Points of interest:
– I got my postcards and business cards. The backside of the postcards were screwed up, and it was my fault, not the printers. I saved the business card file as the postcard file. Dumb. So, both the postcards and business cards have the same thing on the reverse sides, except one, I can’t remember which, is missing a hyphen somewhere. I had been staring at and obsessing over those buggers for days and then went and totally screwed them. Because of this, the postcards aren’t technically postcards and can’t be mailed. Bleh. Oh well. It’s not like I ever do postcard mailing campaigns anyway, and the pictures are fine, and that’s what matters.
– I’m dreaming of gems. Not even the precious, perfect ones – but the cloudy, included, flawed inexpensive ones – they have more personality. I’ve been scouring the internets for them, familiarizing myself with them, so that figures. I’m trying to figure out how I’ll make room for a jeweler’s bench. I rearranged some drawer space to accomodate some boro clear rods that have been in cardboard boxes for years. And I cut 2 entire cases of full length borosilicate rod in half to eliminate the bulky mile-long boxes that have housed them for the last couple of years. I put them into plastic storage containers without anything between the layers to keep them from scratching each other. I just didn’t care after cutting dozens and dozens and DOZENS of clear rod.
And I still can’t figure out how I’ll fit a jeweler’s bench.
– I’ve taken more days off than I really should have. It all started with our 7 hour Dexter watching marathon on Friday evening. (We finally renewed our Netflix subscription.) It’s been hot and muggy, and we gave up and turned on the AC. It isn’t even June yet. I tend to drag along as I adjust to the heat, but I perk up eventually. I’ll be catching up on orders over the next several days. People, this is why I don’t like to take deposits or full pre-payments for orders, and don’t give an exact completion date. This is also why avoid making custom jewelry like the plague. I could be a few days, even a week late with an order (or months late when it comes to jewelry)… like, say, for instance, if I’m trying to find something. When I’m trying to find something in my house, it could take hours, even days to find it, and I WILL NOT STOP until I find what I’m looking for. I can’t think of or do anything else until I find what I’m after. And if I start a project, like rearranging a room (or cutting two cases of boro rod), I can’t stop until it’s done. Luckily, my focus is the same when completing orders once I get started on them. It’s all about the momentum.
I may have mentioned once or twice that before I started making beads, I had a dream about a large garage filled with glass items on aisles and aisles of shelves up to the ceiling. (however, this isn’t unusual, as I often dream about finding treasure like this.) There were so many colors and shapes and inclusions in them like foil, dichro, mica… and when I imagined something I hadn’t seen yet, it would magically appear, exactly as I had imagined it. This wasn’t as much a dream as it was a premonition. Taking the time to make a bead is anything but magic. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually pull these brightly colored, interestingly shaped things out of my ass, clean and shiny and ready for pictures and shipping. But having unique ideas and the skill to execute them is the closest thing to it. And it took a long time, more than a third of my lifetime, to get where I am with glass.
I’ve been wanting to work with sterling silver for a long time, too – to make bezel set rings, with interesting textures and stamped designs with my beads and other gems, pendants and charms incorporating my beads, vintage glass buttons, whatever… anything that’s clever. I think it’s time for me to do whatever I can to make it happen, and I’ll be working toward that over the next several months. But worry not. The glass will continue to be my main focus. I think it will be fun to see how I can incorporate little bits of silver thingees here and there in my bead sets, as I learn about fabricating something with an entirely different approach and set of tools and materials. It will be a challenge, since I’ve been such a glass purist for so long. And rings? I already have so many ideas for those…
I really wish my grandpa was still alive today. He’d be really really old, and completely insane, but he’d surely be thrilled to pieces. He kept offering to build me a jeweler’s bench when I was much younger. I never had a use for one until now. I’ll just have to find one, I guess. But I do have several cabochons that he gave me, and a funky little ruby I inherited after he went. It’s probably worth next to nothing, but I treasure it anyway, and will set it in a special piece that I keep for myself. That ought to please the old heckle.
the z-beads blog 