no work today. boo. childminder has let me down. wah.

right guys--so what have i managed to bugger up this week i hear you ask!
well, to start at the start i suppose. i melted my lovely leaf. and also my lego earrings. the hated kiln was on too hot--i really don't understand--either i just have the most disobedient kiln--or there's something very wrong with what i'm doing!
the emerald ring is going very well, i got some kiln safe ring cores through the other day--so i tried to put the ring over one to fire--ring too small! (oops) three hours of sanding and refining later, and it was perfect! i even managed to fire it without doing something heinous to it, the stone still fits, and it looks lovely!! the only thing i did was accidently break one of the little leaves off-but it was a clean break, and it looked quite nice assymetretrical, so i think i'll just sand the join and leave it. all i have to do now is tidy up the base of the setting so that it looks a bit less scruffy, and hand it over!!
also today i started on a solid copper choker (incidentally to hang my incinerated leaf on) which went ok, it's just going to take some fiddling to get it just right. but i think it will be amazing when i finish (without melting) both leaf and choker.
ooooh-i nearly forgot! one of my disastrous copper rings caught my eye earlier, so i decided to see what i could to rescue it, it had this lovely bubbled texture where it'd gone wrong. so, what i did, was fill the inside of the band with thick paste clay from an old syringe i had hanging around, smoothed it, tried to push it into all the holes, and level the edges. i then torch-fired the silver, which was ok, but everything was stilll a bit flakey, so ifiled it all down so that it was a bit more even, then did the same again-but kiln-fired it this time, and i've not checked it out yet, but i can't wait to see whether i've just about made it passable-or have just completely wrecked it, and wasted a load of metal! on that note, idrilled a hole in the other copper ring, to see if i could see any raw clay--but it seemed solid all the way through--i just don't get what i've done wrong, if you get it wet, it just starts bleeding clay, but seems solid enough whenever i've tried to check it.

party

well, had a brilliant party last night, good few women came--more than i've had before (but that's not hard!) everyone had a laugh, and pretty much everyone bought or ordered something! i have another challenging comission, a lady wanteda bottle/locket type thing for a lck of her sons hair--so this week, i will mainly be designing that!! i can't wait! i really love the projects people give me, and am so honoured that they feel comfortable enough to ask me!
i've also been commissioned to make a ring similar to one of my very first trials, that was seen at the last party, a ring that i love! i can't wait to make another.
and one of the charms from the charm-making has been ordered, which was actually very lovely. plus two of my stock pieces. all in all, not a bad nights work!!
roll on tomorrow!!

wey hey-two houses down! i can't remember if i told you that a friend of mine recently commissioned two small house charms for herself and her neighbour. they had lived together since they were little girls, and had both moved out to go to uni, so she thought it would be nice for each of them to have a house charm made, of their very own house! it took me a little while to get around to, as i wasn't sure how best to do it. but in the end i got a reminder, and with a week to the deadline imade a small base, with a 3-d roof, and drew in the detail.
long story short--it was rubbish. so instead i just hand-formed some house shapes, into the shape of the houses (bu-dum-chh) used the 3-d roof i'd made the first time round, (Plus another) and they came out looking great!! i decided to use the more traditional method of engraving into the fired silver, as it looks so much better, and is actually much easier! anyway, i decided that it would be great if the two charms could be linked in some way, so after an hour of filing, i realised it was going to work a lot better if i just hammered the pieces together, to shape the channel for the .......thing.....of the adjoining piece. i very much enjoyed this project when i (eventually!) got around to it. and i'm so glad that i didn't stick with my original plan, just to have something to hand over. mk II ended up ten times better than the first would have done!!

green goddess

mmm, right, i now have my hands on a stunning princess cut emerald, a very hard to get hold of--setting, and a ring size....so roll on engagement ring!! i've been desperately trying to get hold of a ringmaker, but to my dismay they seem few and far between. wah. oh well--lots of sanding it is then!! i can't decide whether to carve some vines around the setting, or apply the detail around it. mmmm, will have to experiment with that one. i am so nervous about this one, this will be the most expensive thing i've done so far. (and i won't be happy until i know that the stone sits in the setting properly!!)
also, i need to make two small house charms, by SATURDAY which should be interesting, when she said she wanted it by the 20th, i thought she meant june!!!! dear god i hope i've got enough silver!! argh.
so, so excited about the tools i've just ordered-i should have over £140 worth coming soon-so i dearly hope i get the money for my brooches when it's due!
on that note, i haven't finished my plans for tomorrow as i appear to have misplaced my notebook somehow--i've had the damn thing to hand for weeks--i had to lose it TONIGHT! when i actually needed it the most!! therefore i must go to bed, so that i can actually do all the things i need to do tomorrow morning!!
wish me luck!!

spring clean

ok, i actyually managed to get out to the studio before midday for once! (thanks to the dogs trip to the vet) argghh, the studio is full of spiders!! really, really big ones!! sooo....finally out of the onservatory,i spent most of today buying plastic boxes, and organising all of my work stuff. it felt really good to try and sort through everything, evven if i did have a complete nightmare due to the dogs getting at my leather thong stash!! also, i called the tax credits people, and i can get some more childcare, so that i can actually get some work done properly!
on the work front, i am still searching for a setting for this emerald, and have had a party booking pfrom one of the ladies from last friday. hmm, sleep now methinks

party fever!

ok, so i did my second ever party last night, i was very, very nervous! thankfully, it was a very good friend of mine who'd booked it, and another very good friend was attending, so that helped me a lot in the confidence department. in the end, two people showed up, both were interested in ordering work/booking parties, and i sold a very old necklace for £30, which i see as a pretty damn good ratio!! i did a firing demo, but no=one really cared about that, and it was quite difficult for everyone to see, so i'm not sure i'll do that next time. however, everyone enjoyed polishing up some pre-fired pieces, which will come in handy i'm sure!! i was thinking about doing some water-casting, but my attempt at the studio demonstrated that my torch just isn't up to the challenge! the charm-making went down very well, it was miles better than the first party where they did it using silver clay, and i brought a load of moulds and texture sheets, and didn't join in. last night, instead of that, we used wood clay, i was sitting on the floor, and just had a few shaping tools, it was great fun! next time, i think a few more clay shapers are needed, but not a lot else.
over the week, i have also been doing some reasearch, and trying to gather some tips on getting the copper to fire properly. i am beginning to really crave some more time at the studio, but when i'm there it's just so difficult to concentrate! and other than that, the kids came in and crushed the hinge i was working on, on a locket i havee been very slowly making for the last few months! i was so upset that i actually had to leave. on the up side, the large geranium leaf that i snapped mended very well, and was greatly admired on party-night!!