Over my head

I am finding - as I slowly assemble the needed new equipment and tools - that working in metal has considerably increased my overhead. But since I am funneling all the gross revenue from my sales back into the biz in the form of capital investment, I'm thankful that I at least have a fairly healthy budget to work with.

Still, at the current market price of $17.23 an ounce, silver is not cheap and I have to be careful with conserving it (in contrast, gold is at $918.25 an ounce and platinum costs $1,762.50 an ounce so I should be thankful I didn't develop a taste for gold- or platinum-smithing).

Because I am known among my family and friends as a hopeless klutz, Mr Hazel has relegated all metalsmithing activities to the utility room in our basement, whose concrete floors will better protect the house from my accidentally setting it on fire. We went to IKEA over the weekend in search of a workbench for me, and ended up with this square table that's sturdy enough to withstand future poundings and hammerings. Thanks for assembling it, Mr Hazel!

I still plan to keep my beading things in a separate area, so here are the beginnings of the new metalsmithing set-up! Notice that I am now a proud owner of a giant, manly tool box. Sweet.


Here is my butane torch!


And brand-new, pristine, virgin tools.


My soldering tile and new anvil/bench pin, which the guy at the equipment store, Zach, was kind enough to notch for me for free. Thanks, Zach!


I have more stuff coming in the next few days and weeks before I can start in earnest, and in all this I haven't had a chance to touch a single bead or loop so much as an inch of wire, so it's going to be busy in the weeks ahead, as I alternately produce new things for the store and practice my newly-acquired skills.

Classroom studio

Took pictures around my metalsmithing classroom.


If only I had this kind of set-up at home - dream on!


This is the room where we do all the soldering and other dangerous type work. Pictured are the rows of annealing pans and pickle pots. The torches are underneath.


Class today went a little better than last week. I learned a whole bunch of cool new things, including a start to what I mainly came here to learn - stone setting. We learned how to do a bezel setting on a cabochon. It looks rather complicated. I didn't get a chance to try it out yet because I was still stuck sawing away at my ring from last week, so hopefully soon. I'm a little anxious about trying it out, though - I know I'm going to end up breaking something again.

Studio city

Many of the artists of the handcrafted jewelry sites I frequent often speak about their "studios" where they create their pieces. I don't think mine quite qualifies as a studio, so I will call it my workspace instead (in truth, my quasi studio shares space with the guest bedroom).

I finally got around to organizing my beads and supplies and cleaning up this room where I spend a lot of time in - it has all I need to nurture my fledgling business within easy reach, especially my invaluable computer and printer to use for uploading pictures, blogging, shopping for supplies, checking out Etsy, as well as using my actual desk to create my necklaces. I do need a bigger work surface, but for now I just shove everything to one side to make room for my beads and tools.

I'm also just about ready for another set of plastic bins as this one is full to bursting with beads, stones, wire, jigs, tools, etc. I need to find more room, especially as I just bought the following:

Amethysts:

Chrysoprase nuggets:

Dyed topaz:


Green aventurine:

And these cool oval gemstones in a variety of colors:

And lastly, I can't let this day go by without venting about the woman who sat next to me on the train on my way home today. What pisses me off is that since I am small, people almost always choose to sit on the empty seat next to me - they figure I don't take up that much space, even though there are other open seats on the train. My pet peeve is when a big guy sits next to me and proceeds to splay his knees open in what he probably thinks is a macho pose, except what he's actually doing is invading my space. Look, people, just because I'm small doesn't entitle you to take up the space allotted to me. Harrumph.

So this is essentially what happened today with this woman. I had the window seat, where she proceeded to squish me for almost the entire ride home. By the time I arrived at my destination I was one miserable, unhappy, angry, horribly bad-tempered small person.