intensive work ethic

wey hey. so, i'm in bournemouth. i sat down to work at half past ten this morning, having sorted the kids, and handed them over to my obliging hostesses, and have just finished up and gotten into bed!
   i was working for 12 hours!! (minus a few little breaks to sort the kids out, put to bed etc...)

i have been pasting crazy today...look!

   this is a fraction of what i've done. and they are still unfinished due to a slight pastey mis-calculation!!
although--they will be beautiful-IF i can finsh them off without breaking them--i  have to get them back home to complete! arg
 ah well. i have made one thing that i am immensly proud of---here is an awful late-night photo...........

and have finally finished my engagement ring. i managed to fix what i broke last week, but tthen the other leaf broke---there really was NO way to fix that-and as it doesn't look too bad i'm just going to leave it.

or leaf it!! muahaha, oh dear-it really is too late!

                                                                           
note to self: do not attempt to take pictures yourself--they're rubbish! 
      i still don't understand how i let myself run out of paste--that shouldn't have happened!!
i also made some puzzle pieces, for earriings, although i may change my mind on that. maybe turn them into a necklace.....oh yeah---i spent HOURS filing down the end of a very thick piece of copper wire to put my strawberry leaves on (which are verysweet!) and i'm still no-where near---that will take a long time! i wnt to make itso that i can twiddle the end so that it looks all tapered and viney. it will take a million years!
    i've been doing a lot of torch-firing, as i can't trust my kiln, (which is in the car, but i'm not intending on using it) so i have been firing most thing twice- or three times just to make sure they're properly done, even if they didn't need it anyway!!!
    i am incredibly impressed with my hand fired leaves--i never thought i would be able to do them with out ruining them all!! 
next time: more paste!!!
     and for tomorrow, copper torques, more leaves (hopefully) and some copper clay things!!!
                         ....wish me luck!

this is my melty leaf that my kiln tried to destroy.......but i think it looks kinda arty!

i've been wearing this solidly, even though i can't sell it because it's not up to scratch-at least it's something to show!! (and it's all i've got right now----clearing out the studio on monday--eeep!)

these are my houses i made a few months ago for ellie........

today i am throwing myself into getting some posters to display at the fairs--if i can't have work to display, then at least i can show pictures!!!! and just because i can't be hands-on ''working'' doesn't mean i can't be being useful!!

ok guys, and the award for the most fucked-up day at work yet goes to.......! jesus.

ok, i will try and start from the start--but this is going toget stressed!! i found out last week that i had a fair booked for the 3rd. and i have no work to show (excvept the rubbish stock i've been toting around for the last three years! ) so i start to panic. i then realise that i have only two work days btween then and....for the sake of arguemnet we'll say now...so i panic more.
plus lak of materials.
plus lack of money for materials.

you can see where this is going.



so.......to make my life easier, i book another fair. the. next. day. i know, idiot. so, i now have two stalls in two days....and no stock.....no mone....no materials.......NO KILN!
Did i mention that my kiln is not well? it's not. it keeps melting things. i don't know how to fix it. so i've been trying to work with more traditional methods, soldering, riveting, wire work, and torch-firing the stuff i need to, just so that i have some work to display. even if it's not (internally) good enough to sell, i cango ''look, here's what i can do......sometimes.''

so i calm down.

i arrange childcare.

i work.

the new man of the house where i have my studio space comes in when i've been hard at work all day (and have just finished the engagement ring--and then broken it!) and goes schitzo at me. completely. kicks me out. so i hare out of the place, leaving all of my work in disarray. with no clue what to do.

this is the morning after that. i am supposed to be working tomorrow. i don't know what to do. i really don't. i have 8 days to prepare for two stalls. in work days--that's four. and i don't evenknow if i can get back into the studio.

i am phoning everybody i know to see if they have space/know of someone with space. i am really screwed.

although, whilst at work yeaterday, i managed to fix a leaf necklet that i just bout managed to scrape together last time, and then broke---which is now gorgeous, despite being a bit melted-but i think that makes it interesting! i (hopefully) successfully torch-fired another leaf--and was about to attch bail when everything kicked off. ---so now at least i know i can do it!

i broke my ring!!! :(

well. an interesting day was had by all today. the latest of my antics in the studio consist of: breaking things, fixing things, breaking same things, and more, having a headache, shouting at the inanimate kiln for melting everything.
i have made a beautiful leaf on a copper choker sort of an arrangement, which was very lovely, but broken from start to finish. having said that--the choker was ok! note to self: dn't over-fire pmc leaf. other note to self: do not then fire bail whilst undried. final note to self: do not then allow toddler to hang off said badly-fired bail. bugger.
i am now extraondinatily distrustful of my kiln, and have been torch-firing things today--which is probably not better, but hey! i tried torching some copper paste leaves i'd done ages ago, partially because i was bored of them hanging around, and partiallyto see if i could. they might actually have worked, only they were far toothin, i think next time i need to put AT LEAST twice the paste on. although i had to scrap all of my copper the other day because it had just gone completely weird. having said that, my copper and silver torchfired ring has worked quite well, although i'm not 100%sure it's sintered properly. (but it looks fantastic-i think!)