Juicy Lucy

Apparently not everyone is aware of what a Juicy Lucy is. As my friend VerLaine loves to say - it is South Minneapolis' contribution to the culinary world. Curious about the history of a Juicy Lucy? Check out the Wikipedia article here. Anyway....last night we celebrated VerLaine's birthday a few days late by going to a local pub offering their own Juicy Lucy burgers. The Blue Door Pub is a local small eatery close to the shop. It used to be called Puerto Azul (blue door in Spanish for whoever doesn't translate that language ), but was rarely open. They recently change their name, their ownership, their menu and their hours. Now they are open 7 days a week, long hours, and seem (if the crowd from last night is any indication) to be doing very well. The waitstaff were friendly and efficient - no grass growing under their feet! The burgers were good - but I think I'll try a different type the next time I go. The tater tots were amazing - a huge portion, perfectly crispy. I brought the remainder of those home and my DH had a snack. The price was reasonable. It was a fun night - one that I will repeat again.

Can't spend a lot of time on the blog today - I want to get to the shop as early as possible to get some more kiln and enamel work done. It was so fun to get back to the kiln yesterday - but not nearly enough time to play with enamel. I'll probably be doing some enamel at home on Wednesday using the small portable ultralite beehive kiln since there is no way I'll have things finished on time if I don't work at home. The problem with the ultralite is the lack of control on the heat, but I think I'll be OK if I'm careful.

Back to the Kiln

Over the past few months, I've been focused on my fabrication work. But I've been wanting to get back to my enamel work and make something with some copper pieces that I have as well as start a piece for my DH for the Holidays. I think I'd better try and make something because I certainly don't have the extra cash to be able to buy much. It'll be a stark Solstice at this point - just not a lot of cash available for gifts. BUT - it gives me an opportunity to create some unique items for his gifts and that's always fun. I'm focused on getting at least one hour of kiln time this morning before I have to open the shop. We'll see if I am successful. There's a small bracelet just perched at the edge of my brain - LOL.....

Musings on Electricity

It's rather amazing how much we all depend on electricity. Even in nations without much power infrastructure (don't 'cha just love that word? - infrastructure?), electric power is still a part of the life - running computers, telephones, etc. I've been thinking about electric power lately as I've been making my jewelry and art. Although most of my operations are hand-powered (jewelers saw, files, etc.) I do consider electricity vital to my art. It operates my flex-shaft machine to allow me to drill through my metal quickly to make holes and bearings for my stone setting. It also operates my polishing equipment to speed me up. And, obviously, the electroforming that I did yesterday would be impossible without electric current to transfer the copper electrons from the anodes to the jewelry item. In other words, the skull that I electroformed yesterday simply would not have been possible without electricity. So "Thank You" Mr Edison. Your determination to conquer electricity allowed me to make a really neat item yesterday.

And today is Thursday. My friend Eleanor is back from Florida so I'll get the scoop on her trip when I see her for breakfast in a couple of hours. Eleanor has been my friend since the 1980's when we worked together in the corporate world. Her favorite saying is "Life Is Not A Dress Rehearsal". Think about it....

Studio Day - Playing with Electricity

Last summer I had an opportunity to spend a day learning copper electroforming techniques with Kate Fowle Meleney. We took one of her wonderful lampworked beads, painted on the copper paint that would allow the current to flow, attached the rectifier and started depositing copper onto the paint. It was very fun and quite beautiful. So, over the past two Wednesdays, I have painted several beads by Lewis Wilson, as well as two skulls. I will be electroforming the skulls at least today. I still need a good glass container that I can use for this, so I'll have to check out my local Goodwill for that. If I can't find one there, then Target, and if not there, then my local chemistry supply or kitchen supply company. I have the rectifier and the rectifying solution, the copper anodes, etc. I am hoping that these skulls will turn out to be a great Holiday gift for my DH - something unusual, relatively inexpensive (since I already own the equipment) and I can make a loop-in-loop chain for it. It'll be perfect for his "barbarian" days at the Renaissance Festival next year if I can get this done. I still have one more skull that I haven't painted - just in case these don't work I'll have one more chance.

I am almost finished with my Kinetic earrings. I will be making the earwires today and doing a small amount of graving around the gemstones. I'll try and photograph them today, but it may not happen until next week. I learned a lot making these and they're not perfect - not by any stretch - but they are a huge step forward in my fabrication skills with bronze clay, copper and gems.

So I guess I'll have my day filled again. I only have a short time until the Holiday, no days off except for my Wednesdays, and I have to get to work on the enamel pieces that I want to make. Being poor for the Holidays is making gift-giving difficult. I am hoping to get some enameling time in soon because many of the things I want to make will be enamel. I have to FOCUS.

Goals - An Outing

What is it about personal goals that makes it so hard to express them outside of one's own head? Is it fear of ridicule? Fear of not being able to live up to personal goals and personal expectations? Fear of failure? Whatever the cause, whether it is the perception of selfishness or the expectations of failure, goals are something that should be set, reviewed and revised periodically.

My personal goals are focusing more and more around my crafting and my artwork. The perception of this for my partner is that I am selfish and don't share goals with him any more. I feel that I am growing my wings and that I have to be somewhat selfish to be happy but that he is still very much a part of my life. Basically, I am looking at a possible life after work, he looks at work as his life. Differences in goals. But as the economy continues to tank, the future requires evaluation by everyone, myself included. All that I know is that I want to be happy and my craft/art allows me to be that even if some individual pieces still seem to be more of a learning process than a success.

Do you have goals for your life? Are you willing to set specific dates, events, times, etc and pin those onto them? If you are, then you are one step closer to success in achieving them. If not, why not? Maybe it's time to evaluate/re-evalute your personal goals...

Good, Bad & Ugly

The good - I found some great Tolkien spin-offs and histories on fanfiction.com (or perhaps .net?). Had a great time reading some of them - enough that I didn't get any of my web work done yesterday.

Bad - It was a day of mis-communication and the understanding that my partner and I simply don't see the same goals for the business. Am I totally selfish for wanting to focus on my personal growth? Maybe. But that's where I need to be right now and I don't see that I'm getting a lot of support from someone who is supposed to support me. So things are a bit rocky right now .

Ugly - I finished three pairs of BC earrings and drilled the holes for the bottom dangles. After working on them for a couple of minutes on Sunday, I realized that I drilled the holes WAY too far into the interior of the earring. I will have to work out a method of camouflage for this and redrill holes closer to the edge for the dangles or things will really look crappy. I had really hoped to be finished with the earrings, instead I have a couple of days worth of work still to do.