The Weekend Looms

One of the better things about the weekend is that most people get it off. The bad thing about owning and operating a retail store is that I don't. Get the days off, I mean. I always work on Saturdays - always. In fact, since they are usually our busiest days of the week, we don't allow employees to have Saturdays off very frequently. But, at this wonderful time of the year when everyone is caught up in the "lets just put this perfect gift on the credit card and pay for it next year" syndrome, I also have to work on Sundays. Ick!!! That's a serious cut into my relaxation and decompression time. I am grateful that I only have to do this until Christmas - I would much rather be able to sleep in on Sundays without setting my alarm clock.

I pulled out my "Classical Loop-In-Loop Chains & Their Derivatives" book by Stark and Smith this morning. I have that wonderful skull that I electroformed for my DH for his holiday gift, but it needs a chain. So, during this next week, I need to get some soldered jumprings made from some copper and start doing a chain for the pendant. I also need to get going on some more enamel pieces for a few quick earrings as gifts, and I got some oil enamel paints last week to try painting the other medallion that I wanted to make for my DH. I know I'll end up spending a little bit of money this holiday, but I'm really trying hard to hold the limits and keep to a very small budget. Time to make a list, check it twice, and assign gifts - something that's actually a lot of fun for me to do.

Turkey Day and Black Friday

Turkey Day was absolutely wonderful, even if I was in serious pain from a small microfracture in my shoulder-blade. These are never fun and always take several days before the pain is reduced But turkey, stuffing, corn, potatoes, cranberries and gravy with pie later that night certainly helped to minimize the pain :-) I actually had a really good holiday for a change - no major arguments, a good meal, all things worked. It was SO nice to have a full day off.

So today is Black Friday. In years past I was one of the crowd of shoppers who would be at the stores at 5am. Well, it's 4:44 am, I'm sitting in front of my computer in my shrug, and I have no intention of running out and shopping at all. I'm trying very hard to spend an absolute minimum of money this year for gifts - I just don't have the money available. So I'm thinking about everything twice and making as many things as possible. Next Wednesday's studio day will allow me to try out some oil enamel paints that I picked up. If they work as well as I hope, I'll be one step closer to another gift for my DH. Hope you enjoy your own Black Friday.

Production Envy

I have production envy. I look at what other artists are able to produce for sale or in their "off" time and they are making scads of stuff. Simply SCADS of stuff. And then there's me. Even with things that should be quick and easy, I only have 1-2 hours every 2-3 days to work on things so I get a small amount of things actually finished. Today will be another day like that - although I hope that things will at least progress to the point that I won't mind wasting my Turkey Day (tomorrow) with playing Lord of the Rings Online with my DH and cooking my turkey.

I'm going to start today at one of my favorite places, Continental Clay in Minneapolis. I want some overglaze paints for my enamel. I've been trying the powdered pigments in my enamel paints, and I simply don't like them. I can't get a good consistency, it burns out WAY too easily, it just doesn't act the way that I wanted. I thought back onto what Linda Darty (see book above) had available for us to borrow when I was in her Master Class at Revere Jewelry Academy in April of this year. Her paints were ceramic paints and they worked really well. I know she said that the brand she used was no longer being made, but I have found a substitute available at Continental Clay that may work for me. They open at 9am. Ohhhh.....shopping! And if the paints work well I can progress with the portrait for my DH's holiday gift.

I'll have to go into the shop for a few hours this afternoon. Today is the day that we decorate the store for the holiday season. We'll put up the tree, string garland, and make sure that the front window lights are operational. And I'll stay FAR away from the grocery store today - all of those last-minute turkey shoppers can be very intimidating. I don't plan on posting tomorrow - just enjoying a full day off - so I wish everyone a wonderful Turkey Day. Have a safe and happy day with family, friends, and the foods that you love to eat.

Enamel Woes

Because I'm currently not very happy with my DH, I wonder why I am spending so much time trying to make him a very cool enamel piece for the holidays. I know I won't have it finished in time, and the way that my trial piece worked - rather DIDN'T work - yesterday, ... well, I can say with some certainty that this one may not happen, at least not within this time frame. I guess I need to research the type of enamel technique I wanted to use a bit more, and try more experimentation. In the meanwhile, I still have other people to gift, a limited amount of time, no money.....the Holidays SUCK!!!

So, what to do? I'm going to try my best to enjoy my Thanksgiving Day. I'm going to make my turkey and stuffing, I'm going to spend a day away from the shop (oh Happy Day), and I'm going to make a list of those people that I need to take care of for the holidays. I have several simple but pretty enamel projects that can easily be done for gifts with a minimum of muss and fuss, that'll be the way that I go for many people. My family back on the Rez (Pine Ridge, SD for those who don't know) will have to make do with cards this year - no enclosed checks. There are so many projects just pushing on my head that want to get into the physical plane, and the time to do them simply isn't there, so I'll continue working whenever I can. And hopefully my DH's mood will improve again and he won't be the grumpy dwarf that he has been over the past few weeks....months.....years.... - why do I bother?????