It's A Wonderful Day

Hi everyone. I had a wonderful day today. I took a PMC class that I've wanted to take for quite some time. I made three pendants and can't wait to go back tomorrow to clean them up and enjoy. I am no longer afraid to work with the clay and like everything else, once you try it, the fear is gone. Another fun avenue in the roadmap of jewelry. My husband thinks I have too many toys - I think I have too little time:>} I'm going to Santa Fe next week to attend the Santa Fe Beadfest. I AM SO EXCITED. My brother and sister-in-law live there so I will take a few classes and play the rest of the time. I'm taking a class on cold connections from Tracey Stanley. It will be a blast. I'll keep you posted and send pictures along the way.

On a sad note, for those of you who have been reading my blog, my friend Jan is in Hospice tonight and has slipped into a coma. She is the friend that I took the quilt to a few weeks ago. I am so happy that I had a chance to visit with her and give her the quilt. She was so happy with the quilt. God will take good care of her, I know, but it is so hard to let go. God Bless you Jan and thanks for the wonderful memories.

The weather here is Arizona is wonderful but I won't elaborate because I know what my friends and family on the east coast are going through right now.

REMEMBER: Running around with good friends is one of life's greatest pleasures - enjoy.

Dirty Story

It's a dirty story but someone has to tell it. I was tumbling some of my finished pieces last night and when I took them out, they were blackened, like they had been dipped in LOS. I paniced and wondered to myself, "Self, did you patina a piece and forget to rinse it off before you put it in the tumbler?" I didn't think so but in my normal state of SADD,(senior attention deficit disorder:>}) I wouldn't guarantee anything. I decided to tumble another piece and see if it happened again. Sure enough, the second piece looked just the same. I knew I was going to be attending a design class today at the Lapidary Shop so decided not to panic. After all, when I go to the shop to work on something I always have more than enough advisors available:>}. After the session, I asked the main instructor if I'd done the unpardonable and was it irreversible. I had visions in my head of needing to dispose of the shot due to contamination and it is expensive to purchase and more expensive to ship so I surely didn't want that to be the case. He kind of gave me that ole SEG and asked me what color my water was. I told him it was pretty dirty and the shot was black. Ah hah he said. You haven't cleaned your shot lately have you? Nope, no one told me I had to do that......never heard of cleaning the shot. He told me to go home and either order some Shot Cleaner Fluid (from Rio) or just mix up a solution of ammonia and let the shot soak for awhile and that should take care of the problemo......I came home and followed his instructions and sure enough, the water turned black from the gunk attached to the shot and the shot is now nice and shiny. I love those experts who always seem to bail us out of trouble. I guess those are the best kinds of lessons because I will always wash my shot once a week or so to make sure this doesn't happen to me again.


On another note the design class was wonderful and I can't wait until Wednesday and Thursday when I take my PMC class. I've had some packages of PMC in my studio for months because I was afraid to open the packages. It is so expensive I was afraid I'd screw it up and waste the clay. I'm told that the main thing you have to worry about is letting it dry out so I will be very careful. Will keep you posted. My husband is back home after the weekend in Phoenix and very happy to have a steak dinner and sleep in his own bed for a change.....Gotta love them.


On another note, I came home from my class to find this little visitor on my patio, having lunch no less - yuk. In case you can't tell, it is a beautiful hawk.

A Flaming Good Time

I had a blast (so to speak) today. I used my torch and soldered a great piece together. It still needs to be polished and cleaned but here is the process in short:



The first few pictures are of my messy working space in my studio. After these pictures were taken, I cleaned it up and re-arranged a bit. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the pendant is made of sterling silver and copper. It is really pretty and I hope to have it posted on my Etsy site this coming week. I am also ordering my kiln this week so should be able to pick it up and get some dichroic glass items made. I will also be working with PMC so should have some real fun here in the near future. If I could only figure out how to eliminate eating and sleeping I'd have it made:>} Cheers, Sally