Saturday on My Mind

We are absolutely flooded at work. Got three huge shipments of beads and findings in yesterday. These are the last buys for the year - we should be well set for the Holiday season once we get all of these packed up. We'll be working our little fingers to the bone - LOL.

Yesterday was not a great day at the torch . I have to remake the silver piece I was working on - but I'll get good because of the extra practice - LOL. Today I'll work on my bronze/copper pieces again - the top pieces were fired yesterday - hopefully the tubes will have fired up well and will be perfect for the earrings. I'll be pulling the BC items out of the kiln this morning and will take a look :-))

Economy - This so SUCKS!!!

My goal is to retire eventually and make things that I can sell in my "spare" time. But if this economy doesn't improve, that will be a total pipe dream. The crux is that if the Maya are to be believed (and their calendars were pretty darned accurate), the world (this 4th world according to the Hopi), will end within the next few years - 2012 is the year that the Maya give. I would really like to enjoy my next few years doing what I love and traveling. The economy is pretty much guaranteeing that won't happen. I've lost an incredible amount of my personal "play" money since the beginning of the year. I can afford going to Metal Clay World since I've already paid for most of it. But, for the first time the Bead & Button Show is a question mark. I haven't even made my hotel reservations yet, and I know I need to get going on those. This SO sucks!!!!

And, of course, my torch is acting up again. I was getting towards the bottom of a really lousy tank of propane, so when the torch tip sputtered out in the middle of a solder job again, I removed and tossed the tank. I went in search of some new tanks - Menards (like a Home Depot only smaller for those of you not from this area) was totally sold out. Not a tank around. I finally went to my favorite local hardware store and bought their last two tanks. Then, after I made sure that the fittings were fine, I disassembled and started soaking the torch tip. Seriously gunked up again!! So, I got no work done on jewelry, but at least I'll have a clean torch on Friday. And I got my large CZ/gemstone assortment from Gem Resources yesterday. Shirley simply rocks!!! So not all is bad - just enough to make me not happy :-((

Sigh - Back to the Grind

Thursday is here. Normally I meet my friend for breakfast, but she's got to take her DH to the eye doctor. So I can get to the studio bench earlier today - not too bad after all - LOL.

Last night I met several members of the Minnesota Metal Clay group to talk about BronzClay with them. I had originally been worried about whether I would be able to talk about the media for 90 minutes. No worries there - we got kicked out at 8pm. I brought LOTS of mistakes - even had small little fired samples for people to take home with them if they wanted. Fortunately, I also had a few good pieces - don't want people thinking that all I make are mistakes :-)) If I get a chance to download the photos I took yesterday, I'll show all of you my "Confetti" earrings tomorrow. I'm trying to get them simplified so that I can do some production work on them and have something that will be inexpensive and fun to sell.

I need to sell some of my work. I keep buying more and more equipment and supplies and need to replace that money somehow. This week I have small gemstones and CZs and a winch coming - yes, a winch. It will work with the seatbelt that I bought from the salvage yard a couple of weeks ago and allow me to set up my drawbench for making tubes from silver and copper. Poor DH thinks I've lost my mind ..... maybe I have ....... WATCH OUT WORLD!!!!!

Love her Style & Money, Money, Money!!

Although there are many things posted on Daily Art Muse that I don't like, today she had a winner. Melody Armstrong, a metal artist from Canada, is producing some wonderfully made and very innovative jewelry. There are some great items - take a look at this wonderful sterling tube with gemstone...

Such a lovely sense of style that comes out in this. She is a graduate of design school - it makes me wonder what I could have done with my life if it had gone in that direction.

I did have a good day at the bench yesterday - the silver bezel for one project finally came together well. My torch had been acting up, but it worked great yesterday!!! And on the 3rd try, I got the outer bezel for one of my faceted stones done well. (The first time was too large, the 2nd time was too small. I was starting to feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears - ). So my kinetic project is progressing. I have my lecture on BronzClay tonite for the Minnesota Metal Clay group. I'm looking forward to showing them what I'm doing in the media. And today is Wednesday - studio time and laundry. It's my sanity saver. My DH is screaming about how I am not fiscally conservative and how I'm blowing through money - he has NO idea how much I contribute to household expenses, and what I buy for my craft. My workshops alone usually run $1000-$2000 apiece. Well, I need to start selling my work to make some of the money back, and that's my goal. I wish I had more than one day for studio time each week!!!

Monday at the Bench

Monday was actually productive - at least before I unlocked the doors for the daily grind :-)) I finished a fun pair of BronzClay earrings featuring Pink Sapphire and resin enamel. The enamel ended up with some bubbles in it, but they actually added to the carefree and happy look of the earrings so I left it rather than redo the enamel. I'll photo them on Wednesday to show everyone.

I also made my first shaped bezel - a pear shape for some large peridot faceted stones that I want in another earring pair. The bezels turned out too large, though, so I'll be cutting them down today and then making the internal bearing for them. It is a learning experience, and fun. I have never made a bearing bezel or a shaped bezel before, so it is good fun. I'll get them to fit properly today. Then it's on to add the next parts to the earring - the tube settings, the overmetal, and the components that will allow the earrings to be kinetic. If this pair turns out, they'll be among the most fun earrings I will have made up to now.

I have 15 people (so far) who RSVPd for my Wednesday night lecture on BronzClay. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. I'll go through my "rejects" this morning and see if I have enough available to give everyone a small piece of fired clay. I also have a load that fired yesterday and I can't wait to see what turned out on those. Time to get to work on that next project - LOL.

Sunday - So Fine

The past seven Sundays, I've been up at 6am to get to Ren Faire near opening time. Today was the first Sunday after Ren and I actually slept until 9:30 am. What a luxury!!! Of course, all I dreamed about was this new pair of earrings that are perched in my head. I'm using a BronzClay bottom with a copper-bezeled olivine Peridot and some tube-set 2mm stones (haven't decided on the absolute color/type of these yet, possibly Padparadschka Sapphire). But the kewl thing about it is that I think I've figured out a way to make them kinetic - to allow them to have independent motion. I'm not sure my skills are up to the project, but I am certainly going to try my best. I think they'll look absolutely awesome. And, since DH actually said that I could spend some time working on my own projects today, I got some work done. Got some items ready and loaded for the kiln, got one-half of a pair of sterling silver and incredible Agate earrings ready for soldering, and cut the copper bezel for the kinetic earrings, as well as making the two half more uniform. Unfortunately, I have to work tomorrow. Fortunately, I will have a couple of hours of bench time before I have to work. If I focus on the positive, all is good :-)) And I've also decided I need to start saving for a new, larger kiln. The amount of space I currently have is great for my enamel and silver clay work, but just not enough for the larger BronzClay items that I want to do. So, time to start socking away any extra cash so that I can buy a bigger kiln and hire an electrician to wire it in for me.