I was so excited that I was going to get a whole day in my studio. I even gave up a bicycle ride with Jim for this. I got my cup of coffee and turned on the lights at 6:00 am....and I mean the lights in my studio, not the bedside light.
The first thing I started on was enlarging a ring I had made. Jim really liked the stone and the ring was manly and said he would wear it (Yea! my first "man" jewelry piece!!) The ring only needed to be enlarged a little bit so I wasn't worried about the stone which is actually a beautiful piece of Dichroic glass. So I started happily pounding away, checking the size, pounding some more and OOOPPSS!! The center portion of the glass started coming apart. No duhhhhh. Hammer + glass. What WAS I thinking? I have an idea on how to save this and get it large enough for Jim but I won't go into that now. Stay tuned for the final chapter of that.
Next project. I had made a beautiful pendant frame from Fine silver clay in the shape of a specific stone. I had all the soldering done and the stone was going to be suspended in the frame. As I am working the final steps what do I do? I DROP the stone!! As it fell to the floor in slow motion I found myself yelling "Don't break! Don't break!" And then as I heard the definite breaking sound I was then yelling "Why do I have ceramic tile floor???!"
A little choice words and a few deep breaths later I start thinking how can I salvage this beautiful frame. I can't change the shape and I have a better chance of winning the power ball than I would finding another stone that shape. Ah ha!! I have some tiny perfect sea shells so I laid them out and decided I would solder a sterling back plate, insert the shells, and fill with sea blue ice resin. BUT, I needed to get the frame to lay flat on the back plate for the solder to hold. As I am hammering away, I break a piece of the frame. Uggg....will this "breaking stuff" ever end?? Since I never throw anything away, I put the broken frame on my project bench and walked away. Who knows when I will come back to that.
Hummmmm....is there a pattern here. Maybe Debbie should stay away from hammers but Q: "How do you create jewelry without hammers? A: You don't! This is Friday but it's not the 13th. What is going on??
I did manage to finish a bracelet and a pair of earrings but I have to say, I am not as happy with the bracelet as I thought I would be. I made it from Fine Silver clay and each disk has a dolphin on the front. Sounds pretty but I put too much texture behind the dolphin so he doesn't stand out like I thought he would. So the end of this day's story is it was CLUTSY!!
Till next time.....
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