Saturday, October 16, 2010

Count Down Fun! 3! Part 2 I got mugged. . .

Inky really needed a cuddle, right now thank you very much.


I'm still spruing work for tomorrow, but my lower back is compressed and beginning to ache.  So it's time for a short break and a stretch.  Good photos from today to follow, probably in the morning.

Sometime the silliest things can go through your mind when you're working.  So here's an internal dialogue that amused me . . .

"What's that smell?"
Oh, I almost burned the air compressor up . . .

"What's that smell?"
Oh, you know, my casting glove got a little hot when I turned the flasks.

"What's that smell?"
Oh, that's just the hair I signed off my hand.

"What's that smell?"
What smell?  Oh, that one???
Um; I really need a shower . . .

Hey, I didn't say it was funny!  But it sure made me smile!

Count Down Fun! 3! Part 1

Pat's Latest Favorite!
Sterling Silver Christmas Fern on a Spectacular Labradorite,
hot off the bench!

More to come later   .   .   .


Count Down Fun! 4!

So I woke up in my office chair at 3 or so this morning and stumbled off to bed.  We ended up getting a pretty good early start to the day.  This time of the year the light is just incredible, and mornings and late afternoons can be spectacular.

I started by de-spruing the ferns I cast last night.  The three Christmas Ferns are toast, but the Bracken and the Japanese Painted Ferns are hot!  Despite our joking about how long they would take to de-sprue it went surprisingly fast.  Then a coarse grind and a fine grind and now they're in Pat's to do que.

One leaf is incomplete.  Fortunately I waxed it up a much longer frond than we need!
When I ground the back clean the heat caused this color to develop.
Interesting possibilities for a Fall piece . . .

This is going to be a spectacular pendant once we're finished!

Here's an idea of how different the finished pendant will look from the initial casting:
we made this Bracken Ridgelines Pendant early this Spring.

I got all of the Seasonal Botanicals  ground and ready for Pat, while she finished these two gorgeous Seasonal Botanical Pendants!

Sterling Silver Sedum telephium 'Autumn Joy' and Labradorite.


 
I just blanked on what succulent this is!  Um
Sterling Silver Succulent on Labradorite.

(Hmmm.  Maybe I am that tired!  I think I'm glad I didn't try to invest tonight.)

Then it was back to wax work!  I managed to get all of the Petite Ridgelines Pendants that we'll have at the Guild Fair treed and ready to invest.  Got a flask of our larger Ridgelines earrings treed and ready to invest.  All weighed, notes made and ready for the morning.

Here's a sneak peak at some new earrings for our spinner rack for the Fair.
Affordable Reticulated Bronze Earrings!

While I was finishing up Pat made her wonderful enchiladas for our dinner tonight.  The smell was driving me crazy.  They tasted even better than they smelled!  YUM.

Last week someone asked me if we ate out all of the time when we are working like this; hard and straight through.  No, we aren't eating out now.  I enjoy cooking, Pat enjoys it when she doesn't get stuck with it all of the time.  It works pretty well for us.  Stopping and taking an hour or so to cook a good meal is Fun for me.  Besides the better we eat the better we work.  

After dinner and a little break I went back to work and shot some waxes for tomorrow.  After about forty minutes I finally realized that I was smelling the air compressor that powers the wax pot.  I had left the dust cover on and it had gotten so hot that I couldn't touch it!  Time to stop.

Oh.  I just remembered that we haven't mailed our Fair postcards out . . .