a lot of people must have as the crematorium was overflowing with people standing that he’d known since he was in his twenties. Colleagues from Ford’s where he’d worked since he was a lad and from where he’d retired nearly twenty five years ago.
Amazing that some of these men had tears in their eyes as they all agreed he was an exceptional man, willing to help anyone and with not a bad word to say about anyone.
Practically the whole street came out to mourn him with us. Even a little five year old boy brought down a card because he’d heard that the old man who let him hold his dog’s leash as he walked home from school had died.
Let’s just say that I can’t believe I just left him there to come back to the States . Doesn’t seem right to just get on with things as if it were normal.
But.
For anyone who knows me they shouldn’t be surprised that, amid the tears, I’m going to give it a darn good shot.
It’s very simple, and like most things creative, not unique to me, but if you’ve not tried making your own chains yet and fancy having a go, read on…
You will need about 4 ft of 19 gauge wire for this 18″ chain and simple soldering skills.
I used sterling silver because that’s all I had available in 19 gauge.
Of course you can use any gauge and ring diameter, but you will have to adjust for the amount of links, etc., accordingly. You can use copper if you prefer, but note that the solder tends to show more.
TIP
When making calculations for a different chain design or gauge I like to make a 4 or 5 link sample chain. This way I can measure how long that small piece of chain is and then multiply it for the actual amount of links I would need for the chain length I want.
I can also see at this time if I like the chain design and the gauge.
For this reason I’ve started making different sample chains out of copper for quick reference.
To calculate the length of wire needed for each chain I’ve found this handy interactive chart.
Jump ring sizes are measured using the inside diameter. To be sure that I actually have enough silver to complete the chain I measured the jump ring I want to use by the outside diameter.
–
Now for the chain…
Make 24 x 9.5mm jump rings.
Wrap them with tape.
And saw them apart trying not to slice your finger open – because it hurts.
TIP
After much experimenting I find it easiest to use long blade passes through the rings holding the rings just proud of the edge of a wooden block. Start sawing at an angle and once you’ve got a good purchase straighten up the blade so that it runs more or less perpendicular to the outside of the rings.
With practice it becomes easier and that’s actually the first time I’ve cut myself.
Must not have been paying attention.
Always pay attention…
Now make 26 x 3mm jump rings and do the same.
Beware as this is more fiddly and swear worthy.
Now solder the small jump rings together.
Note: I like the whole chain soldered, but you can skip soldering the small jump rings if you wish and just join the completed larger links together at the end.
For a completely soldered chain, however, I find it easiest to solder the small jump rings first.
For joining the jump rings I like to use chips of solder which I buy from Contenti.
I sprinkle a small batch directly onto my soldering board and use my pick to take them one at a time to the links.
NOTE
You do not need flux or solder to join fine silver together.
You really only need one of these tiny chips to solder the 19 gauge jump ring together. The key, as always, is to make sure that the ends of your jump ring fit tight together.
There shouldn’t be much of a gap at all otherwise the solder will not flow across the two ends to join them.
Now they are all soldered you can slip two of them onto a larger jump ring and prepare to solder that closed also.
TIP
Always point the joins you want to solder in the same direction. This way takes the guess-work out of finding the join, especially if you’ve done a good job preparing them and they’re so tight you can’t find the join at all.
Now take two of the soldered links and join them together with a third, large link.
Solder these also.
Now you’ll have groups of three.
Which you’ll join together with another large link.
Although at this point it becomes easier to solder the whole chain together at once.
Continue in this way until you have used up all of your jump rings.
Now you could stop right here and you’d have a nice, large loop chain to clean up and buff.
You could leave the rings round or hammer them slightly to give them more character.
But I took a pair of round-nosed pliers and opened up the links.
If you do every other link in this way you’d once again have a nice, large loop chain to wear.
If you then took the oval links and squeezed them together so that their middles touched, you’d have yet another design of chain.
But I was going for the figure 8, which is achieved by holding a pair of flat nosed pliers at each end of the oval link and twisting it 180 degrees, making sure that you twist each link in the same direction.
So here’s another chain design.
You could also change it up by using a different size joining ring.
Your options are limitless…
If you continue to stretch the rest of the 9.5mm links you can go through the same process, making a different style of chain at each stage.
But, like I said, I was going for the figure 8 all the way…
Here it is after the pickle.
And once it has been dunked into the Black Max, or Liver of Sulphur. and buffed.
All ready and waiting to go.
You can see here that I also hammered the ends of the figure 8’s.
–
Now for the question.
How much would you charge for this chain?
Bear in mind that you have to accommodate for your experience. For example it’s not fair to set a price when it’s taken you all day to make something which, in fact, it should only take you 2 hours.
I’ve made quite a lot of them now and each time this particular chain takes me 1 hour 50 mins from start to finish.
No breaks. No daydreaming. Just exact timing carefully watching the clock.
Right now silver is $15.79 and so this piece has $4 worth of silver in it.
If you have a scale you can easily weigh the finished piece in troy ounces and then calculate the silver content.
You can find the current silver prices at the top of Rio Grande’s site.
I have a scale similar to this one.
So, what is your formula for pricing?
I used to just guesstimate, but as time has gone by I’ve begun to see how important my time is and how, in the past, I was almost giving my jewelry away.
This had always been o.k. with me insofar I was learning my craft as I went along, but if you are serious about making and selling your jewelry there comes a time when you should start to look into the real value of your work, if not you are not only underestimating your worth, but also undercutting the worth of other artists.
It was quite satisfying as I went from not being able to solder a darn thing last week to not being able to put a foot wrong this week.
I’m going to have to commit this one to memory as I tend to go straight to complete despondency when something in the studio goes wrong and take to the sofa vowing never to make jewelry again.
It’s exhausting, let me tell you.
P just rolls his eyes now which kind of bugs me because I totally mean what I’m saying at the time.
I’m just so misunderstood.
All I ever wanted was love, attention, and a good, strong cup of tea.
Here’s a simpler piece waiting to be finished.
Sooooo
I got this macro lens for Christmas.
Because, as this nifty little gadget twists straight onto your iPhone, I thought, Hey! I need to get me one of them things.
Brilliant.
And so Santa got me one.
Bless him.
And because sometimes I have to wait a while to get my head around new things I only opened the box yesterday.
Now I know what the term macro means.
I do.
But for some reason I thought that this lens would do its macro thing magically whilst I wasn’t looking and as I was taking the photographs the way I normally do.
After struggling a bit actually putting the lens on because, heavy-handed and impatient as I can sometimes be, I thought I’d snap some vital piece of it off and have to swear, I was a little disappointed to find that I’d been sent a defective one.
So I swore anyway.
Because the fact that the lens was completely out of focus couldn’t possibly be my fault.
Who knew that you had to actually put the lens right up close to the jewelry.
I mean so close that the cup on the end of it was practically touching the table.
I had to stoop so low that I nearly put my back out.
I wasn’t tremendously impressed at first although I did get to see that I really do need to stop cutting myself and start taking more care of my hands.
Maybe.
(I had to make this really small as it was shockingly real and scared me each time it popped up on the screen… weak heart.)
So here’s one of my jewelry.
The thing I haven’t worked out yet, if indeed it’s possible, is how to take a photograph in focus without the lens having to be right on top of the subject and so not being able to get more of it in the picture.
Also.
Dam’ I’m going to have to be good if I want to use this lens and not see every single mistake on my work.
I mean could it get any more in your face…
Now I’m not sure if I’m can use it that much, which is a shame as I really want to, and it was expensive, so I’ve decided I’m going to have to play with it more to figure it out.
Or just go find some stationary insects to gross me out and, despite my revulsion, become the next David Attenborough of the macro world.
So for two months I had kidney disease and all that implies.
I was already sorting out what books I could read whilst having dialysis and secretly eyeing up unsuspecting, but totally suitable, donors and wondering just how one goes about asking for one.
Could you just bring it up over coffee perhaps?
Like, So hey, you look like you’ve got a couple of healthy kidneys packed away in there. Do you think you’d be up for sharing one?
I mean seriously, how hard could it be.
But then lo, all this became a moot point as, on my next trip to the doctor, as I sat in the bright, sterile, completely unfriendly room wondering if there was a hidden camera checking up that I wasn’t poking around with the ultrasound machine, I didn’t have it any more…
He didn’t know why.
He was sat so close to me as he showed me all the lab results, like I actually knew what it all meant, that when he came out with the good news I actually smacked his arm as I told him that I’d had a really fun couple of months wondering how long I’d got left on the planet.
Not.
Just to keep the anxiety above the extreme level I also had to have the old ovaries looked at.
Let me tell you… I was on the edge.
Not to waste a good ultrasound I had the sweet tech girl have a quick look at my kidneys just to make sure that they were actually in there and, for good measure I had her check out my liver also.
I think she enjoyed it as she doesn’t often get a chance to rummage around looking for all the other stuff when usually her clients are only interested in those tiny baby things growing inside.
Although to be honest my right kidney did actually look like a baby.
It had that hunched over, floating around look that they have – only in the wrong place.
Of course as she’s not allowed to tell me anything and as I didn’t know what the hell I was looking at, it was all a bit of a futile exercise, but at least I got to make sure that I had them and that they were right where they were supposed to be.
How the hell they can see anything, let alone make out what’s going on in there, is beyond me. It’s like when the doctor pushes around on your outsides and tells you that he can actually feel your organs.
Right.
I go home and have a go and they’ve all disappeared.
Crawled back into the murky abyss I suppose.
So what with that on my mind and the trip home I was completely off going into the studio.
It was enough to drag myself out of bed.
But that’s over now and for the past two or three days P has been well out of luck with any dinner being presented to him on his return from the big outdoors.
I mean how hungry can you get sitting behind a desk all day.
I did feel a little guilty yesterday though, but as I sat finishing up one of my new pieces, it didn’t quite stop me from texting him that the chicken just did not want to get into the oven.
Not my fault…
Here’s what I’ve been working on.
And before I could actually bother to even look at the jewelry table here’s what I tried to get back into the mood with.
A little colour.
Now I’m working on this,
Which was the cause of the chicken protest.
And I leave you with one of the reasons my life is so complicated.
A note from P.
I get them sometimes.
He leaves them for me so that I don’t forget that sometimes there are important things that need to be done.
You know, if only people would refrain from going in there I wouldn’t have to keep cleaning the darn thing.
It’s o.k. though as I seem to be struggling with everything that I touch in the studio right now so perhaps I should appreciate this time alone with the Clorox.
We rarely get to spend quality time any more…
Actually we’ve been going through a lot of the stuff recently as Willow, bless her heart, has decided that her pee is too good for the garden and that she intends to conduct all of her business from now on in the living room.
Fortunately we have a tile floor.
S believes that this is the key to the problem, however, as when she was a young pup she had to do all of her peeing outside on the concrete in the dog yard we had specially made for her and our other two dogs.
Go figure.
He says that now she’s old, and blind, and deaf, and, as that other man who lives in the house with us insists, a little senile, he believes she thinks the tile floor is the concrete and that she is, in fact, outside.
Consequently it’s our fault for making her pee on the concrete in the first place and so we shouldn’t get irritated by it.
I’ve become very good at rolling my eyes.
Here we see Spud knocked out cold by the combined fumes of Willow’s pee and the Clorox.
It doesn’t seem to help that I only use the lemon scented kind.
–
I spent four hours in the studio yesterday until I finally threw up my hands and melted down the bezel I had been working on.
I called time of death around six p.m..
I had only managed in that time to produce one, small, heart charm.
And I don’t even like hearts…
The only good thing going on in the studio right now is The Moonstone – and I don’t mean the ones in my top drawer.
I’m listening to Wilkie Collin’s book of that title and, in spite of the dark hours spent in that jewelry desperation wasteland, am thoroughly enjoying it.
Before Christmas I was listening to The Woman in White, which I really loved, but this one is even better and sometimes I even have to laugh out loud.
Betteredge, the butler, cracks me up.
I want one.
I read both of them when I was in my twenties, but sometimes you just can’t get enough of a good thing 🙂
The day before yesterday, however, I did manage to make a bracelet.
I spent most of the day wallowing on the sofa, I even had to have a little nap when the boredom overcame me so much that I couldn’t keep my eyes from shutting.
Dark times people.
Finally, at five o’clock, I managed to crawl my way into the studio and make something I’d been toying with for a few days.
I call it,
Just get up and do something before you melt into the sofa and become lost forever in the deceptively cosy depths of doom.
(Too much?)
It’s a very easy, non challenging project which I share with you today, but beware, only make this when you really need help getting off the sofa otherwise you will have wasted your one chance of rescue.
–
I used 12 gauge wire for the links and 18 gauge wire for the jump rings and clasp.
Cut 12, 1″ lengths of the 12 gauge wire.
And hammer the edges flat.
If you don’t hammer very often here’s my tip.
Keep the hammer balanced nicely in your hand and let it do most of the work. You want to move your hand up and down, more at the wrist, allowing the weight of the hammer to fall consistently on the end of the wire and not force the metal into the shape you want.
For the shape above I like to move my hammer slowly away from the center of the length of wire along to the edge. I tap the hammer more gently at the center and as it moves along to the end allow it to come down with more weight. This produces a smoother and more even result.
As you are hammering toward the ends of the length watch carefully that you’re not hammering more to one side and thereby producing a misshapen end. Unless you have completely outdone yourself and whacked the end out into a wonderful, but not what you was going for, deformed shape, you can rectify any lopsidedness by gently concentrating your hammer on the other side of the end, or by gently rolling the end back and forth very slightly to allow the hammer to even the shape out.
If this isn’t possible you’ll just have to abandon the length and start over.
It’s the only way…
Once you have hammered the lengths you can file and sand them to perfectly round ends and then drill holes in them making sure to position the holes consistently.
Using a small bracelet mandrel or a large pair of mandrel pliers such as these,
You’re going to bend the lengths slightly so that when two links touch end to end they form an oval.
Now make 7, 4.5mm jump rings from the 18 gauge wire and join two links by two links until you have a bracelet.
I soldered the links on my bracelet, but if you’re not up for it no worries.
Unsoldered jump rings are better than wasting away on the sofa…
Just sayin’.
Next I bent the ovals again, but this time in the direction that when the bracelet is on, the links lay more comfortably and hug the wrist rather than lay rigid.
Lastly finish it with a clasp of your choice.
After which you can go inside and have a bowl of super food.
Someone tell me quick before I bore myself to death…
We need upbeat, lively, creative fun, and what do I come here to offer?
I haven’t even a name for it.
So back to work my friends.
I refuse to get bogged down else I rot to death, here in Houston, strangled by my sluggish mind.
I’ve got to get moving and actually making it in through the studio door would help tremendously.
I had a great time in England with my family and, except for the last day when I was ready to get the flight over with, didn’t want to come home.
P wouldn’t even entertain the possibility of us moving back, which I thought was a little mean-spirited of him.
I mean, just because his job is here, and our kids are here, and I’ve picked up weird American pronunciations, doesn’t mean we have to stay. Right?
O.K. so I would miss the kids.
A little.
But I feel so normal in England, and still a little displaced here, even though it’s been 26 years now.
Pretty soon we will have lived here as long as we lived in England, and somehow that’s kind of sad for me.
But, no more wallowing…
I had a bit of everything I needed to have a bit of while I was there.
A pork pie.
A sausage roll.
Hula Hoops.
Fish and Chips.
A pint of bitter.
A steak and ale pie.
Sausages.
Twiglets.
Bread.
And a lot of other things that I didn’t really need any of.
I watched British t.v. and drove around the countryside.
Well K drove me. I don’t think I could drive there at the moment. It would take me some time to get used to it again and not kill myself.
We got lost once, which K put down to my touching the GPS on her phone (I didn’t), and found a village called Chignall Smealy. Brilliant right? I mean imagine telling people that you live in a place called that. Or Throcking, or Anthorpe Roding. Or Clatterfield, Bacon End or Shallow Bowells.
Especially Shallow Bowells which could be construed as something entirely different.
And we drove down lanes almost too narrow for the car to fit.
And we’re talking about a small Fiat-y car.
If someone comes toward you you have to back up all the way until you find a small space to creep into. And even then we’re talking millimeters of passing space.
You have to take a lot of deep breaths and do a lot of finger crossing.
Also using your imaginary passenger side brake comes in handy, especially if your dad’s driving and doesn’t seem to notice that there are, in fact, other cars on the road.
I made it back alive though, even after both airplane flights which happily didn’t result in tragic endings somewhere over the Atlantic.
Going there was very quick. Seven and a half hours. I don’t think I’ve ever got there in that time before. And no jet-lag at the other end which was great. I put it down to the 9 p.m. take off, two gin and tonics, red wine and steak dinner which consequently resulted in a good, sound, anti jet-lag sleep.
It’s the only way to fly…
Coming back, however, was a full ten and a half hours during which I watched four films back to back and two pilots of t.v. shows.
One of the films I watched was Little Boy which was great.
I love those magical thinking movies.
Being a magical thinker myself I can totally relate.
I am pleased to be back though, in spite of a slew of doctor’s appointments lined up which are kind of getting on my nerves now.
Oh the wonders of getting older…
This week I’m going to make a concerted effort to get into the studio and work through the boredom and homesickness as best as maybe.
I need a project is all.
A great bit fat one which hopefully involves using up all of the cabochons in my top drawer.
It was the first time we didn’t have it at our house with just immediate family, so that was a bit strange, but still nice.
We got to meet a lot of people we didn’t know. Like at least fifteen of them!
There were twenty odd of us all told, give or take a kid, stuffed into the smallest house possible.
Good job I’m older now and not as shy otherwise it might well have done me in completely.
And so yesterday I took a moment to myself and went into the studio. I don’t think I’d been in there for about a week.
I almost forgot how to get there.
So I did some more to this.
I’m liking the mirror finish on the water.
This time around I used oil paints over the oil pastels.
I don’t know if you can do this, and perhaps the painting will spontaneously combust when I’m not looking, but I decided to chance it non the less.
Living on the edge people…
I did the same to this one and I’m quite liking this one too.
(Yep, I said that)
The one below is on canvas instead of board.
I prefer board as I’m not keen on the texture of canvas and it doesn’t seem to take the paint as well for me.
But I think that’s just me.
Everyone else seems to get good results on it.
The next two were worked on before the Christmas shut down.
This one, was remarkably orange when you last saw it.
And this one is of a field of Triffids in the Rolling Plains of the Lower Kowlandis.
Actually it’s a bit too hilly to be rolling plains, but we’ll go with it for now.
I’m still working on them all, as well as the five thousand and sixty-three others hanging out in the studio, but they’ll all have to wait now as I leave for the mother land tomorrow and have still to organized myself.
I just found out that my green card expires at the end of the month so I’m lucky as I’ll just about make it back into the U.S.
Nothing like checking out these things before you decide to travel is there.
I didn’t even think to check my passport, but fortunately P, being the only executive in the house, had it all under control.
Except I thought executives had peeps to do all that organizing stuff for them.
Most likely no one will work for him…
I’m sure it would have been o.k. though.
You can get all the paper work done on-line now and Spud is always willing to help out.
Except here we see her lying down on the job.
To be fair I think she’s become hypnotized by the psychedelic painting on the screen.
No excuses Spud.
And here are two new jewelry pieces.
I’m thinking of changing up this one because I can’t decided if I like the stone combination.
Isn’t that lavender stone beautiful?
And I think that’s a piece of Royston Turquoise
I can’t remember what the lavender stone is right now.
And I also made this one (below) which I quite like.
This is a nice piece of turquoise also.
And so all that’s left for me to do is leave you with Nutmeg, who doesn’t quite understand why the orange seems to be bigger than her head.
And Wally contemplating the bananas
And Pickles who has definitely eaten all the pies over the holiday.
Save yourself girl. Eat more fruit…
And so I wish you all a Happy New Year – when it comes to you.
I read it a long time ago but after listening to a couple of really blah books I decided that I needed something good and classic to get my chops around.
Although old, I found The War of the Worlds very tense, and that surprised me in a really good way. The Stone Man was just old and predictable.
Sorry Mr. Smitherd.
I would listen to another of his books though – just to give him a fair chance.
The Woman in White is just so lovely to listen to.
The writing, although a tad long-winded and old-fashioned, is just so good. It keeps me engaged the whole time.
Audio books are expensive but I’ve decided that I’m just going to have to go with them for now.
I love reading, but just don’t find the time at the moment. I’m in the studio for most of the day and when I come in I find that P has the t.v. on after his long day hunting and gathering, and I get caught up in it.
I usually listen to NPR during the day, but you know, it’s just downright depressing at the moment to listen to the news and how it seems the whole world is on a downward trajectory to complete destruction…
Laura Fairlie’s troubles are much less stressful, although I must admit to despising Frederick Fairlie and Sir Percival Glyde just gets on my nerves.
There’s still a lot of anxiety listening to it because back then my modern-day equal rights sensibility was yet to be unleashed, but it just makes me appreciate more the fact that I am born today and not then.
I’m sure I would have been either burned as a witch or have been outcast in some other way when I read about times gone by.
And so all would be revealed tomorrow as I finish listening to the story and, hopefully, finish the painting, except that Christmas shopping and decorating the tree is in desperate need.
I actually parked outside a shop yesterday and almost got excited about browsing for Christmas presents.
Didn’t happen.
I even opened the car door, but admit I didn’t get a leg out.
It had a lot to do with shopping for the sake of it.
Of buying a gift for someone just because that’s what I’m supposed to do this time of year.
Or at least that’s what I hope it is rather than just being bored to hell with it all.
Because that would be awful…
So I shut the car door and decided to think more about what I really wanted to get everyone.
I just hope it happens sometime before Christmas Day.
I don’t know what’s happened to me, but I really have to get over it already as I’d much prefer to be a green bean than a turnip.
You know, one of those French ones.
Tall and skinny..
On top of all this I’m struggling with deciding whether to go to England for part of the Christmas holiday.
It sounds good doesn’t it.
Christmas with my family here in Houston, then Christmas with all my other family in England.
Couldn’t ask for more really – if it wasn’t for the fear that I’m going to blow up on the airplane, or die in London…
I’m already afraid of flying without having to worry about the recent terrorism.
So when P asked if I’d like to go I said no.
Then I said yes.
Then I said no again.
Then yes.
This went on for about a month, but yesterday, as I tried to get my foot out of the car, I said yes again knowing that it was my final answer.
In that sad resigned voice one has when you know nothing good can come from it.
(Did I mention I’m a drama queen?…)
It was a struggle I can tell you.
Apart from the fact that I would see my family and that is always a good thing, here are the pros and cons.
Pros:
I get to be with the Fam.
Pork pies.
Sausages.
Pubs.
The Fam.
David Hockney.
–
Cons:
Cold.
Wet.
Death.
Jet lag.
Oh, and,
Death.
–
So you can see that I’ve had a bit of a hard time of it lately.
Anyway, turns out the David Hockney exhibit isn’t the one I want to see – I wanted to see the landscapes, not the portraits, but hopefully I’ll still go up into London to see something.
–
So that’s it really.
No real news except that Cornelius has come across a new plant.
The Spindle Back Warvil.
I’m glad that one of us has still got it together enough to do some work…
Just yesterday my dad and sister were here and it was July.
Why didn’t anyone tell me that it was going to be December already.
I wasn’t ready…
Not that I’m worried about Christmas. I’ve always been a wing it person when it comes to preparations.
In other words I forget all about it until it’s a week or so before, then I get a little worried that I’ve nothing done.
You’d have thought I’d have figured it out by now.
I’m so over worrying about doing things the ‘right’ way. I think it’s one of the best things that comes with getting older.
I could do without the achy joints though.
It’s the knees.
I think they’ve had it.
I remember when I was at art school lying on my bed one afternoon trying to figure out how old I would be when the new century came around.
Math was never one of my strong suits.
Or maybe my confusion was because I couldn’t ever imagine being that old.
41
Man!
And now that’s over and done with what else is there to worry about.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about me then and now. I’ve felt a shift and it’s kind of sad, but in an exciting kind of way.
It’s like all of a sudden I’ve become different.
Like a layer has been peeled away and I didn’t do it and didn’t want it to go, but now i’s gone and I’m left a little lost.
Like I’ve got to grow into the new me.
I’m a little worried that I’ll waste myself.
I think a new strategy is in order, one that hopefully involves finishing The Goldfinch because I’ve been reading it for five hundred years now and it looks like I still won’t be finishing it any time soon.
One that involves enjoying stuff, finding out the important stuff, not worrying about what people think about me, enjoying who I am, and finishing things that I love to do.
Looking after myself, and the people I love.
Getting out of bed and getting on with things instead of dreaming about doing them.
Being more spontaneous.
Not being afraid.
(I’m afraid of everything and it’s boring)
Using my powers for good.
And just doing it for heaven’s sake.
Do you think it’s too late for me to be an astro physicist?
Would the math part be a problem I wonder.
–
As I ponder these life problems I leave you with a new piece.
A little seed pod, plucked and fashioned into a necklace before it could grow into the fearsome Triffid it was intended to become.
For the time being at least, we can rest safe knowing that one more threat of world domination has been removed from this world and that we can all put our laser guns away.
And maybe get ourselves a good haircut and shave already…
But before I posted it yesterday I took another photograph as I wanted to show you the back of the bracelet.
I love making the backs almost as much as the front.
And I started another painting.
I’ve begun to realize that I’m a starter painter and not a finisher.
I must have about fifty of the darn things hanging around.
I’ll be that crazy old woman who leaves behind so much stuff that her kids have to pull their hair out deciding what to do with it all.
The cats must be attracted to weird start-up people because this is how I wake up most mornings.
On my side with at least two cats balanced on top of me.
Glad they’re comfortable.
So
What to do today?
I always wake up at a bit of a loss really.
On the weekends P watches his football team lose.
This is them running away from the ball.
I used to hate football, but now I love listening to it.
There’s a special football noise that reminds me of home and it’s kind of comforting.
It comes with some danger, however, as I’ll be sitting here in another room, happily dribbling out my thoughts to anyone who cares to read them, and I’ll either hear despondent groans, or loud euphoric yells of victory which make me jump out of my skin.
Fortunately the latter happens rarely.
Good ‘ol West Ham!
You go boys…
So I’m sitting here wondering what to do today when I know full well it will involve the studio.
I’ve been thinking pottery which kind of annoys me as that’s a whole new ball game when it comes to disappointment.
Worse than the painting as at least you can change a painting where as there’s no hope for a pot once it’s fired except to smash it up and make mosaics.
I don’t want to make mosaics so let’s hope that little urge passes soon.
–
So all that’s left to say is a happy Sunday to you all and may your football team always win.
But don’t forget to put the ear plugs out for those of us who don’t care…
I think I shall call it – Blinded by the Light of the Glorious Hills.
I’m determined to persevere with the darn paintings.
Every so often I think I’ll have a go and then spend the day wallowing in and out of disappointment and moaning to P that I can’t do it.
I think he’s kind of over it.
Again.
So today it’s back to the jewelry before the kids come over.
As Thanksgiving has never been that big a holiday for us, especially as we’re English and have no family over here for us all to get together with and make it special, I told the kids that if they wanted to spend the day with their significant others who are American and have deep roots in this wonderful tradition, I would be O.K. with that so long as I get to see them all today.
Friday.
Of course, I forgot all about S who has no significant other and who bemoaned the fact all day that he had no turkey.
And, of course, as soon as the girls said O.K. that’ll be great, I felt completely abandoned.
And I felt bad that I had made this Thanksgiving arrangement without consulting P.
But, hey.
We got to go to see James Bond, which was almost as delicious as eating a turkey leg.
Afterward we thought we’d top off the day and pick up some Indian takeaway, but what d’ya know, even they were closed for the holiday.
Man!
We had to go home to cheese on toast with S giving me the sly, so it doesn’t matter to you that I’m an American, look.
He had beans on toast.
A traditional English feast so I don’t know what he was complaining about anyway.
So our first non traditional Thanksgiving is over with to which I can only tell you that it has made me very grateful that I have family to miss and that next year I will be happy for everyone else to decide what they would like to do instead of trying to make sure not to upset anyone with wanting my grown ups to be with me only.
Here’s my latest piece.
Made with beautiful turquoise that warms the soul.
Thank you for your nice comments Patti, they made me feel good.
🙂
I hope that everyone who celebrates had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I had a good time but am pleased for my own bed as I thought I would have to have both my legs amputated from the buttocks down as I was in so much discomfort from the mattress.
I think it was an IKEA mattress.
‘Nuff said.
Not that I’ve got anything against the Swedish you understand, I’ve purchased my fair share of their products in the past and have appreciated every one of them.
But the beds…
They have a mind of their own.
I’ve still some residual pain, but I think I’m on the mend.
The house is lovely though. We’ve stayed there a few times now and this time it was even better as it wasn’t the summer and so it was cooler and there was hardly anyone else about.
So I read and I drew mandala’s – for no apparent reason except that I had to doodle.
I don’t like the birdhouse one, but hey.
There’s a group on FB if you like to draw mandala’s.
And for some reason that I swear I’ll never be able to grasp, he answered every other activity except for the studio.
Man! Does he not know me?
He must have thought that the cool air had muddled my senses as he was going on about cleaning the house, doing the washing, and other things too horrific to mention here.
We’ve been married for over 30 years now and he still hasn’t got a clue.
Bless him.
So I’ve to go out for a couple of hours first, I may even pop by the supermarket on the way home.
And then!
My toes are tingling at the thought…
Here are a few photographs of the back of the house.
I love the veranda. It’s my favourite place.
It’s situated perfectly so that it shields the wind and is always in shade.
Not necessarily my favourite place in the world, but as P likes to fish it’s the best we can do without driving more than four hours, or taking a flight.
But it’s beautiful today.
Yesterday we had, what was supposed to be a big storm, blow in through Houston, and it did rain, which was nice, and it did bring cooler weather, which was even more nice, and frankly I didn’t mind as a week curled up with a book, sitting on the porch, wrapped up in a blanket, drinking tea by the canal was a great idea in my mind.
Maybe not so much in P’s mind because of the fishing and because I didn’t want him to get swept out to sea in the perfect storm in his little, I always wanted to be bigger, boat.
O.K. so that would be highly unlikely considering he fishes in a bay and not the ‘real’ sea, but even so. Remember that time he took my 84 year old dad out fishing there last year, with the heat bearing down and no sight of land, and my dad could barely hobble back to the house afterward.
Yeah that treacherous bay.
Anyway, none of that happened as today the weather is perfect.
Absolutely perfect.
It’s warm, not humid.
It’s quiet except for the water gurgles.
And I could live here year round if P got his act together and quit his job.
But then it would get hot again and everyone from town would come down here for their week getaways and there’d be kids laughing, yes laughing, I know right!, and people talking when they know fair well that their voices carry across the water and into my ears.
So maybe it’s good not to live here year round after all.
So.
We arrived last night and it’s a beautiful house on one of the canals.
P took four tries to back the boat into the driveway when he’d done it right the first time.
I think he just likes the drama.
And now he’s off fishing and I’m sat here reading and painting, and drinking tea.
It’s just a beautiful porch.
A bit bare because it’s a rental, but so deep and shaded I feel as though I’m in a southern movie.
I’d like to tell you that everything I make starts good, ends good, and everything in the middle is perfect.
But…
–
So I cut this nice little Willow Creek Jasper cabochon from a big chunk I bought from The Gem Shop.
And thought I’d show you something I made with it.
I decided to go for something like this, but wasn’t sure about the garnets.
I thought they might be a little too pretty, but decided to go ahead anyway.
If you’re new to bezel making here’s how I prepare mine.
I run a length of bezel wire around the stone and cut it off a little larger than it needs to be.
If the stone has corners I define those with a pair of flat nose pliers first.
Then holding it as tightly as I can I tuck one end underneath the other and mark where it overlaps with a pencil.
O.K. so that was a lot more overlap than I needed.
I was obviously feeling generous.
Now I snip the extra off leaving it a slither longer than I measured it.
And I work the two ends by pushing them beyond each other to close up the gap and create some tension when they touch together.
I use my flat nose pliers to slightly flatten the join. This helps to finish up the alignment.
The join has to be perfectly aligned before soldering.
With no gaps.
Now I solder it.
I like to use a third hand and place the solder piece on the outside of the bezel, but there are many ways to do it. Just make sure to heat the silver evenly so that the solder flows over the join. If you heat one side more than the other the solder will pull away from the join toward the hotter end and the solder won’t fill the join.
If this happens take your flame away, start heating the whole thing again so that the silver heats evenly and then help the solder flow across the join with your pick.
The bezel should fit nice and snug.
See.
Look at the shine I got on that cabochon.
I did that.
😉
In fact I was so impressed with myself that I celebrated with a cup of tea.
Here’s the other side.
They’re not so impressed. Especially the last man.
Next up I soldered the bezel wire to the back plate and pickled it.
And because all of a sudden I thought perhaps I should I’ve stared rinsing the piece in a solution of water and baking soda when I first get it out of the pickle.
Then I rinse it in water.
I also hold my breath when I open the pickle crock pot.
The hypochondria’s been creeping back in.
It’s O.K.
I’ll be O.K.
:/
Now I trim away the excess silver from around the bezel wire leaving a couple of millimeters as a border.
And then I cut away all of the silver plate inside of the bezel wire.
You don’t have to do this when making a bezel setting. I just like to sink the stone down into its surround a little more to try to give it more depth.
If you want to try this make sure to saw as close to the inside edge as possible otherwise you’re going to have to do a lot of filing.
And that gets boring real soon.
The end result should see the cabochon passing through this first step of the bezel without it getting caught on the sides.
Just in case you were wondering we’re still on the rise bit of the project so try not to worry too much.
If you haven’t got one of these special little glob on a stick things you’ve got to get one.
Aside from coming in very handy they just make me smile.
I’m sure there are lots of other fun stuff you can do with them aside from picking up small things that don’t want to be picked up and, of course, you could easily make your own out of wax, but even when I’m not using mine I sometimes have to look over at it and give it a wink.
Just sayin’.
I used it in this instance to pick up the garnet and measure it with this gauge tool.
I’ve got to tell you that this is another one of my smiling tools.
It’s just so simple and neat.
And here the two of them are doing their stuff together.
Brings tears to the eyes…
O.K. so I measured the height of the garnet and then marked out the length of the tubing.
Now I use the corresponding bur bits to drill out a seat for the garnet.
This takes a bit of practice and a steady hand as there’s not much room to play with if you chose this method to make the bezel.
The first couple of times I made one I gave up on ever being able to do it properly.
But.
This is still not the fall of the Willow Creek Jasper.
I know you’re getting anxious.
So there’s hope.
Always hope.
Again, there are different ways to do this, but this is the way that I’ve found works for me.
I take an old pair of flat nose pliers and hold the tube against a wooden block and gently drill out the middle, first using the round bur.
Up until now I’ve found that the tube easily slips out from the pliers if you’re not paying attention.
But then.
I had a brain burst and got out an old pair of plastic tipped pliers which I rarely use because they don’t have a spring handle and I don’t like them as much as my other pair.
These grip the tube so much better and I’m not worried about ruining the plastic stuff as I never use them anyway.
Win win.
(Update: The heat from the drill bit melts the plastic stuff so it doesn’t work after all. Man! I was so excited as well. I’m going to see if I can’t drill some tube sizes into an old pair of pliers, or something like that.)
After using the round bur to drill away to the depth you need you go in with the setting bur.
This one creates a little ledge for the stone to sit on.
Check out the fit as you go along using the fun goo stick thing.
I prefer the beeswax as the Bur Life is too crumbly for me.
And voila!
The stone should sit level in the bezel cup and deep enough for the edges to be pushed over the slope of the stone.
With practice this is possible.
My theory is.
If somebody else can do it. So can I.
Be strong.
Now I place all of the components on a sheet of 22 gauge fine silver to outline where I need to saw the sheet to prepare for soldering.
And so begins the downfall of the Willow Creek Jasper…
It all started innocently enough.
A phone call with P.
Another cup of tea.
Some yelling at Willow who has taken to barking all of the time wherever she is and whether she wants to or not.
P thinks it’s because she’s deaf and old and becoming senile.
I think that’s a bit harsh.
Deaf maybe.
You can yell at her all day and she won’t hear you.
But look at her.
🙂
So basically I was distracted and didn’t know it.
And so happily continued on my way
Until everything was nicely soldered.
Except for the little balls which needed a slight adjustment.
Nothing much to worry about.
Except for the fact that I had soldered the bezel collar upside down which might not have been a problem except that the stone really really didn’t look as good this way up as it would the way I had intended it to be.
I could have continued with it, but it would have bugged me every time I looked at it and as I’ve decided to really try to make the best jewelry I can and also didn’t want to begin over, I reheated the piece and took the whole lot off and re soldered it the correct way up.
A little tricky as, if you remember, I had cut the inside of the bezel away and now had to try to solder it back on again with no wiggle room whatsoever.
Here’s a trick to removing already soldered components.
If you just want to remove one item then heating it and picking it off with your tweezers is good enough, but if like me, you want to remove everything, it can be difficult to keep the heat spread evenly enough to loosen everything at once as one side invariably cools just enough for the solder to harden again.
So basically, just as you get one side of whatever it is you’re trying to remove loose the other side becomes soldered again and you can end up going backward and forward in a never ending spiral of desperation until you either melt the stuff accidentally, or more likely on purpose, as you’re so very frustrated and annoyed with it all.
To ward against flinging your torch across the room at this point and setting the room on fire I find that if you turn the whole piece over and heat it from the back it gets everything glowing nicely and evenly and then you can quickly turn it back over and pluck the pieces off easily.
Of course then you have to chance that one of the components will fly off the tweezers and burn a hole in your leg so that you’ll never be able to walk again.
Fortunately this time I was saved by the towel.
Always pluck carefully.
Now, of course, because of the traumatic rescue, the whole bezel setting is a complete mess and solder has flown everywhere including into places that you never knew it could flow into.
And also the little border I cut out at the beginning was a little messy and uneven.
To even up the border I marked the outline with a sharpie which helped me see the areas I needed to file away.
I have to admit that I cheated here by using one of those handy little flat burs.
Even so, it took some time.
A few moments of, Man! Why can’t you get anything right.
And another cup of tea.
But eventually I cleaned it up, and soldered that pesky leaf back on which had decided that with all the fun going on it would take a little field trip.
Next up I cut away the excess silver.
Filed it and added a bale.
Then I cut away the back design.
Just so’s you know, the flower design is upside down here on purpose and has nothing to do with the fiasco above.
The top half of the back of the cabochon isn’t as nice as the bottom and I wanted a nice colour to show through.
Then I cleaned it up some more with the flat bur and trimmed away the collar to the best height for the stone.
And gave it a good scrub with the Penny Brite and a toothbrush.
At this point I wasn’t too sure about how to hang the bottom garnet as, although wire wrapped tear drop beads are nice, I felt it would be a little too unfinished for this piece.
So I made it special home.
Yes, I know.
It looks like a cow bell.
Then, relieved that the struggle was almost over, I blackened it with Black Max, buffed it as much as I could, and set the stone.
After setting the stone I covered it with blue tape and buffed some more.
Once I’d got it to the point I was happy with I got out the setting tools for the smaller garnet.
These are neat little punches that hug the round of the bezel cup and, as you hammer the top gently, push the bezel over the stone.
It’s a bit freaky when you first start using them as you just know you’re going to damage the stone.
But it works well if you take your time.
And so there you have it.
I’m still not sure about the bottom garnet, and might change it up, but on the whole I like it.
Especially as now the stone is the right way up…
Here are a few others that I just finished.
Now I’m off out to yell at Willow again because she’s driving me nuts!
It really only makes me feel better as she can’t hear me at all…
So I’ve changed the theme again because I CANNOT work out the comment thing.
(Yes you can read that as a yell)
Now I can’t get THIS darn theme to show the whole post instead of just an excerpt.
I’ve clicked all of the necessary boxes.
I’ve searched the help forums.
I’ve gone into the code area.
Nothing.
I know it’s doable.
I intend to hunt it down and bend it to my will.
I might have to scream a little.
I’m also pee’d off with the photo’s taking it into their own hands which way up they want to be.
BUT THEY WILL NOT WIN.
To top it all off I installed Grammarly last week and now that nifty little green, (but mostly red in my case), swirly, you’ve done it wrong again, button is always doing its thing in the corner of any text box I write in, and flips around all of the letters when I try to edit something so that most of the corrections end up at the end of a sentence rather than where they need to be corrected.
AND I’VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT AND YOU CAN BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT THAT SPECIAL LITTLE I’M JUST WHAT YOU NEED BECAUSE YOUR GRAMMAR SUCKS APP IS ABOUT TO FIND ITSELF IN THE TO BE DELETED PILE.
See how that feels when you’re down there in that dark vacuous pit trying to dig yourself out with the correct use of a semi colon.
I’ll be up here laughing, like this
Mwahahaha
And happily putting comma’s where they don’t want to be.
Whose the clever one now eh!
To really add salt to the wound Spud is destroying a whole roll of kitchen towel paper stuff in the corner of the room where I left it last night because she decided that she’d like to try peeing on the carpet for a change, just to keep it real, and I’m sitting here fiddling around with WordPress and worrying about world peace and if I’m ever going to get on an airplane again.
Someone better get round here quick and fix my life else I might have to kill ALL of the cats and go sit in the closet for the rest of my life.
Yep. N’s car got drownded (as the kids used to say).
In lots of water.
And they had to wade home in it up to their knees at 4 a.m. for an hour and half while we slept oblivious to the phone calls and texts.
Good parents we are.
The Mini Cooper is a ferocious beast with eight, yes read that again, eight air bags crammed into that small, but safe, cocoon of a vehicle. B has had five, (don’t talk to me about it), accidents in hers and, aside from the extortionate amount of money they charge to put the thing back together again, she wasn’t hurt once even though two of them were really bad and involved 360 degree spins on Austin freeways.
One might say they’re a bit of a bumper car really.
But it seems they are no match for the elements when it comes to driving through hidden flood patches.
Perhaps they should have triggered all of the bags and floated across.
Guess you’re not thinking straight in stressful situations.
So, not a lot of luck with the cars really.
That’ll teach them for going out on a Friday night enjoying themselves…
–
So it’s Monday again.
And I’m off out to the studio.
I did spend yesterday reading my book and eating dinner with the kids and I think that was all I needed.
A day of nothing.
However today this little lovely is waiting for me.
And I had two sales over the weekend that I’ve to post which is quite nice and cheering.
Especially as this
Found its forever home.
One of my favs.
I’ve been really lucky just recently with selling some pieces and I have a feeling that I’m up to $44,000 now, but haven’t sorted it out yet.
I think I might send it to Heifer International this time as I’m getting a bit depressed about Syria and I’ve had to stop listening to the news for a while.
So I’ll be concentrating on sheep and goats for a while now to shake it off.
Except for the bunnies.
I won’t be thinking of Heifer sending any bunnies to anyone as what do you do with them except use their fur and eat them?
It’s another grey Sunday and I’m sitting here in bed bored and trying to think of what to do next.
I’ve also got a headache.
Which doesn’t help.
–
Here are my options.
I’ve got a good book going.
I’ve only finished the first part so no one ruin it for me else I’ll have to come over there and not be responsible for my actions.
My sister finished it and gave me mixed reviews telling me that it goes downhill with some uphills and then more downhills from here. That she enjoyed it but doesn’t know if she’d recommend it.
I’m interested in how differing our tastes might be.
Sort of like a psychology experiment.
But not.
Then there’s just sitting around on the sofa all day feeling sorry for myself.
But the danger then is that P will put something on the t.v. even more depressing than I feel, like how the Yellowstone volcano is going to erupt any day now and kill everyone on the whole earth.
O.K. that’s not exactly true, but apparently we’ll all be pretty screwed.
P’s a bit of an extinction nut.
Nut being the operative word.
Nothing like a geologist major to keep your chin up, what what!
And anyway, I did that yesterday.
Then, of course, there are the billions of stones waiting for me in the studio of which I’ve chosen one or two to try to keep the boredom away.
I actually tried designing a jewelry line for wholesale and I did quite well I think. But then I got even more bored with the idea of making the same pieces of jewelry over and over and over again and had to come inside to lay down.
I tell you.
I’m so lazy.
Whatever happens I know that I’ll be off in a minute to that large place up the road that sells food.
The kids are coming for dinner and we will have English soul food.
A proper Sunday roast.
For S, who is American and who likes it and that’s good enough for me.
I shall get out the special dishes for him.
Perhaps.
And finally I want to share with you a love story.
It took a while, but I think we have a connection going on.
If not love then Wally must have been unconscious when Spud snuggled up to him.
Wally doesn’t snuggle lightly.
–
And here comes the rain just to top everything off.
You see P told me that if I didn’t buy cat litter on the way home that day that I couldn’t live here any more.
Did that mean I would be locked out of my studio, I wondered quietly to myself.
I could break in the window while he was away hunting and gathering perhaps…
I got the cat litter.
I don’t like to go to PetsMart because I have to look at the cats.
I can’t look at the cats.
In fact I’ve been banned from looking at a cat from inside a five hundred feet no go zone.
Once I look at a poor forlorn PetsMart cat I’m on a downward spiral toward becoming the crazy cat lady.
I know this.
P knows this.
I can’t believe he forgot it when he told me, in no uncertain terms, to get the litter.
We can only get the sort we like at PetsMart because I kept buying every bag that was on the shelf in Kroger and I think the man got a bit fed up with having to restock the shelves.
It was just one more hassle in his stressful day.
So he discontinued it.
Darn him.
So now I have to venture into the land of abandoned cats else I become homeless myself when P chucks me out for not getting the litter.
Fortunately I made it out alive and cat free, but I did have to take a sneaky peek in the kitty kennel and found the poor soul above who just happens to look a lot like Charles. A cat relation of ours.
Who does that to a cat?
They’ve spray painted him green and purple.
It’s not even his colour.
He’s more of an Autumn, which would be browns, burnt oranges and suchlike.
See.
Blusher for Autumn Colouring
If your colouring is light you will be best in Linen or Peach.
If your colouring is medium you will be best in Peach or Almond.
If your colouring is medium to dark you will be best in Almond, Warm Blush and Fudge.
Eye Make-up for Autumn Colouring
The best eyeliner and definition colours are going to be Cocoa, Fig, Olive or Forest.
For your base shadow you can choose from Pearl, Sand or Toffee.
It’s been on my mind for a while now to stop with the fiddly things.
I’m not sorry that I made my last piece as I think I’m really getting better at soldering all the little bits together.
What I’m not good at is polishing.
I like the oxidized look, but I’m beginning to get irritated that I can’t get it to look how I want it to.
I like the fact that for it to not be oxidized I’d really have to step it up.
Shiny silver shows up every mistake.
Challenge accepted?
Maybe.
Only because I don’t like shiny as much as oxidized, but I’m thinking this will step it up for me.
We’ll see.
I don’t want to stray too far from my style, even if my style is going a little over the top right now.
Here’s the piece as finished as I could make it.
And I hate it.
What I do like is the back.
I’m thinking of making more of these for the front.
I also like the ruffle around the turquoise.
At one point I got so frustrated with the finishing that I made a real hack job of getting the stone out so that I could really get down to business.
I think I have a tendency to give up on a piece when I know I’m never going to like it and so am not as careful with it.
I’m working on that.
I didn’t mind as my intention, after I realized that the bezel wasn’t going to make it, was indeed to ruffle it and then solder a new bezel inside of the old one.
It would mean grinding away some of the width of the turquoise, but me and Jools were up for that.
That’s until I got really fed up with the thing and GLUED the stone in.
Yes.
You read it correctly.
I glued the darn stone into the bezel.
I have never done that before and have vowed never to do it again.
What happens now?
Well the piece never gets to go out into the real world.
That’s for sure.
I might keep it around to experiment more with the finishing, but it will probably find its sad self melted down at some point to become a new model.
Maybe a few of these.
I kind of like that. I even kept this one for myself.
I know!
So here’s one of my first pair of shiny earrings.
With a little tiny bit of oxidation, because I couldn’t help myself.
😉
All Spud can say about it is
When exactly did you say I can get this darn collar off!
I haven’t used the old JoolTool for a while now. Not since I learned how to fix the thing. So I thought it was time to get the old girl out and give her a whirl.
So I threw her a little turquoise.
She worked like a dream.
No showing off and throwing her attachments across the room.
I didn’t have to swear at her once.
So encouraged I got out some old sketches.
And picked one.
(That one on the left looks a bit creepy. Must have been my gothic insect period.)
And here’s the sketch posing with its forever friend.
Then I thought I’d try my luck with another piece, but although I liked it in the sketch it didn’t look as good when I started fiddling around with it.
I tried drawing it another sketch, but didn’t really like that either.
So it’s back to the drawing board with this one.
–
First up I cut out all of the leaves for the new design and soldered them onto a piece of silver sheet.
After my nice chat with the old man at the craft show I’ve started coating all of the silver with flux instead of just the parts that I’m going to solder and it does seem to prevent the fire scale.
It’s cleaned up here, but the back plate was pretty much how you see it now immediately after soldering.
Next time I am going to cover the leaves also and see what happens with them. Perhaps I can eliminate all that lovely gunk in the center.
It will be a shame to see it go as we’ve become such good friends, but…
I have already cut away the inside of the bezel here and the turquoise slips nicely through the bottom.
I like doing this as it seems to give the piece more depth.
Next up I play around with it and gather all the components that I think will work.
After I’ve worked out where the pieces are all going I draw an outline that will support everything visually.
I do this before I take all of the little pieces off, but forgot to take a photo with them all on there.
Sorry.
You’ll just have to be surprised all at the end.
Now I saw the piece out.
And file it until it’s as good as I can get it.
Next I get another sheet of silver (I’ve used 22 gauge for both pieces here) and trace around the top piece and inside the bezel area with a Sharpie.
As you can see from the photograph below, I then draw a precise grid on the silver with pencil.
And decide on a pattern for the back.
At this point it’s extremely important to be precise.
Make sure your grid marks line up as perfectly as mine below.
Now I make a hole in each area I’m going to cut out, except for the center, and saw away.
And then I file the cut out areas until I like what I see.
Next I freshen up the outline.
This helps to place the two pieces together in the exact position for soldering so that the back pattern is centered.
I know I was joking about the grids above, but this part is actually important, otherwise the back will look awful.
Been there. Done that.
Now I solder the two layers together using the special broken pick technique and at the same time I solder all the little components on.
A bit tricky, but doable…
Here’s the back.
I forgot to mention that I stamped the back before I soldered it onto the front.
You can stamp it afterward if you forget by supporting the silver on something solid that will fit into the bezel space.
I typically use one of my disk cutting punches to do this because there are enough sizes to fit into a variety of tight areas.
It can be a bit awkward balancing the piece this way but serves me right for forgetting.
Sometimes I forget to do it on purpose because I don’t know exactly where I want the stamp mark to go. Then I congratulate myself on my tricky balancing trick stamping technique.
It’s all in the perspective.
Sooo,
Next up.
The cutting out of the final shape.
–
I had to take a break here, because when I drew the final shape around the top layer I didn’t like it.
So much for planing ahead.
So I decided that perhaps I would put some more ‘stuff’ on it, but that I needed to sleep on it.
O.K. so I didn’t need to sleep on it at all, but I had to go inside to make dinner.
Hate it when that happens!
Anyone would think that P was out working all day just so I could sit in my studio and play.
The guy wants dinner as well!
Seriously.
Actually it was a good move because as soon as I opened the fridge I realized I was starving.
We had chili so’s you know.
And it was yum.
–
Now it’s the morrow and I decided I needed brain food to start my day. So I made myself my all time favourite breakfast sandwich which I reserve for important thinking days.
The toasted Philadelphia cream cheese and banana sandwich.
(It’s almost too good to share with you.)
After which I was ready to face the studio with brilliant ideas.
Or so I thought.
It started out O.K.
I added some more doohickeys.
I cut out the little drop holder area which looks uncannily like an old mans mouth with a drunken nose.
You can’t un-see that now can you
🙂
And then I added the bale.
The next step was to blacken it.
And polish it.
And therein lies the problem.
Look at it.
This smacks of my pottery making dilemma.
I can make the darn pots, but I’m always disappointed with the glazing.
If I ever go take a jewelry class it will be on polishing.
I swear, if I could make the piece and someone else polish it I would give them my first-born child.
Although that might be a bit hard as she’s 26 now and doesn’t live here anymore.
But I will track her down if it means my pieces could buff up the way I want them to.
So,
tomorrow I have decided to give it a rest and clean the house instead of going into the studio.
I know. Desperate times.
I’ve decided to give the piece a little time to knock itself out and enjoy the joke, then I’ll be back out there working on it until I either figure it out, or chuck it in the scrap box.
It’s up to you new jewelry piece.
It’s up to you…
I leave you with poor Spud.
She could care less about the drama going on in the studio.
I have struggled with making my own jump rings ever since I’ve been, well… making them. The only thing, in my opinion, more annoying than making jump rings is wire wrapping.
Fortunately I don’t care to make wire wrapped jewelry, but on the odd occasion that I need to make something requiring even the simplest wrapping technique you can believe me when I tell you it involves a lot of swearing and oftentimes the throwing of pliers.
I’ve tried lots of different methods and bought different contraptions to make jump rings, all of which make me want to pull my hair out.
I have this.
Which is great at making coils, but I’m darned if I can get that special little cutting device to work as well as it’s apparently supposed to.
When I put the coil inside the doohickey thing and run the blade through it, all of the rings smoodge down, bend out of shape and down right refuse to co-operate.
I’ve even tried taping them to keep them all lined up tightly.
But no.
I did watch a lady on Youtube yesterday thread the rings over a length of dowel, which I’ve thought of doing myself, but have never bothered with as it would mean going out and buying every different dowel size that I need.
Which is most all of them.
Still, I might give it a go as I do like to let my pent up anger out at least once a week and I’m sure this will help with that.
Until then that sweet little cutting vise thing just sits there on my table taunting me.
I think I hate it.
I also have one of these.
Which looks as though its only existence in life should be to do something wonderful.
Turns out, however, I was using it wrong.
I was supposed to be using it like this.
Should have read the instructions first I suppose.
Even so I still find it fiddly, awkward and annoying.
Aside from using these fine tools I’ve tried taping the coils and sawing them using all manner of painful hand positions.
I’ve cut them on the outside.
I’ve cut them on the inside.
I’ve used the saw by placing my hand in-between the blade and the saw frame.
I’ve even filed a groove in my trusty bench pin to lock them in place.
It has been a war people.
A war I am still determined to win!
So a word of warning:
DON’T
even think of telling me that you’ve been using this simple way of cutting jump rings all of this time as it might well be the end of our good relationship.
Yes it’s simple.
And yes I’m annoyed with myself.
But this duh moment has definitely brought a little more sunshine into my life.
So without further ado…
–
Make the coils and tape them.
Place them on the edge of a wooden block or table.
And saw them.
O.K. so I couldn’t hold the camera and the coil, so…
Now don’t laugh because however simple this seems to you I just didn’t ever think about putting the coil over the edge of a wooden block. I did it every other way imaginable, but…
O.K. so you can laugh.
It’s not actually as awkward as I make it look in the video because here I’m using a very large diameter coil which has made it a little wobbly.
Smaller coils cut like butter.
(These coils are brown because I annealed the wire first.)
Here’s what I did with mine…
16 x 10.5 mm 18 gauge ss wire jump rings.
Soldered.
Then stretched on round nose pliers.
Trying as best as possible to keep them uniform in shape.
16 x 1.5″ lengths of 18 gauge ss wire.
Ball up the ends trying to maintain a uniform length.
Buff off the roughness of the ball.
Buff down the soldered area of the links.
ALWAYSuse safety goggles and a mask.
Bend the balled up lengths.
And attach one of the links to either side.
You might need to pry open the center of the link to get the ball through. If you do, make sure you re-form the link.
Close the ball completely so that the link doesn’t move out of position.
Now you can complete the chain.
Until you have the length you desire.
To make a clasp cut a 1.75″ length of wire and ball both ends as before.
This time just bend one end the same as the others and shape the other end into the clasp end.
Every day I go into the studio just to find some excuse to take a break.
Even after just fifteen minutes.
When I can’t find a reason to leave the studio I just decide that I’m so thirsty I’ll die if I don’t get a drink stat!
What’s all that about?
Remember this.
That wouldn’t cooperate and decided that it just didn’t want to be made even though it deigned to pose to show you what you can do with all your broken pick sticks.
Well it took me three days by Jove, but eventually I was able to finish it in-between all the drink breaks and consequent rest room trips.
They’re very expensive, but I’ve had one before and I really like the quality.
You just design your logo and send them the pic.
It also took me five years to make these.
In the meantime, while I was procrastinating going into the studio by ordering more stuff, I bought a sand casting kit.
The wrong one as it turns out.
It all looked so easy on the videos, but man, that sand went everywhere. I even got some in my mouth.
It was like I was a child again.
O.K. still…
I couldn’t keep my space clean to save my life, yet the man on the video didn’t get a grain out of place.
It was very depressing.
My first casting came out so horribly that I just packed all the stuff back into the box in disgust and put the whole thing down as a waste of money.
But I really, really wanted to do it 🙁 and if that man could do it, so could I damn it!
I’d bought it on Amazon and decided to go back there to buy some different sand and try again.
The same sand that the annoyingly good at it man used.
And, while cursing myself that I always get things wrong, I decided to read the reviews on the kit I’d bought.
Now I always read the reviews before I buy anything.
Always… except for this time.
Should’ve read the darn reviews.
Everyone complained about the sand, and when I came to think about it, I couldn’t quite remember why I had bought the brand I’d gone for in the first place when it was more expensive than the brand I’d originally gone onto Amazon to compare pricing on.
The funk’s messing with my brain man!
Then I got a bit ticked off because it was 120 odd dollars and it didn’t work even though it said, new and improved sand, in big letters on the tub.
That should’ve been my first clue.
So in a fit of determination I sent the whole package back even though I’d used the sand and the casting flask had burn marks around the funnel area where I’d poured the silver in.
I told them on the little return box that I’d used it, but that it was horrible, but Amazon refunded me straight away, even before the company had received my parcel back.
I was quite impressed.
Don’t know if the sand casting people are going to be though.
Now I’ve ordered the one I wanted in the first place.
Stay tuned…
Emboldened I next contacted a nice lady on FB who reps for JoolTool.
I’d decided that I’d had enough of defective tools and products.
If you remember some of the discs that came with my JoolTool (seven of them!) kept spinning off the spindle when I was using them because their threads had worn or something.
These things are expensive and so are the adhesive pads and papers that you stick to them.
I mean this bunch right here cost over $400!
(I shouldn’t have looked at the price…)
I’d already contacted the shop a couple of months ago and no one had answered me, so I was feeling pretty taken.
BUT this rep was great and Anie, the product designer and owner, phoned me and walked me through fixing them and now they are perfect and ready to go!
Great result.
Great customer service.
Very happy camper right here.
To celebrate I have a little pair of earrings you can make.
All for you 🙂
First take 18 gauge sterling silver wire and wrap it around a mandrel six times.
I’ve used the largest ring on this pair of pliers.
It always irritates me when I get this particular pair of pliers out because I can’t remember why there is a number 1 and an asterisk on them.
I don’t think I put it on them, but why would I buy a pair that were marked?
Just another of life’s mysteries to mess with my mind…
Now snip and solder them.
Shape them into rough ovals and haphazardly hammer them.
And group them into threes.
As always I’ve forgotten the next photo which would have been of making a loop out of a thicker piece of wire.
I used 8 gauge half round wire.
Now loop the three wires through it and solder the top of the loop together.
Because the half round wire is thick I left the top of it shaped as a teardrop instead of trying to get it perfectly round.
Now find two large silver balls that you have in your silver ball scrap box and solder one onto the rounded part of the thick tear drop ring.
The next photo’s are fuzzy, sorry. I tried hard to get good ones, but, as good as I am, I couldn’t hold everything at once.
Hold the tear drop point facing down in your third hand tweezers.
If you haven’t already got third hand tweeter, get some.
They’re invaluable.
Saves a lot of hospital visits.
Now make sure that all of the soldered areas of the thin large rings are facing down away from the tear drop and place one of those old pick sticks through the tear drop to separate the three rings from the soldered part of the tear drop.
This will help prevent the tear drop solder flowing onto the three rings while you’re soldering the ball onto the round part of the tear drop.
Capisce!
Put some flux on top of the round end of the tear drop and on the bottom of the ball.
Heat the bottom of the ball and pick up a melted ball of solder with it.
Now heat up the round end of the tear drop and solder the ball onto it.
Turn the tear drop over and clasp it in the third hand, again putting the broken pick stick between the bottom of the three rings and the inside of the round end of the tear drop as before.
Get a little jump ring and place it in your third hand with the join facing downward and put some flux on the bottom of the jump ring and on the tear drop end of the large ring.
Gently heat the jump ring and pick up a small piece of solder as you did with the ball.
Now heat the tear drop end keeping the jump ring away from the flame, but close enough to stay heated and when the solder is ready touch the jump ring to the tear drop end.
Pickle the earrings.
Make some ear wires.
And polish the way you desire.
And voilà!
Your earrings are ready.
Now you can knock yourself out and make as many variations as you want.
I tried a different way to connect the ear wire here, but don’t like it as much as the other way.
Always good to experiment though
😉
I leave you with the progress of the painting.
And,
you might want to look away…
a poor me sawing injury
because when you’re in a funk normal activities take on a life of their own and like to do things to make you swear.
So I got this far and then decided I was bored with it.
So I moved over to the jewelry area and half heartedly played around with some sketches and stones.
And decided on the spider one.
Even though I knew that it really wasn’t ever going to be the same as the drawing.
Just to step it up a bit I used one of my new stamps on it.
And then soldered it onto a back plate that was way too large for it.
That annoyed me as I usually pay a lot of attention to the amount of silver I waste to the point that I often have zero wiggle room to work with which also annoys me because then it’s touch and go that I’ve enough silver around the piece to do what I want with.
Guess the search for a happy medium continues…
Now I will share with you a tip for what to do with all your old pick sticks.
I don’t know about you, but after a while my picks start to loosen from their wooden handle. Even though I try to ignore it for a while they eventually start to swivel in the handle when I’m doing the picking thing with them.
I still try to ignore it, but then it just begins to get ridiculous and I can’t do a thing with them.
That’s when I get excited because I remember that hey! I can just buy a new one.
I’m a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.
So, not one to be wasteful, (apart from the huge amount of silver waste above), I keep the pick ends and use them to prop up pieces when I’m soldering.
See.
Anyway, long story short, it all looks good here, but the soldering flopped due to the funkness and then I had to go in to make dinner…
Not before I added a bit more to the painting though.
So… that’s it.
In other news, while I was bored with it all and in one of my funks, I bought a new table top to add to the jewelry bench area and now it feels more complete.
I’m telling you, that small Swedish store is a blessing when you need a funk distraction.
Now my jewelry area is fantabulous.
And I feel very fortunate.
And just so the painting side of the studio didn’t feel left out I bought it a new table and drawers also.
That side is still a bit of a mess, but I’m working on it…
But look at all my pastels!
They have a happy home…
🙂
AND last, but not least, I have to tell you that I’ve hit another milestone.
It all started when I stumbled across a series on Youtube called JTV Rock Star Designer because I was too bored to bother going into the studio and needed some inspiration.
I’ve suffered through all six episodes so far, and now have to wait until next week to find out who the two finalists will be. I think the winner gets to design a jewelry line for JTV.
I’m actually very surprised at how horrible the jewelry is and that, in the six hours they’re given to complete a piece, they can’t seem to make something that looks a little more professionally finished, but I suppose they’re under a lot of pressure. Also they’re only given half an hour to come up with an idea. That would be the hardest part for me as I generally make it up as I go along.
They’re also given some pretty gruesome materials to work with.
I’m not particularly impressed with the show, but of course now I have to finish watching it.
Then I discovered the artist videos and I love them.
It makes me want to go back to art school.
I went to Winchester School of Art in the U.K. What I wanted to be was a painter, but somehow I ended up in the sculpture department. I still would like to be a painter, but I’ve never given myself enough time to really get into it and now I just end up making piddly paintings which I enjoy, but which aren’t real paintings in my opinion.
Now these artists are making me a little sad that I never really gave myself to it.
I did love making the sculptures. I especially liked working out how the darn things would actually stand up and not kill someone.
I still think about making a sculpture of a woman sitting with her beautiful legs crossed in her beautiful designer clothes using nothing but used fake finger nails. I mean, what do they do with all of them once they’re done. I imagine that there are bazillions of them, in all shades of lovely, somewhere out there filling land fills and waiting to destroy our world.
Perhaps she could be having drinks with a refugee.
Who knows.
So I got my degree and then, nothing.
Well, there was the marriage part, and then the kids part, so it wasn’t exactly nothing.
Now it’s my part, and I’m really enjoying it.
Problem is that I’d have to get up before yesterday and go to bed after tomorrow, to be able to do all the things I’d like to.
Just pick one laddie!
Anyhow, so while I’ve been away I’ve been dreaming of all the things I started out to be and how I need to start being them.
The time is now people!
We just need to get down and be the people we know we are inside and stop fussing around with all the other stuff.
It takes me a while to get back to normal after my family leave.
I like to sit around wallowing for a couple of days.
I also like to give up cooking, stop going to the grocery store and stay in bed for a little longer.
O.K. so I always stay in bed for a little longer, but now I have a reason to.
My brain stops thinking about anything much and my head becomes a dull vacuous cave with barely enough sunlight for even the dust motes to play in.
(Too much?)
But I have got a great new studio to get back to.
When K was here we found a small backwoods furniture shop called IKEA and bought me some new stuff 🙂
It was a great opportunity to get this done as my sister was able to lift all the heavy stuff while I directed.
She didn’t complain once about her RA, but I did have a sore finger and couldn’t quite manage.
Actually we found a nice man who put everything into the back of the car before I could turn around to help him.
If only he’d waited.
Now I have drawers.
And super solid work surfaces instead of the jumble of old tables I used to have.
I still have my old table that I do most of the work on because the new ones were too long for the space, but I put a plank on two of my little drawer things and now I have a shelf and even more drawers to keep my bezel wire, silver plate and the small useful things which clutter the table when they’re not being small and useful.
I’ve still got more putting away to do, but to be honest, without K here I’ll probably try hard to ignore it, but ain’t it great 🙂
And once again I find myself here, all alone, in this strange land they call Texas.
–
It was great to see them. I really had a good time.
Dad was here for three weeks, which seemed like only one, and my sister was here for two.
Now they’re both gone.
Back to the Mother Land.
Without me.
And I had to have a little cry on the way home from the airport.
Well a howl really.
It happens.
–
I didn’t do much of anything during their visit which was nice.
Dad liked to sit outside in the 100 degree heat and read his book. I could only manage ten minutes at a time and I’ve lived here for twenty-six years.
My sister also liked to sit outside in the 100 degree heat and read her book.
Man!
You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen.
I’ve never been able to sit outside in the heat. Of all the people to come live here in sunny Houston, I was probably not the best first choice.
We went to the theatre to watch The Foreigner by Larry Shue which was really good and we had to laugh out loud.
Except it was FREEZING inside the theatre and we almost had to cry also.
I know, I know.
It’s too hot, it’s too cold. What’s a girl to do.
Live in Hawaii that’s what…
Anyway we didn’t ‘do’ the Space Center because it was like 100+ degrees and the thought of being outside on their little open air tram tour seemed a little…well, hot, but P did take my dad fishing five times! because out in the bay where the air is so still that the water doesn’t move and the heat beats down on you to the point where you think your brain is frying and you can’t see the shore line which is your only hope for survival and you begin to think you’re living in some strange hallucinatory land from your worse nightmare is exactly what the doctor orders for all 85 year old men.
Did they listen to me?
No.
And what did we get to show for the worry?
One little fish.
But
Dad survived to live another day and I think enjoyed living on the edge even if it did nothing but to prove that we’d never survive on their hunting and gathering skills.
My sister, on the other hand, found that worrying about whether your fishing skills are sufficient for survival meant nothing compared to being taken aside into the ‘special’ room at the airport because your hands show evidence of recent exposure to explosive materials.
We think that the only possible explanation for her detainment could be that we had been in my studio just before we left for the airport. Who knows what chemicals are lurking there. Fortunately I don’t know what to do with any of them except to make jewelry and my sister definitely doesn’t know what to do with them.
Thankfully she passed their second test and so avoided the ‘extra special’ room where she believed that the latex glove worn by the nice security lady may well have been put to good use.
Whew!
Sorry K.
So, now they have gone
🙁
And I’m still here
🙁
It will be O.K.
–
Send chocolate…
–
I leave you with a photo of the only family I have left.
Aside from the two humans who live here.
And Pickles who doesn’t like to socialize with the local riff-raff.
It’s just been a weird month that plugged into my hypochondriacal, so I’m going to die now am I, self, which only stopped yesterday afternoon.
Nope it wasn’t big.
Loads of people go through it.
BUT
I didn’t like it and I felt really really sorry for myself and really really annoyed that I was feeling sorry for myself and everything screeched to a stop as I planned for how I was going to react to my biopsy being positive.
Told you.
Hypochondriac.
Actually my doctor said that she had seen hypochondriacs and that I wasn’t one, but I’m pretty good at hiding my secret life of health anxiety so she didn’t know that I had already planned my funeral and given away all of my jewelry tools.
(Penny, you would have hit the jackpot! Especially as my imminent death didn’t stop me from buying more.)
Sooooo,
That’s about it folks.
I made it.
I’m still here.
And now that’s over I’m going to take my jewelry to the next level.
Again.
–
In other new.
My dad’s here so that has also slowed down my days.
But I did manage to finish a piece for Leslie.
I’ve also finished a second piece for Leslie to consider, but I don’t like it and can’t concentrate as much as I would like to at the moment on making something better.
And before dad arrived I made a chain.
My first.
And I was pretty darn pleased with myself.
I started on a double one, but got the gauge wrong and haven’t been able to start another yet.
If you want to make chains this is a really good dvd.
And they’re really not as fiddly as you think they’re going to be.
Of course I haven’t got on to the triple double o.m.g. one yet so I’ll have to get back to you on that.
Throughout my trauma Spud has slept.
Without a care in the world.
Just to rub it in.
But I still love her.
Even though I had to restock on phone charging wires and computer leads.
She doesn’t discriminate. P’s leads are as much in danger as mine.
And she comes onto the bed at all hours of the night when she decides she needs to spend a couple of hours purring next to a human head at decibels exceeding those made by a pneumatic drill.
It’s all good.
–
And finally, to all of my cyber friends who need a boost.
Just a small one concerning those parts of the body that an old grandma might refer to as the ‘unmentionable’ bits.
It was nothing EXCEPT that I had to sign my life away, have HALF the blood drained out of me, have an EKG AND a chest x-ray, AND was asked if I have a living will and, just to make me feel really good, would I like to have the chaplain visit me…
These people obviously didn’t know I’m a hypochondriac.
On top of that I had the added pleasure of paying thousands of dollars for the privilege.
We’re lucky to have care when we need it, but how on earth do people manage if they haven’t got thousands.
All the people in the hospital, except the mean looking desk lady who didn’t know how to smile, were really nice.
Not that I felt like hanging around or anything,
but really nice.
I got to wear the long white victorian tights, the puffy purple gown with the vacuum pipe attachment, and that nice deli counter cap.
Why can’t they just put that thing on you when you’re not looking? I mean, they do everything else while you’re sleeping…
I didn’t want to go and don’t mind telling you that I felt very sorry for myself.
I had to toss up between going in to hospital for a couple of hours with living in one of George Martin’s books or turning myself in for a fifteen month prison sentence – voluntarily.
We’ve just started to watch Orange is the New Black. Not sure that I like it, but it certainly came in handy for weighing up my options.
As for George Martin. What the hell’s going on in The Game of Thrones anyway.
All you get is the boy who can’t walk being dragged around in his little caddie chair and dreaming about crows and doing his eye rolling thing. I don’t know where he thinks he’s going. I don’t think he knows either. The tall soldier lady dragging around her one handed captive. Stark’s ward sniveling like a little boy in the corner and not doing anything to help out anyone. O.K. so I know he was tortured, but get a grip man! The oldest daughter just sulks around in fine dresses. The youngest daughter stabs anyone she can get her hands on with her little sword and looks like she smells bad. And dragon lady just wanders around messing in other people’s affairs and generally not really doing much but looking pretty. John Snow just is, and the poor half crusty girl has to sit in her little dungeon room all day reading books.
I only like the dwarf.
Now we have to wait until we get to watch season 6 and I will have forgotten everything that happened and why it happened so none of this will matter anyway.
But with all these options available to me surgery was the least worrying.
Except it messed with my brain man…
And when my brain gets messed with it thinks that this
Is the same size as this.
But it’s not.
And now you have enough big beautiful blue/green rock to make more cabochons than you can count on two hands, which is roughly about one hand too many.
But, I did get a gift.
Because the nice rock man probably knew my brain was a mess.
Oh well.
Could have been worse.
It has got to the point where I daren’t let P into the studio anymore.
If he knew the extent of my (let’s call it) habit I might end up needing surgery on more than my unmentionables.
In other news:
Spud is a nightmare and likes to use Pickles as a spring board to elevate herself to higher levels. Fortunately Pickles is so fat that she doesn’t even know this is happening.
The 100 day project stopped for a couple of days because of Tuesday and the whole brain short circuiting thing, but should be up and running again soon.
I dropped my laptop (again) and now it likes to do its own thing even though I press all of its buttons.
Probably because I press all of its buttons.
And I’ve made a few pieces of jewelry including this
And these.
And I’m just now starting another pendant with one of my new favourite stones.
For anyone out there who would like a comprehensive tutorial on prong setting, bezel setting, and flush setting faceted stones, Ann Cahoon has one of the better demonstrations I’ve watched.
You can download it to watch immediately or purchase the dvd.
And here’s another piece I’ve just finished because I know you were wondering.
I’ve decided that my next pieces will concentrate on finishing and polishing.
Jane I know you asked, but I’m really not that good at it.
For the pieces I make with the leaves I simply buff the hell out of them using one of these
These
And these.
The bottom two make it easier to reach into the nooks and crevasses.
You can also use fine sandpaper.
I know steel wool will work also, but I threw mine away because it hurts.
All those tiny slithers of steel get into your skin and even if you wear gloves there are still stragglers on your bench etc..
They really hurt.
I know, I’m a weeny.
I actually find it very hard to finish my pieces.
My journey to correct this starts now…
stay tuned.
When I get frustrated I take it out on a perfectly innocent canvas.
Sorry canvas.
As you all may know by now I start a lot of paintings, but rarely finish any of them.
I’ve decided not to let it bother me and just enjoy the flow.
Perhaps I’ll get to finish this one as I’m pretty sure my acetylene is going to run out at any minute and I won’t be able to replace the tank until later next week.
I’ve spoken about my cabochon habit before, but today I thought I’d fess up.
They do say that admitting it is the first step to recovery.
Don’t judge me.
They actually are more beautiful that the photo’s give them credit for. The colours didn’t come out well.
I took them so that I could keep an eye on what they’re doing and print them out to design around.
Somehow I’ve got to set them before P sends the van to take me away.
I did make some pieces recently that I didn’t show you.
One of the custom pieces.
Which was followed by his friend who didn’t want to be left out.
And I started another painting.
In other news.
Spud is causing as much trouble as she possibly can.
Except when she’s so tired she just has to fall asleep wherever she happens to be.
Here she is at the vets
And this is what she thought about it.
I think she’s actually been sent here to cure me of my need for material things as she and Nutmeg continually race back and forth until all my things get broken.
And all my computer and phone wires get chewed through.
I came across the 100 day project and thought why not.
Trouble is I didn’t know what I’d want to do for a hundred days.
I’m not usually up for challenges as I believe they are set ups for failure, but I thought, hey, I might give this one a go.
So I decided I could either:
1. Make a piece of jewelry every day, but as I pretty much do that already it kind of seemed a bit like cheating.
2. Clean a little part of the house every day… Nah. Don’t think so.
3. Stop drinking wine for a hundred days.
That would definitely be a set up for failure.
4. Take a photograph.
5. paint a picture.
6. Create a doodle.
Etc., etc., etc…
I could do all of these things, but my dad’s coming to visit within the hundred day period, and my sister, and I don’t want to take up my time with them. It would have to be something I can do that doesn’t mean going into the isolation tank for long periods of time.
And, of course, number 2 would just about do me in and that wouldn’t be fair to my visitors, or to me.
So I chose Cornelius.
Remember?
My little botanical book?
Titled.
The Ledgers Ledgendof Cornelius Audenberry III.
Intrepid Explorer and Royal Botanist to HRH Significanta Regina, Queen of Spry.
I started it when I was creating a run of triffid paintings.
Of which, you can be assured, there are many more.
And of course each triffid begged for a story.
Well, o.k. they didn’t actually beg, but rather was given one whether they liked it or not.
And so began Cornelius’ adventures to document the wildly fantastic flora of the Copstan Islands.
Of course his voyage on the Encumbrance had to be postponed due to his narrator taking all of the time she could be writing making jewelry instead, and whining about the house keeping, so to Cornelius the 100 day project seems to be a brilliant idea.
(Or not)
And one that I can easily do when my dad and sister come.
At first I thought I’d give myself a word or page goal for each day then I realized that I really just needed to write anything and not worry about giving myself rules.
So today is day four.
And I’ve already discovered a new member of the crew.
Who knew!
I usually get caught up in grammar and spelling and reorganizing the words, but this time I am simple writing it down.
One day at a time.
–
Other news.
Here’s a picture I’m working on because I was getting a little bored with the jewelry.
It’s got nothing to do with Cornelius as this is an entirely different world which he hasn’t discovered yet.
One day he was there, rummaging around his cage, making important decisions like what to have for lunch. Oh yeah, that dried up food in that little bowl there. That’ll do.
Then he got pneumonia.
And died.
He went to the vets.
Had an x-ray (don’t talk to me about it)
Got medicine and special care food.
Came home with a 50/50 chance.
And died.
S cried.
I cried.
And all I could think about was how I called him a sex offender.
Not to his face though, so that must count for something.
Yes?
🙁
S kept him overnight in one of the small dorm room fridges that came home with one of the kids (don’t talk to me about that either) and he’s now on his way back to his college town to bury Guiness. I know. Strange lad, but apparently all of his college buddies had been involved in Guiness’ life and S felt that he’d want to be back there…
with everyone…
I think S has forgotten that he isn’t going back there next term.
Me thinks this was just an excuse to get out of dodge.
Where’s the guinea pig love now boyo?
So he’s gone to bury Guiness.
With the hand-made ceramic bowl that he ate from.
Because it’s a king’s bowl apparently.
I daren’t ask what else he’s going to bury with it.
And when the boy is back in town things happen that you didn’t want to happen.
Like coming home to strange animals.
First there was Guiness.
Imprisoned for his sins.
(If you remember he was found guilty of the sexual abuse and consequent death of Thor. RIP)
Then Nutmet.
The clumsy kitten with diarrhea.
Thankfully that little episode is over now,
but she’s still here…
And then, just when we thought we were safe, we come home to a strange dog standing deathly still and silently staring at us with his eerie eyes.
As though he owned the place.
Actually that was kind of freaky and I was glad to find out that the boy had brought him over from a friend’s house because he was scared of the noise from the graduation party going on there and that he was going home that night.
He was just so completely quiet and his eyes, though beautiful, gave me the creeps.
Next up.
Spud!
What can I say.
Ridden with fleas. Just the way we like ’em.
Not.
Here she is preparing for the flea washing ritual.
She wasn’t happy.
It was kind of tragic seeing her cling on for dear life to the enemy.
Yes, the water of death comes from the faucet little one.
She was left utterly exhausted
But very soft and fluffy.
That’ll teach her to turn up without an invite.
Ultimately Pickles (don’t look at her fat) is just baffled as to why these creatures keep turning up
And Wally and Willow are just so over the drama already.
They can’t even be bothered to pretend they’re interested.
Meanwhile…
In the studio I’ve been working on my silver scraps.
I’ve loads of them.
Four years worth I should say, give or take a year.
This is what’s left after my scrap silver melt down extravaganza.
A while back I bought a new torch head because the one I use for soldering didn’t give out enough flame to melt anything and I was just wasting gas.
The one I use for soldering is a number ‘0’ (can there even be a number ‘0’?) and I really like it.
So, not one to mess about, I decided I’d get a number ‘4’ nozzle.
That’d show the scraps.
Well it came and veritably scared the sh@* out of me when I tried to light it.
The bang was a loud explosion of black smoke and I thought I’d have a heart attack right there at my table and no one would find me until it was time for dinner.
After the initial shock, and not one to give in to intimidation, I decided that the thing was obviously new to the game and was just adjusting itself to its new job and so I tried it again.
It scared the sh@# out of me just the same this second time,
and the third
and the fourth…
Don’t tell me I’m anything if not determined.
Eventually I decided that perhaps continuing wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had and that my heart probably couldn’t take a fifth explosion so I packed the torch head back in its box and sulked a bit before giving up on the scraps as a lost cause.
They’d have to go back to Rio.
That was until I had the bright idea of ordering a number ‘2’ head.
This one.
Now it might sound obvious to anyone reading this that a number ‘4’ was just way too large for the job I needed it for, but why the h@#$ would a jewelry store sell a torch head that could take down the Eiffel Tower just by looking at it?
Not my fault.
The number ‘2’ worked like a dream and now I have a huge stack of silver just waiting for something to do with itself.
Look at it!
It’s brilliant.
So here’s to my little scrap necklaces.
This could be the beginning of a wonderful relationship.
As usual I started off with the good intention of photographing everything I do to cut a cabochon, but then forgot.
Sorry Linda.
Sometimes I didn’t forget, but didn’t want to lose a hand.
You understand I’m sure.
Talking of hands I was listening to NPR yesterday and it was actually about how they can do hand transplants now,
but even so I didn’t feel like chancing it…
–
I start out by buying the slabs already cut.
Mainly from Natalie, because she’s got loads of them and her shop is laid out nicely so I don’t have to search around forever and get frustrated because I don’t really know what I want.
Then I take them to my new trim saw which always makes me feel irritated because somewhere in the back of my mind I have a feeling I had one before which I never used and at some time must have thrown away.
This is why you never throw out anything people!
It’s not hoarding. It’s common sense.
Saying that, I did manage to take six boxes of craft books (not that I have a problem with collecting them of course) to the charity shop yesterday.
I had to listen to S moan and groan all the while as he took them to the car. He even showed me his box wounds afterward, but why else would I have had him if not to lug things around for me is what I want to know.
So I got the trim saw from Rio Grande although I’m sure you can get it anywhere.
Armed with a mask, a pair of safety glasses, my old pottery apron and a towel hooked around the front of my neck I proceed to cut the slab into manageable sizes.
Not quite as cute a look as I usually go for, but as the saw spits out water faster than I can put in it it was that or catch pneumonia and I’ve already got a bit of a cough…
Although I’m fairly sure that they can reattach fingers more easily than hands you’ll see I prefer to push the slice through with a slab of wood.
Again a seemingly useless scrap which I was loath to throw away and yet proved itself to be of vital importance.
These are the manageable pieces.
Next I mark out the shapes I want to go for with a sharpie.
I used templates for the first four shapes and winged it for the gaspeite.
You can probably tell.
Then still with the trim saw I try to trim as much rock away as I can because I don’t want to wear out my grinding disc more than I have to.
I think it’s a great little tool, but I think if you want to make cabs for a living and not just the odd one here and there, you’ll probably want a ‘proper’ lapidary machine thingy.
Like this
Oh hell. I just found this.
Save me now.
So back to the Jool Tool Extraordinaire…
This is the diamond grinding disc which I use first.
It screws onto the spindle on top of the Jool Tool.
You can see I cleaned it for you 🙂 It was either that or the bathroom…
no brainer really.
And the idea is that you push the stone onto the disc from underneath.
The neat thing is that the discs are designed so that you can see through them as they are spinning and therefore you have more control over what you’re doing.
The speed of the disc also keeps the stone cool which is nice.
You keep the stone wet as you grind it. You can just see the little water tray underneath the wheel.
Here they are after their first round with the grinder.
Next I like to mark half way down the side of the stone and on the top for guide lines and then I sand off the edges.
Jool Tool + finger nails means never having to get a manicure again.
Priceless.
O.K. so here’s where I forgot to continue photographing.
🙁
Basically you continue to grind the stones in this manner until you get the shape you want. After that it’s just a matter of sanding the stones through all of the grits available until you get a nice finished shine.
For instance after the diamond wheel you go through the coarse, medium, fine, extra fine, 3,000 microns, 5,000 microns, and 50,000 microns sandpaper wheels. Then you use a fine cerium oxide wheel and finally a felt wheel with a polishing compound on it.
It really doesn’t take that long and it can be quite calming.
I’ve found I like to do it when I’m having a, oh my god I can’t go on, moment as it’s mind numbing yet productive.
But that’s just me.
Here’s what I did with the Gaspeite cabs.
I drew the sketch.
Around the cabs.
Set the collars.
Cut the back plate away so that the stone sits deeper into the piece for more dimension.
Soldered this onto a new back plate
Made some balls.
Worked on the bottom vine.
Cut a design out of the back and attached a hoop for the bottom vine to hang from
I finished the custom order and the lady liked it!
It was a nice surprise to hear from her that she wanted it.
The day I finished it I told P that I didn’t think I was up for any more custom orders as it was just too hard for me to get to grips with what someone really wants and then I end up wanting to under charge them because I’m unsure of myself and feel bad for them that they’ll be getting something that they don’t really want.
Etc…
Then yesterday, when I was upstairs cleaning out my ‘clean’ studio, the one where I make my quilts etc., I got an e-mail from another person wanting a custom order.
I didn’t say no.
And so it starts over…
Actually I’m looking forward to it.
(Remind me of that when I start to moan again)
In the short time it took me to give up taking custom orders and then accept another one I tackled my thirty year stash of craft books .
To be honest I didn’t think I would be up for it and P definitely had doubts.
In fact he laughed at me which was not funny and not very encouraging.
But look.
And I haven’t finished yet.
They haven’t actually made it out of the house yet, but I’m working on it.
Of course the upstairs A/C decided to pack up half way through my sorting, but I soldiered on and now I’m feeling quite pleased with myself.
They’re all going to the ministry up the road although I think that they may have to open a new room to accommodate them.
In other news,
the boy’s cat, Nutmeg,
has diarrhea.
Nope. Don’t talk to me about it.
I’m not really that put out by the sofa covers needing to be washed five hundred and sixty-three times daily.
I’ve almost completely had it now with the boredom, the bathroom, and the custom order, but at least I don’t have to worry about the cactus garden for a while now as we had 162 billion gallons of water fall here last week.
162 BILLION GALLONS!
I can’t even count that high.
P still went into work though because he’s very brave.
And stubborn.
It’s hard for me to imagine, but over 20 people lost their lives.
Now I’ve just depressed myself.
Which is all I need as I’m already depressed, and bored, even though it’s Saturday, and I like Saturdays – apart from the cleaning the bathroom part of it.
I should pick a new bathroom day.
I hate the bathroom.
Every day I have to get up and go in there.
I’m so over showering. You’ve got to get wet, get dry, find clothes…
It’s all boring.
Then you have to do it all over again the next day.
and the next…
Probably should have just stood outside with some soap during the thunderstorms instead.
So. On to the custom order.
I’m struggling.
I just can’t seem to get it right. The piece I’m making just feels too thin and blah and I’ve finally figured out that I’m trying so hard to make it just right for her, that I’m forgetting to go with my instincts.
As you know she likes this.
And so I made this
And this
And then I made this
Which, to be honest, I really don’t like that much, although I did cut the stone myself.
Pretty pleased with that 🙂
Anyway she sent me the stone she wants in it and I’m in the process of making another, but as I said, I’m just not feeling it.
So today, I’ve decided that I’m just going to go out there and stop being so precious with it and try to give it back some feeling.
I’m not upset at making the piece at all, but am very interested in how doing things for other people makes me so unsure of myself.
I’m definitely getting better at it, but it’s quite hard for me.
Of course it might not have anything to do with the custom order at all, but that I’m just in the lower part of my circle. The part where everything goes wrong and you begin to wonder whether you should just become a lollypop lady instead of fiddling around trying to make jewelry all day.
But I’m just not sure that the outfit would look as good on me.
Here’s another piece that went so wrong that I had to take it in a completely different direction from the original design.
And so what have I learned from all of this you may be wondering?
Not to try so hard and to loosen up a bit.
Otherwise just order the yellow coat already and stop moaning.
Maybe it’s the weather. It’s done nothing but rain since I woke up two months ago, and although I like it I think it might be making me a bit moody.
The garden is loving it though.
I’ve been thinking about water a lot just recently, and how we use it, and I’m pondering over whether I want to plant a cactus garden in the back instead of my wanna be English garden.
There’s this lady round the corner, Alice, and her native Texan garden is beautiful.
Garden envy.
I have it.
P doesn’t but look.
Of course, you wouldn’t want to be pushing anyone over into the flower beds
Or go around acting like the crazy Medusa lady
But it could be very calming
Especially if you throw in one of those blue doors as well.
Now I’ve just got to get P on board and work up the energy to get myself going.
Could be a while.
Through the boredom of it all I’ve still been making jewelry.
And teaching myself to cut stones
But I really haven’t been in the studio much these past weeks.
I’ve also been fiddling around with the embroidery.
I’m practicing for a big one.
And I really might have to make myself one of these.
Because it’s beautiful.
🙂
Other than that there’s not a lot going on really except I’m reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt which has started off beautifully.
I thought I might have to give the murder mysteries a rest for a while as they were all running into one another which wasn’t really helping my powers of deduction. I was getting a little confused as to the best way to knock P off if he doesn’t come around to the cactus garden soon.
The perfect murder just doesn’t work when you get muddled with too many options and I ain’t prepared to get caught over a succulent just yet.
I finished the beast by taking out the Serpentine stone after I gouged a great big 5mm wide trough through it from one side to the other and managed to work with it on the Jool Tool (beginning to like this thing) until it was looking better.
I found that Serpentine, at least the ones I have, are very crumbly and I’m not completely sure I like that.
I worked with it as much as I could, but it isn’t one of my better pieces.
I think I set myself up for the fall because in the back of my mind I didn’t think I’d done the best job I could with forming the stones.
You can see from the above that the bottom bezel is too high, and the top bezel is just annoying because the bottom edge of its collar soldered to the top edge of the middle bezel’s collar and I had to saw it apart.
I say I had to. I could have sweated the three bezel collars off and started over, but, as I said, I don’t think I ever thought it was going to be a good piece in the first place and believe I set myself up for sabotage.
Oh the dark inner workings of our minds…
I like the back though 🙂
I’ve been cleaning up my work for the art fair on Saturday and reworking some pieces that I don’t really care for.
I hate cleaning the jewelry, but wouldn’t be seen dead trying to sell it without it being its absolute best. As a consequence I’m probably not taking the beast.
Unless little pixies break into the studio between now and Saturday and work some magic on it.
Could happen.
I finished the second needlework piece.
And started another.
And that’s about it really.
Except I’m fiddling around with a new website as, although I like the Wix one I have, I’ve discovered that Indiemade seems easier to use.
I’m not sure about it yet.
And I’m just about to send off $800 to Care for the Nepal disaster so guess what?
This week I’ve only managed to make horrible things.
Not only are they horrible, but they took years to make.
It was like drowning.
So I’ve decided to knock it on the head for a bit. For the rest of the week I’m just going to just clean up my jewelry for the art festival in May, work on my embroidery thing,
and I’ve an itch to paint, although we all know how that will turn out.
By the end of the week I’ll have not only drowned in the horror of it all, but sunk to a depth I’ll never be able to rise from.
Again.
Even my woes are feeling woeful for themselves at the moment, and I have injuries.
Deceivingly tiny, but very sore, hand injuries.
That Jool Tool, I’m telling you. I might have to start wearing the little green tape on my fingers that came with it.
I simply just can’t go on like this.
I need my skin.
I bought these a while back and, although they’re beautiful, I just wasn’t going anywhere with the shape.
I set one in a bracelet and absolutely hated it.
Every time I looked at it, it made me cringe.
In the end I took it out and the relief was overwhelming.
So I decided to cut them up, along with another stone that I’d put in the, nope, don’t like that either, pile.
And then I polished them along with my fingers.
And I thought I’d done a fairly good job even though I hadn’t exactly matched the sizes
🙁
But that was O.K. because I decided that I’d break them all up anyway and use them in different pieces rather than the earring pairs I was initially going for.
Yes it looks fine here, but I should have taken warning from the earrings I struggled with the previous day, which almost drove me nuts and used up a quarter tank of acetylene to boot.
So now all I’m left with are horrific pieces of, dare I call them, jewelry, and a whack to my confidence.
On the upside, however, it will be all fun and games at the immigration center again when it comes to taking my fingerprints for my green card.
Maybe I should take my Jool Tool along with me and they can scrape some of them off there.
It’s talking about ceramics, and someone who died in 1995 I think.
I google translated it.
So I found a website that explained how to pronounce the characters to me.
I watched all five videos.
It didn’t much help because I still don’t know what it all means, but I might go back and try again as the man made it seem so simple. It’s a lot of remembering though, and I’m not that good at remembering.
I might not bother with it, but what if I’m stranded in Japan one day, in the countryside where no one speaks English and I haven’t eaten in weeks and am close to death.
I suppose I could draw pictures, but, I mean, it might come in handy then.
Right?
So I can feel it in my bones that today is going to be a battle between making another piece of jewelry, or cleaning the bathroom – again!
Man the whole bathroom thing is getting old.
But don’t worry, I’ll be o.k….
probably.
So I wish you all a happy Sunday, unless you live in Singapore (Hi Soo), where it’s Monday, then I wish you a happy Monday or any other day that it happens to be where you live.
I’ve never embroidered before, just cross stitched, and I must say I’m enjoying this more. I can do it faster and get more detail. I’m half way through another and after I’ve practiced more I think I’ll make a big one.
I also finished this pendant.
I bought the bottom Sonora Dendrite, but formed the other on my super duper Jool Tool. Still can’t quite get a good shine yet, but on the whole it’s very exciting.
So I made a few tube settings and, although it goes against every grain in my body, wouldn’t you know it, slow and sure wins the day.
Almost.
I also wanted to start using up the huge bowl of scrap silver I have sitting beside me.
Taunting me always in the corner of my eye.
So I used that in the earrings also.
Except for when I used my favourite grey pearls.
Here’s how I made them.
I started by cutting a silver tube which has a slightly larger diameter than the width of the stone, (half millimeter or so), into the lengths I needed to accommodate the depth of the stones.
with this handy, but annoying tube cutting thing.
I used to hold it in my hand to cut the tubes, but found that you really need to have hands the size of André the Giant to hold it steady and put your thumb over the lever at the same time, so now I place it upright in my table vise which holds it brilliantly as I saw through the tubes.
I tell you this only to save you from the inevitable agony of carpal tunnel syndrome and the irritation that goes with taking forever to figure these things out…
or is this just me?
So the second annoying thing about the tube cutter thing is that, however hard I try, I cannot get the edges to cut flush and have to spend loads of awkward time fiddling around filing them flat after they’re cut.
See.
So this time, after I cut the tube to the lengths I needed, I put them in this fine little contraption thing.
And, once I got the hang of it and figured out that they didn’t just include that nifty little allan key for amusement’s sake, I found I could put the little cut pieces of tube in it and file the edges flush more easily.
So, I know what you’re thinking.
Why, for the love of god didn’t she put the whole darn tube in the fine little contraption thing to begin with and saw the lengths of tubes she needed in that instead of faffing around with the first stupid tube cutter thing?
WELL DON’T ASK ME!
Don’t talk to me about it. Don’t even think to roll your eyes.
I just didn’t is all – because I can’t use that special, I look as though I can do everything easier, fine little contraption thing either.
It’s just too darn fiddly and I can never get the thing tight enough to keep the tube steady even with the nifty allan key thing which keeps eyeing me in that, you don’t really know what you’re doing way.
Guess I haven’t got the touch.
But practice makes perfect and I’m determined to get it down sometime this century.
O.K. so the tubes are cut, and filed, and a little silver disc has been soldered to their bottoms.
Ready for their next adventure.
And this is the bit that I haven’t quite got down yet.
(Well aside from cutting the tubes…)
(And holding the annoying tube cutting thing…)
(And tightening the nifty contraption…)
I’ve looked at the books and seen the pictures and have a general idea of what I’ve got to do, but I haven’t quite managed to completely figure out how to seat the stone so that it sits absolutely flush when I try to put it in the tube.
I eventually get there, except for the ones above with the pearls hanging from them which annoy me every time I look at them, but I just know that it shouldn’t be as hard as I’m finding it.
I’m determined to figure it out.
One stone setting book said that the method I used above will never work as, however thick the rim of the tube is, it just ain’t gonna happen.
Perhaps I should have believed it.
It says that instead you need a tube for the width of the stone, then another, smaller tube set inside the larger one which will become the seat of the stone.
But I didn’t have a tube small enough in diameter to fit inside the first tube, so I couldn’t do it that way.
I’m going to give it a go as soon as I figure out how I can improvise without having to buy every darn width of tubing that has ever been made.
So up next…
Tube making
Exciting, yes?
O.K. so then I drilled out the tube with my stone setting bur so that the stone could sit in there nicely even though it didn’t really want to.
And then soldered all the earring components onto the tubes.
This one is for the last pair. For the top three pairs of earrings I also soldered the silver drops onto them at this stage.
Next I got out my box of special bezel punch things.
Which I really like to look at even when I’m not using them as they look so neat. And I chose the one that fit over the tube I was setting and tapped down on it to push the silver over the stone.
For the first three pairs of earrings it worked fine, but for the fourth I decided to try the old tried and tested way of pushing the sides over with my bezel pusher.
I think I like this way better because I could actually see the rim moving over the stone which gave me more confidence that the stone wouldn’t fall out afterward.
Its a trust thing.
And that’s it.
I’m still not completely happy with them so I’m going to practice some more. I want to eventually be able to make them without having to fiddle around so much, because, as a friend would say,
So, this isn’t for all you seasoned solderers out there, but is instead for anyone who is a relative beginner and who feels that they could do with some practice.
To begin at the end, here’s what you’ll accomplish.
Everything on this bracelet is soldered, but you can choose to not solder the connecting rings if you don’t mind being called a chicken…
‘sall I’m saying.
The reason why this is a good chain to practice on is that the solder doesn’t have to be perfect.
Of course, by the end of the bracelet you should have it down pat, but for this purpose, as long as the solder joins the two ends together, you’re good. The annoying lumps and bumps that a beginner may experience won’t be as obvious in the end result because of the nature of the link and so you can still use them without getting upset that they’re not perfect.
By the end of the project you should have the hang of soldering a link together without using too much, or not enough, solder.
NOTE: I’ve found that when excess solder overflows the joint you are closing you often see a slight discolouration at the area it’s flooded on to, especially as the piece of jewelry tarnishes. This is due to the difference in the composition of the solder to the silver. Pickling the bracelet after soldering may help this, but you can also sand the joints to remove some of the excess once the links are shaped, and before the final finish is applied.
This project really is just a good exercise to help you figure out how much solder to use, how it flows, and how to apply it.
Warning:
Prepare yourselves. It really is a fantabulous bracelet and all your friends will want one.
Note: Ideally you will need both medium and easy solder for this project. You will solder the large links with the medium, and the small links with the easy.
By using the easy solder on the small links there is less risk of the medium solder on the large links melting again as medium solder has a higher melting temperature than the easy.
I only used the easy solder, but just wanted you to know that I tend to wing it.
(The links above are just some of the tools I use. There are many other choices out there).
–
Note:
Depending on the length you want your bracelet to be you can easily add or subtract links to this design, therefore, you may need either more, or less, of the materials above.
–
To make the links.
I used my Pepe jump ring maker, but you can easily improvise by using any type of rod that is close to the sizes needed and that you can wrap your silver around tightly.
The mandrel I used for the larger link is 9mm. (This refers to the inside diameter).
You will need enough coil to make 26 jump rings.
Cut the coil off the mandrel and wrap it with scotch tape. This will prevent the rings moving around as you saw them.
Now cut through the coil either with your jewelry saw.
Or you can use your wire cutters to snip each ring apart. Just be sure to keep turning the wire cutters around so that the flush side of the cutters snip the inside of the jump ring. This provides a flush cut for soldering.
Close the jump rings together making sure that the joins are tight, flush and clean otherwise the solder won’t join them.
(Note: The links are not yet completely closed in the photograph above.)
Now dab a little flux on each join and face the joins in the same direction on your soldering block. This makes it easier for you to find the area you are going to join as the flux will bubble when heated and you may not necessarily be able to see clearly where to apply the solder.
There are many ways to solder jump rings, including sweat soldering, but I like to cut small pieces of solder wire and place them on the soldering block a little apart from the rings. I separate the pieces slightly from each other and they are then ready to heat up as I need them.
Until you get to know which size a piece of solder needs to be for a particular join you can cut various sizes to experiment with. You’ll find that you really do not need that much solder to join a link. If you were to solder very fine jump rings, for instance, you would find you need barely any solder and that small chips would work best.
Gently heat one of the jump rings by moving the flame around the ring. Now move the flame to the solder pieces and gently heat one into a ball. Heat your pick at the same time. Now you’ll find you can pick up the ball of solder with the end of the pick by simply touching the pick to the ball.
Now take the ball to the jump ring and hover it above the join. As the flame gently reheats both the ring and the solder you can now touch the ball to the join and it should attach itself to the ring. Take the pick away and move the flame around the ring until the solder flows.
Look carefully at the direction of your flame as the solder will want to flow towards the heat. If you are not heating up the silver evenly the solder will move towards the heat and perhaps away from the join. In which case there will be no connection. If this happens just back off with your flame and then slowly re introduce the heat to the other side of the join. Now move the flame evenly around the ring until the solder flows over the join.
You are not heating the solder, but rather bringing the temperature of the silver gently up to the point where the solder will flow over it. The solder has a melting point lower than the silver so it will flow before the silver melts and therefore will, (if the join is clean and flush), fill the join.
Keep an eye of the silver. If it starts to glow, remove the heat as this is a sign that the silver is about to melt. Let the silver cool down slightly and then introduce the heat to try again.
As you come to heat the next jump ring bear in mind that the soldering block is already hot from joining the first jump ring. You’ll find that you don’t need to heat the following rings as much.
By the time you have soldered the 26 jump rings, you will have hopefully become an expert at applying the perfect amount of solder to the join.
If not, you’ll just have to make another one 🙂
Now quench the rings in water.
I don’t clean the rings at this point.
Next I used this small oval mandrel to knock the edges of my rings out of shape. If you don’t have something like this you can keep the links round.
By hammering the link roughly on the mandrel you are creating an irregular shape which will hide any imperfections you may have created with your soldering.
You can skip this part if you don’t have a small mandrel because you are still going to whack the links by holding them flat to your metal block with pliers (to save your fingers) and roughly hammer around the surface.
Do this to each ring and then make the small jump rings, as before, but with your 4.5mm mandrel.
Don’t solder the small jump rings yet.
Close four of the larger links into one of the smaller links keeping the soldered areas on the large links as far away from the small link as you can. This helps prevent the solder on the larger links reheating and soldering each other together.
Now place the small link in a third hand.
Try to keep a gap between the third hand and the join of the small link (which should be at the top) and then solder the join of the small link using flux and the ball method.
Try not to use too much flux. You need just enough for the solder to flow, but too much will just bubble and, (I have found), gunk up in a sticky mess.
Carefully move the flame over the small link. Don’t keep the flame in one place for too long. Soldering this small link can be tricky, but with practice you’ll get the hang of it. Keeping the larger links dirty helps prevent them from soldering themselves onto the small link as solder does not want to flow over a dirty surface.
You can skip soldering the small links if you want to, but then you wont have accomplished the fiddly, I can do it, part of the project.
It’s o.k. 🙂
Once you have soldered the small link you can go ahead and make up the bracelet by adding the links two by two until you have the length you desire.
Now you will add two more small jump rings to one end of the chain, and one 3mm jump ring to the last of the small ones. This last smaller link is the one you will add your toggle to.
I forgot to take a photograph of this at the time, but here’s a close up of the finished piece.
Solder each jump ring together.
Hammer your 1″ length of 14 gauge wire to make the toggle end of your clasp.
Then solder this onto the last small link of the chain.
I thought I could get away with one less small link here, but I found that there wasn’t enough leeway for the bar to go through the opposite end link to close the chain.
I deliberately made that mistake so that you wouldn’t have to 😉
Now you can pickle and clean the chain.
For a consistent look you can hammer around the small link with a small headed hammer to match the irregular look of the larger links. Skip this part if you haven’t soldered the small jump rings as the links won’t stay closed nicely once you’ve hammered them.
Now you can finish your chain in the way you prefer, either by tumbling, using liver of sulphur, or just by buffing it as I have done here – and enjoy 🙂
At this point you may never want to solder another jump ring again, but hey, the possibilities are endless…
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Disclaimer: I am just a somebody muddling through. This is the way I do things. I am a wing it, try it, do it wrong, try again, sort of person. I do not maintain that I know what I am doing, only that I am trying to do it. Please feel free to enjoy my discoveries but follow your own research for professional advice and to perfect your skills. Above all, enjoy. Life is short.
I think something more to do with the actual making of jewelry rather than just the showing and telling bit, although I never did get to do that at school and am just beginning to see what I missed out on.
I know, poor baby, that was a huge chunk of my childhood down the drain right there.
It happens.
I got over it.
Actually I didn’t because I didn’t know there was anything I had to get over, but I will tell you that I have learned a lot sharing with you here and I recommend putting yourself out there to everyone.
O.K. I’m rambling. You didn’t know I did that did you?
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Stone Setting…
Ticks me off.
I’m not talking about the cabochon settings I do as I seem to have those down now, but rather the shiny, let’s put one of those in a ring settings.
This is how it usually goes when I want to try something new.
I think about it, think about it, and then I think about it some more. Sometimes for months. The cabs, perhaps a year. And then suddenly, before I even know what hit me, I start making them all of the time and voilà, I’m in the cab club.
Well the other shiny kind of stone setting has been roaming around in the back of my head now for quite some time.
I’ve dabbled, and generally get by, but I cannot tell you that I can wake up in the morning and say, right then, time to set a shiny stone into one of those ring settings, and then go into the studio and set that darn stone with the confidence that it will work.
So this is my mission chaps and chapesses. (Are there really any chaps reading this drivel?). The mysterious world of stone setting.
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I’ve got a few books on the subject. Well, I’ve got quite a lot really as I love looking at the pictures.
But this time it might actually be time to read them.
Although honestly I’m a visual learner, so I might have to change my mind about this later when all the words start running together and I get brain fog.
I learn by seeing, trying, messing up, figuring out where I went wrong and trying again.
Probably could save a lot of time and energy just by reading the darn books, but where’s the fun and frustration in that?
Here’s one of my books.
Some of you probably have it.
Now, the setting I want to tackle first is the flush setting.
I think that’s what they call it.
Hang on, let me have a look.
Nope, it’s tube setting. Similar I think, but not quite the same.
O.K. I was going to show you a pic in the book, but then I realized that was probably illegal.
I’ll just have to draw my own for you, bear with me a mo…
So here’s the plan.
I’ve got some stones which I bought from Rio back when I first starting thinking about it.
I was a little annoyed by this as I was still in the throes of perfecting my cab setting skills, but I went ahead and bought them anyway as I just had to have them.
No hope for me really.
As I said, I have had a few successes, but I really want to get to the place where I have alllllll successes.
I’m needy that way.
I’ll try to walk you through my trials and errors, but sometimes holding the camera while soldering, bezel pushing, filing, etc., can get a bit tricky, but I’m all about overcoming challenges 😉
So watch this space…
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In other news.
You remember those snipings from the bridesmaid earrings.
There was a lot of them.
Well they took a holiday at the charcoal block spa and salon.
And now they’re sorted and ready to go party.
Shame I’m doing stone setting now.
And here’s a photo of The Rodent for Angie.
Yes, I know he looks all cute and stuff, but
He’s still a rodent.
Actually there’s a debate as to whether guinea pigs are in fact rodents.
Frankly I don’t care.
He might be cute, but he hounded his poor little black friend to death, literally, by using Thor, RIP, as his sex slave, but that’s another story…
It’s always the good looking ones you’ve got to watch out for isn’t it.
And finally, the show and tell.
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And for your continual enjoyment.
(O.K. so maybe the show and tell wasn’t last)
Soldering jump rings.
Exciting, right?
Here’s how I like to do it.
Place all of the jump rings facing the same direction as sometimes, once you start heating them, you can’t find the area you want to join.
This way you have a heads up.
Use a little flux.
Cut loads of pallions of solder wire, or use chips, whichever you prefer.
And heat them gently until they form little balls.
You can then pick them up with your pick (see what I did there), and place them easily on the join to be soldered.
The balls have to be hot, as does the pick, to be able to do this.
I leave you now with your very first look at the top of my head.
Oh, and sorry about the sniff. Got a bit of a cold.
Go on. You thought I had long golden locks didn’t you…
Nutmeg isn’t mine, but she sure acts like it taking the best seat in the house and the cosy blanket.
She’s the Boy’s, who showed up with her a few months back when he came home from university.
Like we wouldn’t notice.
Yes she lives with him, but did he not know that when term’s over and the holidays show up he lives with us!
I love cats I do.
I have the fabulous Wally Walnut.
My constant companion, even if I don’t need his assistance all of the time.
And the rather fat, very heavy, but super cuddly Pickles.
Who would lay at my feet over subjecting me to her bone crushing love any day because she knows she could do with losing a few pounds.
I think I told you that one night I was dreaming I had a railway sleeper on my chest (don’t ask) and woke up to find pickles laying on me.
I was almost crushed to death in my sleep.
So despite the danger of broken bones, bruises, and strained backs when you try to lift obese animals, I love cats. They’re my favourite. So much so that P has told me that if I ever bring another one home it will be the last thing I do.
Like he thinks he can take me out.
I don’t think so!
But, I love P and am getting a little tired of the litter box myself, so I was just a little p.o.’d when the Boy brought Nutmeg home, and especially p.o.’d when on his latest visit this spring break the extremely cute, but incredibly clumsy Nutmeg had obviously been having one hell of a time ripping open her body on fences.
But that’s o.k. It only cost me $350 to put her back together because the Boy is broke.
Go figure.
I should get him the collar of shame to wear also, perhaps he’ll think twice next time when he can’t clean those tricky bits and keeps bumping into walls.
And then there’s the guinea pig…
Doesn’t everyone need one for their front hallway.
Needless to say I’m looking forward to the rodent going back to school also.
And then there’s the shoes.
The ones relegated to the studio because they got a bit too grungy for their own good.
Well they finally gave up the ghost and died.
It was somewhat of a relief really as the water was getting in.
So I had to buy a new pair which proved more complicated that it seems.
I wanted a nice, comfortable pair, but I didn’t want to spend too much on them as they would soon look the same as the old ones.
I’m a bit hard on studio shoes.
So I finally settled on these.
Which are definitely comfortable, but make my feet look stubby and my ankles fat.
🙁
Oh well we can’t have everything.
In other news, the studio looks like a bomb hit it.
That’s a lot of mess for just five pairs of earrings.
Actually I made this also,
This is the back, which I’m kind of liking, but kind of repulsed by as it looks like the alien face thingy.
And, lastly for Cecilia.
I’m still doodling. I’m thinking of making some cross stitch patterns, but can’t make up my mind.
It seems that I can’t handle too much internet at one time.
Something had to give.
Either that, or I’ve hit my boring stage.
Whichever it is I’ve got nuttin’ except a few pieces of jewelry to share and I’m even beginning to bore myself doing that.
Hang on, let me think…
Nope, still nuttin’.
Oh well, here’s the latest.
Something’s up.
Every day I wake up excited to go into the studio, and then I can’t be bothered
🙁
I think it’s a phase.
Perhaps it’s because I just had a birthday.
Again.
Man they’re coming fast. And don’t get me started on Science Friday. I like listening to NPR as much as the next person, but every time I turn around it’s Sci Fri on the radio and another week has simply poofed into extinction.
I’m beginning to dread it.
It’s like I can’t keep up any more.
On top of that it seems that the Flourish and Thrive course has finally bored me to death, I’ve yet to even look at the last week.
I’m all flourished out.
So, that’s it I’m afraid. I’m off now to plod through today which will soon be tomorrow, and then Ira Flatow will be on – again – telling me about birds drinking deer tears or something equally fascinating but with the terrible finality of life floating away into a sea of intriguing information.
Drowning in ….
Too much?
So. All that’s left to say is that I will see you on the other side of the boring place my friends…
I mean, I like a good downpour as much as the next person, but I want to take some photographs and, although the dark depths of doom sky is pretty cosy in my book, I just can’t operate under these conditions.
I’m telling you now, when I go outside in a minute if it’s cold as well, I’m going to be completely fed up.
I’d have lain down and died already if I was living in the snowy parts right now.
I don’t like to be cold.
I shut down and wither away, in that brittle kind of way you do when you’re freezing, and that might very well mean no dinner for P.
Yes, and I’m not going to be the one to tell him.
In other news…
I made a nice pair of earrings, but they took me THREE hours!
Yep, you read that right, THREE hours!
Just when you think you’ve got it down, that you’ve turned a corner, hit a milestone, become invincible…
It all goes to pot and you have to kick yourself in the head.
To be honest I wanted to encase the bottom bead in bezel wire so that you could see it on the front and the back.
Like this.
But with a little thicker wire round it.
You know, like a regular bezel, but not.
And I did manage to make one without too much trouble.
Don’t look at it, it’s annoying me.
But do you think I could make the second one?
Nooooo.
So two hours in I threw it on the floor and settled for just the beads
I hate to settle but I was getting depressed.
I was just as depressed the next day when it took me a whole year to make these two.
I think the Flourish and Thrive course is de-thriving me.
I’m dipping into funk time people, and it ain’t gonna be a pretty sight.
To top it ALL I just ate one too many slices of bread for lunch and now I’ll probably blow up.
My life. I’m telling you…
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P.S. I’m determined to make one of those bezels. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but one day, just when it thinks I’ve forgotten…
I’m not sure if it’s really up and running or if I’ve just imagined it all…
but I’ve done it!
It took me a week because I dithered around waiting to take some better photographs of some items, but it’s been cold, dark and dreary here so I kept putting it off because I like to take my photographs outside and I don’t like to be cold.
In the end I just decided that if I didn’t publish it now it wouldn’t get published at all because, knowing me, I would keep on putting it off until another year had gone.
Then another.
I’ve still got to work on the SEO’s etc., but I’ve decided that I need to take a break from it for a while else my brain will explode. I have yet to figure out what to do about Etsy, etc., but I just can’t think about that right now as seriously I need a cup of tea or five.
Anyhoo, any critique would be welcome, just so long as you’re gentle with me.
I’m feeling a bit protective of my baby right now as she’s so brand new…
First off, I can safely say, without having to dither around second guessing myself, that small lobster claws are definitely off the menu.
They’re fiddly and they just look like little, I can’t be bothered so I’ll just use one of these small things that are awkward to use and hurt when the prong jabs up under your thumbnail because the darn thing keeps slipping in your fingers which makes you have to swear a little, or a lot, depending on where you come from, and so you have to chuck the jewelry on the floor because now you have to wear that other piece of jewelry that you didn’t want to wear and which doesn’t go with today’s choice of clothing and so you have to curse again (but this time with meaning) the maker who thought it would be a good idea to put small little fiddly things on their pieces of jewelry without thought nor care for when you, the user, has to go out in public wearing the inappropriate accessory for your attire just because they, the maker, couldn’t be bothered to really think about what they’re doing.
See how that goes.
Very thoughtless use of the small lobster claw…
O.K. maybe I will have to dither a bit as admittedly they do look good on some of those lovely petite pieces of jewelry with fine chains… especially if they’re gold chains…
Man!
Amendment #1.
I don’t like the small lobster claws on my jewelry pieces because they’re fiddly and they just look like little, I can’t be bothered so I’ll just use one of these small things, etc., etc., and so forth…
I won’t go into the medium lobster claws here because I believe the above goes for them also. Except that, if possible, they hurt even more because the jabby prong thingy is bigger. Granted they are a little more user-friendly than the small ones, but on the whole they should perhaps be included only as a side dish on the menu.
Now for the large ones…
And this is where we come to the, I like them and I don’t like them, section of todays entertainment.
I just don’t know.
I don’t want to use them, but… on the jewelry I’ve recently made, especially the latest bracelets, the hooks are just not working. The bracelets are meant to be worn snuggly so that the stone doesn’t keep turning and I’ve found that the hook is very awkward to close onto the best link for that fit. I certainly prefer the look of the hook, as Cap’n Ahab said to his first mate over morning coffee, but I put a lobster claw on one piece, under duress you understand, and it clasps the correct link so much easier.
I have to say that also they are far more secure, and when the bracelet is expensive, I think I would much rather feel safe knowing that the clasp was less likely to come undone and the bracelet lost.
So, that said, I’ve decided to change the clasps on all of my recent bracelets. No, no. You can’t stop me. But I will be looking into buying some of the lobster clasps that turn, (as Gale mentioned in one of her comments), because I think those will definitely make the bracelets ‘wear’ more comfortably.
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In other news the website is nearly ready!
After me, you’ll be the first to know when it’s up and running.
😉
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Oh and the trivia we come across when we follow the rabbit’s path
Every last tee shirt I own is misshapen or has holes in it. Probably due to my dripping pickle on it in the studio.
Got to pay more attention to that.
And this all makes me sad as I do not want to go shop for more.
I hate clothes shopping, almost as much as I hate going to the dentist.
O.K. so that’s a lie.
Dentists are evil and should be avoided at all times.
Unless of course, like me you have a fear of authority and have to do as you’re told even if it does mean facing danger every six months at the hands of the menacingly innocent looking, poky spike thing wielding, hygienist.
Yes, you know who you are…
It’s a good job that I have turned into something of a recluse over the past year and people don’t see my worn out clothes. I’ve even stopped answering the door because I think people will just think I’m the cleaning lady.
And you know how that goes down with the handsome U.P. S. men who’ve got a few minutes on their hands.
Alright, so that was a bit of a day dream right there.
Maybe I really should start getting out more.
So, while my clothes have been sorely neglected (sorry clothes), I’ve been focusing my powers into buying up every last cabochon in the world.
Dr. Evil would be proud of me.
And the madness continues.
Just this morning (thank you Penny) I bought four uncut slabs just because I had to.
I mean, what kind of reason is that!
If someone doesn’t intervene soon I’ll not only be lost beyond help, but naked to boot.
Not a pleasant sight.
In other news.
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I’m still working on the Flourish and Thrive course.
Unfortunately, every time I listen to the lessons I fall asleep.
My only hope is that I’m learning how to be a brilliant jewelry entrepreneur subliminally.
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I am working on my website – again.
I started it back in 2012, so I’m thinking I’ve maybe got it down now.
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I’ve also just finished making a necklace with a wiggly chain.
But, not to worry, I won’t be doing that again.
And I reworked a necklace I made a long while ago by tidying it up a bit and resetting the bezel.
Very satisfying.
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So there you have it my friends.
I might have to check myself into a rehab that specializes in rock habits as soon I’ll be on the streets having spent all my money on cabochons.