Patience/Impatience

I recall a cartoon from when I was young. It was posted in the luncheonette where I worked for an incredibly low amount of money in the local hospital. The only good thing about it was their tuna salad, the ham salad, and the soft-serve ice cream machine. Lunches were wonderful, I was young and didn't have expenses, and I made friends. Anyway, to return to the cartoon. The cartoon featured two vultures sitting on a branch overlooking an empty land. One vulture was turned to the other and said.."Patience my ass. I'm going to kill something." That's about where I'm at right now. Next week is Turkey Day. At first my DH said that he didn't want a turkey this year, but wanted it for Christmas instead. Then, two days ago, he changed his mind. Now, normally we would have gone shopping for the food last night - Friday nights are good for us to shop. But since he got into a stupid argument with me at work yesterday and walked out, he isn't talking to me. How boring. So, it remains to be seen whether I will end up with turkey on Turkey Day or not.

At this time of the year, I count my days in terms of studio time. My studio day next week is cut short because I have to show up at the shop in mid-afternoon and help decorate so that I can have Thursday off. That leaves December 2, 9, 15 and 23. I have Chickie's gift 60% finished. When I print out some pages, that will increase to 75%. I need to purchase one tool on Wednesday to allow me to finish the rest of it. But I haven't figured out what to make/get Sharon or Poo at all. I've barely heard from Maja all year, so she'll get a card, but no gift. But I'm at a loss. I'm not usually in this much of a tight spot, but nothing is coming to me. I'll have to put some serious thought into it - I'm sure I can come up with something. The next question is - will it be able to arrive in time for the "Big Day". I'll give it my best attempt. I want more TIME!!!

Definitions

I'm always rather amazed (and flattered) when people call me talented. There are so many other people out in the world who are far more talented than I am. People who have the ability to pick up an pencil and begin drawing and have something totally wonderful to look at within an hour. People who can look at a range of color pots with a brush in their hands and paint something exceptional within a short time. And people who can take metal and make it sing to the point that it will become wondrously complex and beautiful. I am not one of any of those people. I slog. I work hard at it. I don't think I have talent as much as perseverance and pure stubbornness. I have the internal vision of what I want to make and I try my utmost to make it happen. And sometimes, if the God/Goddess smiles, I have positive results.

I am trying to work on the settings for my enamel pieces for my cloak. I got the first piece refined yesterday morning and I'll have the second piece refined today or tomorrow. But then I'll have to get the additions on - the pin backs (two for each boss), the bezels on the front side, and maybe the corrugated wire accent (still undecided on that). I haven't soldered in months (I know - my jewelry friends will be appalled at this, but I simply haven't had the time and I've been involved in other projects). So, here I am, trying to reinvent the wheel for the umpteenth time. I wish I had a bit more confidence in my skill levels, but I'm determined that this will work (and it will). More practice would certainly make it easier, though....

Accomplishments

There is something so satisfying about breaking things apart. After I was finished with my enamel work yesterday, I had some time left before I needed to work upstairs, and I wanted to get my framework together for the larger enamel pieces that I am planning for 2010. To frame these, I am using some box parts and scrapping other parts. Thus, the tearing and breaking things apart. With hammer and screwdriver, I chisled my way into the boxes and disassembled them. It was quite cathartic.

The errands went smoothly, even efficiently; and the enamel work also went well. Rather than wet-packing this low-key cloissonae, I decided to try some precision sifting and dry pack it. It actually turned out to be pretty fun, although I don't think it is a technique that I will use often on cloisonnae. It was certainly not as precise as the wet packing would have been, but I was looking for a looser feel and a more cartoon-like look and I succeeded in that. I actually managed to complete the items and will continue with the next stage in the Chickie's present. Things are coming together. Now to figure out what I can make for my BFF Sharon. At worst, I can buy something, but I would prefer to make something if I can. Hmmmmm.....

Wednesday - Errands and Art

Have I mentioned lately that I love my Wednesdays? My list of errands will take me from Southwestern Minneapolis to the Northern suburbs, but eventually I'll get home, get wires laid for my latest enamel pieces and work on the prez for Chickie. I'm not quite as far along on this as I had wanted to be, but it's progressing. I know that the holidays are still out a ways, but my time compresses into five Wednesdays or so - not really much time at all.

My cloak bosses are progressing. The backing has been sawn out of the silver sheet and the final shaping and finishing is going on. The actual soldering processes have been running through my mind for the past week or so to allow me to visualize exactly what steps I want to do and in what order. I think I will treat myself to breakfast today - not exactly sure where, but I'll certainly have many choices as I drive through the cities :-)

But I can hardly wait until I can get to my kiln, and I'm very grateful that the images I'm doing today are pretty low-key and shouldn't take forever to get the wires bent and put on. I'll be using opaque enamels for this one, so sifting and applying carefully will be the key to success. I suspect I'll be shutting down the kiln when DH walks through the door tonite to maximize my time with the heat. But once I get these two pieces done, the rest of the project will be much faster and I might even have the prez complete by Thanksgiving if all runs smoothly.

Twin? - I Could Wish!

I wish I could split myself off from myself at this time of the year. I have gifts to make, a website (personal as well as my shop's) to update, newsletters to write and send, a husband to de-stress, customers to help, personal projects to do....etc....etc...etc. No rest for the good or the wicked - no time for anything. In spite of lack of time and too much to do, I still have to make the effort. That means I'll have to teach my DH how to enter names into my newsletter's database (since I need to get a newsletter going and I'm more than 20 pages of names behind - ). I would MUCH rather be working on the silverwork for my cloak or my pressie for my friend, Chickie.

I also need to get some photographs made of my latest enamel pieces, some Emails with attached photos of previous projects out to people who wanted to add them to their own technique slide shows, and in general, there just aren't enough hours in the day. And since I'm stressed to the max anyway, what the heck. Let's just add a few more things to the mix.....yeah, right! Anyone got a good machine to make me a twin? At least through the holiday season?

Balancing Act

Every woman knows the difficulty in balancing the many tasks and roles she must perform on a daily basis. Men know this also, but they don't multi-task as much as simply shift from one lane to another on the freeway of daily life. But women DO multitask. So, between being a good wife, an amazing Mom, the reliable worker and the chief cook and bottlewasher, you also need to exercise your creative muse. When are you supposed to be able to do that!?

There is a reason why I get up at 3:30 am. The primary reason is because I can get work done and some creative activities done before I need to leave the house at either 6am or 7am (depending on my schedule for the day). That creativity can continue when I get to the shop for another hour, sometimes two. So I can at least get some concept drawings done, work at the bench, or simply redecorate my habitat for my pet on Facebook. Even something that silly is still creative and still has my own stamp on it - a vision that is not shared by others but is mine, uniquely.

And after all, isn't that what we are all striving for? Unique creativity? The media in which you work is your own choice. Over my life I have worked in beads, embroidery, fabric, beads, leather, fabric, beads, metal, beads, more metal and now, enamel and more fabric. Throughout all of these varied media, my vision - my voice has become stronger. And now that I've lived a creative live for more than 50 years, I feel confident enough in my own vision that I do what I want artistically with a sidelong glance towards possibly selling some items in the future. My goal, however, is to satisfy my design muse and scratch my creative itch, and I am sure many others share that goal. So continue to multitask to pay the bills, but allow your own creativity to shine forth and proclaim your vision to the world. It will enrich the world's music with your own harmony woven within.

Draggin'

So here we are at the end of the week, and I'm draggin'. I've been sick for most of the week, which has not been good. I've also lost more sleep than usual which is also not good. But, since I am a generally optimistic person, I'll flip gears here and say that I did progress one more creative step yesterday by sawing out the mounting disks for my cloak fasteners. I'm hoping to finish the cut work no later than Sunday and form the fastening pins on Monday which would leave the soldering of the bezels and pin backs for Tuesday and the pattern punching and final finishing for later in the week. If all goes smoothly, I'll have these finished and ready to photograph by the end of next week.

We got the new Swarovski colors for the season into the shop earlier in the week. The colors aren't spectacular - it isn't a Purple Velvet and Crystal Copper release (the most popular release that they have ever made - at least as reflected in the sales of my store), but they actually aren't bad. The one that really surprised all of us was the Coral crystal pearl. The photographs that we had seen of it were really orange. But in person, it's a totally vintage 1940's-1950's coral color that is truly spectacular. I need to try and design a piece that will use this color, I'm in love!