qotd: "channel setting is anal"
Very full weekend, mostly taken up by my stonesetting class at Danaca. Oooof.
Using 2mm cubic zirconia, I did one (bad) bead setting and one considerably better flush setting, though realized that the seats were too large in both cases (after starting the flush-setting seat with a much smaller bur, for fear of overshooting it again.) I don't quite have the control over flex shaft handpieces that I should, yet.
I was a good girl and did not impulse-buy a SINGLE ONE of the sapphires the instructor had brought back from Tucson, even if they WERE in the whole colorway from bell pepper-red to spring green.
I think I'll be attaching myself to that space in some capacity. It's an open-access full studio sandwiched between a really lovely coffee shop and the bike store where I bought my new bike, and it has considerably better bus access than Pratt. (Thanks, samildanach.) Things to make are dancing in my head...
Doing jewelry is strange. At various people's urging, I made a bail for the ugly-duckling chunk of copper I did the settings in), and have plans to fabricate some fittings rather than try to buy them. I see mostly the warts on this piece, no matter how cool it looks or how much visual presence it has (quite a lot, really; 14ga anything feels pretty stompy, and the boiling of flux makes wondrous patterns in the oxide layer.) I think I was expecting things to be finished, perfect, and timeless - but jewelry is coveted, selected, worn (anywhere from a few hours to a lifetime, several lifetimes on the outside) and forgotten.
I am only now realizing that it's okay for things to be ephemeral.
I did other things too, I am remembering now...
Before: one hell of a week, wedding, Rock Band, Apples to Apples, clamoring, manymany snuggles.
after: utrecht, dinner, and decided sleepiness.
Using 2mm cubic zirconia, I did one (bad) bead setting and one considerably better flush setting, though realized that the seats were too large in both cases (after starting the flush-setting seat with a much smaller bur, for fear of overshooting it again.) I don't quite have the control over flex shaft handpieces that I should, yet.
I was a good girl and did not impulse-buy a SINGLE ONE of the sapphires the instructor had brought back from Tucson, even if they WERE in the whole colorway from bell pepper-red to spring green.
I think I'll be attaching myself to that space in some capacity. It's an open-access full studio sandwiched between a really lovely coffee shop and the bike store where I bought my new bike, and it has considerably better bus access than Pratt. (Thanks, samildanach.) Things to make are dancing in my head...
Doing jewelry is strange. At various people's urging, I made a bail for the ugly-duckling chunk of copper I did the settings in), and have plans to fabricate some fittings rather than try to buy them. I see mostly the warts on this piece, no matter how cool it looks or how much visual presence it has (quite a lot, really; 14ga anything feels pretty stompy, and the boiling of flux makes wondrous patterns in the oxide layer.) I think I was expecting things to be finished, perfect, and timeless - but jewelry is coveted, selected, worn (anywhere from a few hours to a lifetime, several lifetimes on the outside) and forgotten.
I am only now realizing that it's okay for things to be ephemeral.
I did other things too, I am remembering now...
Before: one hell of a week, wedding, Rock Band, Apples to Apples, clamoring, manymany snuggles.
after: utrecht, dinner, and decided sleepiness.