Goldsmithing at Syntra West: my course so far

Here are some of the results fo the 1st semester: on the left our assignments in brass and another alloy which name i always forget (it's the paler metal in which the bracelet and that one ring is made).

But now it is getting pretty interesting... designing a necklace on our own. Woohoo, now we're talking!
So you see those silver grains? That's the start. They are molten and poured into a mould for wire, and then that longish wonky clump gets rolled through the rolling mill until the wire gets the diameter it needs...

My chain design is a pretty simple one: just connected round loops with pins here and there. But of course those pins will hold glass cabuchons, and that's where the fun begins! ;-)

I'll try to update as I progress...

Studio tales

Well, that was a nicely busy day! The page on my studio is ready in a more or less acceptable form. I had this page in mind since late 2007 but only got around doing it now! Luckily I had some help from my blog -tagged with studio- and my flickr "studio stuff" collection.

I hope this is a good place to start for people who want to know what the heck I'm doing and how I do it -I'm open to suggestions if you like to know more!

right now I'm setting up the goldsmithing studio there -the soldering torch got installed recently, and I'm looking into some mobile IKEA kitchen workingspaces to serve as forging and possibly stained glass window setting tables. The studio space and money is limited, so we have to be creative. As if that ever were a drag... ;-)

Aarghh, the brand new Etsy shop! And a tiny rant.

aarghh.etsy.com: now how does that sound? :-D

So that's for a good start of 2009! Etsy "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade" is a marketplace for artists/sellers and buyers like Dawanda. Only American based, so everything's in dollars over there.

I'm gradually adding jewelry to it and I will probably start selling glass beads and murrini (my own, of course) on it too! It's just we had so little natural light here today that my pictures didn't really come out well, so for now there's only 1 necklace up. The rest will follow when I can do a better photoshoot!

And I had a little adventure on Facebook: participating in a discussion! Even expressing my opinion. Oh my! It must have been a first! :-p I don't usually do that, you see. I'd rather steer away from discussions and stand on the sideline, nodding politely to all the parties while thinking my own thoughts. But not expressing them, oh no!

- Well, it's on my to-do list of 2009: learn to speak up! I'm 30, for crying out loud! I think I can, right? LOL. Well it's never too late to learn... ;-)

Don't bother about the specifics -it was on animal abuse which is something I have very strong feelings about, so I had to step in (for once). I doubt it had much effect on the persons concerned but it felt good to give a voice to my thoughts in a constructive manner, not engaging in name-calling and anything. Even if I don't think they were into reasonable discussions whatsoever and they probably thrive on whatever attention they can get, be it positive or negative. Of course if I had the chance I'd go after them with an axe or so. Yes, that would be lovely! Axe-murder in the morning, tea in the afternoon: who's with me? People who hold so little respect for animals get the exact same amount of respect from me. Anyway, glad I learned from the experience and happily moving on!

19/1/2009 ETA: Yay! the FB lampworkers community stepped in too, mass-unfriending this person. Which seems right: it's the least we can do. Pity spaying and neutering isn't allowed on cat-haters...sure would solve the problem!

21/1/2009: just saw he removed the entire thread (I replied to). Typical! Well, I won't spill any more words on this sad little bully. But this whole thing did have a positive outcome after all: it brought a group of lampworkers closer!