YOJ week three

Whoever said that the life of an artist was all glamor and light, never had to preclose and debur a hundred plus jump rings!  Boring in the extreme.  But it's done and well worth the effort.  I think.  I'm proud of this piece.  It's a major accomplishment because even the simplest wire work, such as these eye pins are really hard for me to do.  Wire just doesn't talk to me the way fiber and seed beads, do.

See this clasp?  OOOO and AWE over it a lot.  This is the first time I've managed to do a clasp like this.  Oh, I've tried, and I've mangled a lot of wire.  But a finished clasp?  Not a one... until today.  I'm not the least bit proud over this accomplishment, of coarse, I'm staying nice and humble and serine about it.  Really I am!

Murphy 10, Lauria 0

So, in my last post, I mentioned I joined YOJ 2011.  For my second week I planed to make a bar chain (How to video here.).  It's a new technique for me and looked interesting.  Which, if you've known me for any amount of time, you'll know that new technique and interesting are what I live for.

Well, first I had to get over my fear of the dremel.  It took a while, but after setting there with it running I started to feel sorta silly doing nothing and stuck my wire end to the grinding bit.  One wire piece smoothed  and I lived to tell the tale, YEA ME!  Then I rolled my wire to make it nice and straight and tried to flatten it.  Didn't happen!  I don't know if I'm a wimp, or my wire was to thick, or it wasn't the right softness, or what, but I pounded and pounded and pounded and it didn't flatten a bit.  Phooey on trying to flatten it with a bench block, I'm going after the hammer. 

Um, I do have a hammer around here somewhere...I think.  At least I did...  At one time...

Oh well, who wants to make a bar chain anyway?  Not me!

So then I decided to make some wooden bead out of blood wood, purple heart and wenge.  Apparently there is a secret to sawing a straight line in wood.  I don't know what it is.  Sure I could follow a line in the front, but the back went all sideways and ended up twice as thick as the front.  I haven't' a clue why.  I tried busting a blank along the grain line and ended up with some very interesting wenge kindling.  Two days latter, I've reduced four pen blanks to sawdust and splinters and irritated every single trigger point in my neck. 

Ho, hum!

Friday morning has downed and I'm desperate, not to mention dizzy!    Every time I turn my head to the right the world does an interesting bump and grind, followed by a swoop and swirl that threatens to knock me out cold.  I've had it with wood, I think I'll play with bugle beads instead.   Or maybe not.  Out of 20 beads I had 20 different lengths and my fire line was too large to fit through the beads enough times, and the beads broke, and bugles are stupid, ugly things anyway! 

My attempts to wrap a briolette didn't go any better.  Running bead packages through my fingers didn't get me anywhere.  My muse has apparently run off in great disgust at my incompetence.  Which is fine with me.  I don't like her all to much either.  She is obviously in cahoots with Murphy!

Searching for a deadline

For me, being creative has always been about the design process, leaning new techniques, and finding interesting new ways to use those techniques.  Finishing a project, showing it off, putting it up for sale, those things have always been included in the tiresome necessities of running a business category.  It's nice to finish a product from time to time, but nowhere near necessary for my peace of mind.

I know that sound harsh, but it's true.  I don't care about the finished product, I care about the journey.  Once the journey is running smoothly I lose interest, and look forward to the next journey.  The best journeys are those where you never know the outcome, till you set back and say "It's done!"  Those are the ones that are worth showing off.  Sadly these are few and far between.

As a consequence I hardly never finish a project.  I need a firm deadline, or a group challenge to get me to the finish line.  That's why I joined The Year Of Jewelry Project 2011.  The challenge, one piece of jewelry a week for a year. 

I have ideas, and I'm eager to get started!