Studio report: October 15

October 21, 2016

You know what’s super fun? Getting a Rio order in, and being so excited to get to work. Followed by: wanting to fabricate a series of cuff bracelets with bezel-set stones, and discovering that you’re low on medium solder, have a metric ton of hard solder, and are totally, completely out of easy. How in the seven hells did I forget to order solder? Hence two Rio orders in two weeks!

This is particularly frustrating when your studio time is limited to something like six hours a week, at the outside. I can only get to the Baltimore Jewelry Center, with its torches and tumblers and heavy-duty equipment, on the weekends, and their opening hours are 12-6. I tend to wear out after about 3 hours at a stretch, which doesn’t help.

I want to mention here that I have the most patient partner on earth: I’ve been making huge messes in our apartment, because I’ve basically turned our dining table into a workbench. I have enough hand tools in my arsenal to at least start production of some of my pieces at home, which helps me maximize my time at BJC. Every little bit helps, no?

Still, my last trip to the studio wasn’t a total wash. I ran the tumbler the whole time I was there, which some of my existing inventory REALLY needed, and I finished the series of pendants I’d been making in the Othermill. I’m working on getting those photographed and into my Etsy shop this coming week.