Navajo Pearls and Polishing Equipment

We definitely got a big blow through our area around the dinner time and on into the night. It was a very fast-moving storm front, with lots of tornado warnings and even a few tornado watches in place. All we got from it was a stiff wind for a few hours, some growling thunder, and our lights flickered a couple of times. I consider us lucky - high winds can be horrible and we dodged a bullet on this one. I'm quite sure someone got hit with more than a pass-through, but thank goodness, we were just fine. I'll have to wait until the sun is up to see what, if any, damage was done to our trees and back yard. 

Navajo Pearls can come in many different sizes, shapes, 
and finishes. Here (l-r) are round, rondel with a stamped 
design, uniform rounds, and antiqued lentils. 

My Friday will be spent polishing several strands of "Navajo Pearls" that DH found in our inventory at the shop, Basically, Navajo Pearls is a strand of round or shaped handmade silver beads, generally not super large, that hang anywhere from 18" to 30" in length. Since each of the beads are handmade, they are lovely examples of the smith's craftsmanship. 

Here is a lovely strand of stamped, graduated 
Navajo Pearls. I really love Navajo Pearls, like 
I love basic Heishi. Both are necklaces that 
are extremely versatile, wearable in many 
different situations. 

Ideally these should be polished on my buffer - a machine that holds two different fluffy buffing wheels which are loaded with an appropriate polishing compound. The only way to safely place the necklaces against buffing wheels is to have them wrapped around a holder of some type, and for these, that will have to be fairly large in diameter. The necklaces are strung on hand-made chains which will break if the curvature is too tight. 

We have a buffing machine similar to this one. A 
two-spindle motor set into an air vacuum that 
pulls away the dust and collects it on filters 
inside the cabinet. The motor on the actual 
buffer is quite powerful. Used incorrectly, 
serious injuries can occur. The wheel 
diameter these can accept is around 6 inches. 

I had a box of buffing wheels and appropriate polishing compounds which I kept next to the buffer when we still had it at the shop. Of course, the machine is now at home along with most of my jewelry supplies, and that box is MIA. I'll have to "suggest" that DH take a hunt for it today because I'll need it for these necklaces. I'll also suggest that he pull an appropriately sized piece of cut wood from our woodshed to use as a holding vehicle for the pearls themselves. If he can find my buffing wheels and compounds, my life will be a lot easier. He wants two of these available for sale on Saturday. I can polish them on Friday, but I need the materials. Polishing a necklace on the buffer without a holder is extremely dangerous. 

Larger production locations have industrial polishing 
and buffing machines. Here, you see two men buffing 
items on these large wheels. The're wearing aprons because 
it's dirty work, and they're also wearing face shields. Care 
has to be taken - you can lose fingers in these machines. 

There's lots more on my mind that I could chat about, but I really think it's time to wrap this up and continue with my day. I hope your day is wonderful and filled with joy. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Shining and Polishing - New from Old and Spiffing Things Up Again

Can you believe it's almost mid-summer? Solstice is on Sunday, and I haven't even shared my Winter Solstice cards with all of you yet. Life got in the way. So, my intention is to share those wonderful cards from friends and relatives throughout the world with you to celebrate Summer Solstice Eve - Saturday. If I end up with too many images to share, I'll push on into Monday and bookend the Solstice. 

My "Moons of Hecate" pendant is pewter, so it
 won't catch shine as much as my silver pieces, 
but it is scuzzy and needs a good cleaning. 
It's been a favorite of mine for many years 
now. I originally wanted this design for the 
tattoo I have at the back of my neck, but 
the particular artist I chose was unable to 
handle the detail, so I chose a different 
triple-goddess symbol instead. It was quite 
a few years ago. I don't think I'd compromise 
now. 

I'm bringing a couple of items to the shop today to drop them into the tumbler I keep there. I've been wanting to make simple necklaces from stones lately - maybe one more aspect of grounding for myself. On Tuesday I purchased some amethyst I've loved for a while, as well as some glass to go along with it. I'm thinking about pairing them with an old pewter Hecate pendant I've owned for more than a decade - a long-time favorite of mine. 

You're probably familiar with the basic Celtic 
triskellion - the triangular shape, often with 
spirals in each of the three lobes. My triskellion 
pendent is sterling, features a Pentacle in the 
center surrounded by a full circle, and has 
the waxing and waning moons in the bottom 
two lobes with a small cabachon of amber 
at the top. It's the sun and the moon all tied 
up in a neat, small package. Perfect for me. 

I'd like to polish my triskellion pendant too. This is a standard Celtic triskellion with a pentacle in the center that DH purchased for me years ago. I wear it and love it. I'm also taking a close look at a fabulous enamel piece DH bought for me for another anniversary - this is from Magick - enamels I had lusted after for many years. I adore the piece, I'm always seeing something new in it, and their skill with colors and the depth of their enameling work is stunning. 

The enamel pendant I have is in this 
style, but with much better coloring, 
some blues and greens on the right, 
purple on the left, with a swath of 
yellow instead of the purple above. 
It's small, but so beautiful. I've known 
Fusagar on and off for many years, 
and this was the final year we were 
able to meet. I'm so glad I had the 
chance to get one of his pieces. 

So I'm doing some cleanup today, and maybe some creative work, and I'm sure DH left me with a whole bunch of computer work still to do. My general suspicion ... I won't be bored today - LOL. I hope all of you have a wonderful and productive day. I'm going to do my best, and I'll be back tomorrow. Also, of course, please be kind and stay safe. 

Oops, Catch-Up and Future Goals

Yesterday's clean-up day was a very good thing because I remembered I hadn't paid my property taxes for the first half of the year yet! That was a serious OOPS! I admit that I'm not used to this. We've been paying mortgage for 30+ years but it got paid off early this year and not having a mortgage changed a lot of things. One of those things is that I now have to pay the taxes that were paid through the escrow account before. Of course property taxes were due in mid-May and it's now mid-June. Damn! I'm sure they'll assess a late fee penalty and I'll totally deserve it. I've signed up for email reminders and I'll have to put the second payment onto my calendar. I can't mess this one up again! 

Our property taxes aren't massive, but they should be
paid on time. I really messed that one up! 

I didn't get everything done that I wanted, but I did clean up one very important bag. (The second bag can wait a week - it won't hurt anything because it's pretty recent stuff.) I did get the laundry done, and even had a chance to catch up with Aearwen. Last week's conversation ended up totally messed up because of my trip and things going on with her life, so we're back on track. What a relief - LOL. 

We have a lot of turquoise cabs that we've purchased
through the years. We're going through them,
getting them priced and ready to put out for sale. 

We've been going through a lot of drawers and unknown envelopes at the shop and have found a LOT of turquoise cabochons that we purchased years ago for repairs and for our own work. We've been weighing and reviewing them and I'm a bit shocked by today's prices on comparable stones. After a lot of discussion we decided the price point to put on ours and we're going to start getting them out onto the sales floor over the next week or two. There are some exceptional cabs in the group, so my jewelry makers will be quite happy. 

We've been sold out of the three most popular gauges in sterling silver
wire for several months. We're getting that back on order today and
we should have it back for sale by the end of the month. Yippee! 

We've also restocked our sheet metal selection and should have our sterling silver wire in the three most popular gauges back in stock within the next two weeks. We've been sold out of this since before the Holiday season, so it will be wonderful to have it back for our creative customers. 

I love Andy Cooperman's vision. He works in a variety
of metals with unusual combinations and joining methods. 

I've figured out that if I want to take Andy Cooperman's Master Class at next year's Bead & Button Show, I need to try and save $50/week just for that purpose. That's a lot, but I'm going to give it a good go. I'm hoping I get a lot of repairs through the shop's doors because those $20/minimum charges are an important way for me to earn a little extra. 

I've been wanting to work for a few days under the tutelage of
Andy Cooperman for more than a decade. I'm determined to
try and achieve this goal. 

It's Thursday, I'm slightly ahead of schedule (I awakened a bit early and decided to just dive into the day) and I'm looking forward to my morning swim. I'm listening to a good audio book in the pool, and the weather has been great. We're heading back into sauna weather for the weekend, which isn't as great, but I'll worry about that when it happens. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow!