slowly updating

I'm working furiously at bringing my shop back up. If I continue at the pace I've been going at (read: freakishly productive) I should have 8 new pieces to stick in the tumbler by the end of the weekend. I have 4 ready to list that are awaiting resizing and editing.

I've been buying stones like nobody's business. My collection pales in comparison to all of these other metalsmiths' I read about, but I'm enjoying the process. I've discovered so many different beautiful things in just months my mind really cannot process it all. I didn't know half of these rocks existed. I didn't know the earth could produce such things. I want them all, if only to surround them by silver (and maybe some gold, some.day) and pass them off to someone else.

I think my lack of attachment to much of my recent jewelry is this sense of urgency to create, create, create. I'm just barely touching the surface of what I can do, what these tools can do, what it can all come together as.

Aside from custom orders I'm likely taking a break from casting, as that's just not where I AM right now.

I also have this overwhelming desire to create higher standards. Not that they weren't high to begin with, but with the limited equipment I have some of the finishing steps are very difficult and often not feasable. So, I'm purchasing a flex shaft kit this week (Foredom, mmmm).

And a bigger torch as soon as I'm able.

Lastly, a polisher. I have my tumbler. I was elated when I first learned of tumblers. In my first metalsmithing classes we had to polish by hand. Oh, it took a long time. Oh, I feared hot metal catching on the cloth wheel and flying up to my face. In college the tumbler appeared. No one ever touched the polisher. I thought it was magic, why would anyone ever want to polish by hand?

The finish IS different. I'm converting back to hand polishing (I will still use the tumbler, just depends on the piece). Eventually I'll add this to my list, but it's likely several months away. I just wanted you to know.

Yes, so things are in motion. Nearly every piece I'm working on right now has a stone. I crave them. I crave fabrication. I wish my hands and my brain could synch up a little better and I could make as fast as I think.

These are in the shop now:::

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24704138

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24705150

(more to come in the next few days...2 more cast rings & a silly little pendant)