I haven't made any jewelry at all in the last month or so. My brain needed a break from attempting to create sublime yet powerful works of art, and so I've focused entirely on cleaning sawdust off of the kitchen cabinets every day. Our home is continually evolving, with my better half always busy detailing this corner or that. It can be a challenge to keep up with the messes that he makes in the process....Renovations are definitely a test of the strength of a relationship, and we've been tested for about five years now. Another, oh...three to go.....

   I will eventually have to force myself back to my workbench and start cranking out some stuff for the next craft show, which is always hard to do after not thinking about it for awhile. I make it more difficult, I think, by making mostly one-of-a-kind things. I see alot of artists doing a "theme and variations" with their work...Taking one stylistic idea and making several closely related versions. Whether or not that works well for them, I don't know. I just get bored with doing the same idea over and over (I even have trouble making pairs of earrings, because I have to make two of something).

   I have tried a little bit of torch-fired enameling, and hope that combining it with some fold-forming (thank you, Charles Lewton-Brain!!)  will get the cogs moving.  Making something with lots of color is most appealing, and not having to bezel-set alot of stones would be a relief.

   I taught myself some basic lapidary skills a few years ago hoping to fuel the imagination with interesting and unique minerals, but not having a large enough space for both lapidary equipment and a clean metalworking area, it got to be a hassle dragging the rock saws and grinding wheels out into the driveway whenever I felt like cutting. It is messy, dirty work, and I dislike spending alot of time cleaning up.

   Now I have a collection of mineral rough in buckets under my workbench into which small jewelry components that I've just painstakingly made always seem to fly. Time to get rid of some stuff, I think. Anyone out there want to buy a used slab saw?