Resting

I decided I was going to rest this weekend, since I haven’t stopped working on my projects for quite a while now. My back is giving me some trouble and I was just going to sit at home, watch some telly and drink lots of tea.

HOWEVER, I really wanted to get a head start on the three rings I made and just picked up from the casting house on Friday, so I told myself I would only saw the sprues and file them down, and that’s it for the weekend.

I finished doing that, happy that I will have Sunday completely free and will be able to start polishing all the pieces Monday morning. I can’t wait to oxidize these babies to bring out all the little details I carved, which took a lot of effort (and a toll on my back).

HOWEVER, I woke up Sunday morning to discover the hen charm pendant sold on my Etsy shop! The whales charm pendant sold last week, and I suddenly realized I haven’t even started working on new ideas for more round charms that I wanted to do, and I was full of ideas and images ready to explode out of my head. So I decided to just start a list of images and maybe a sketch or two, but that would be it!

I guess the creative process is a very unpredictable thing, especially when you sell your creations online and hope to someday make a living out of it.

Anyway, I can’t complain. I’ve discovered that sitting on the carpet while working is the best position for my back right now.

With all the craziness going on in the world right now, at least in my living-room there’s peace.

Peace.

Completing the New Pendants

I finally finished stringing the beads in all three pendants. I tried different variations, playing around with the beads and even trying to see how they looked with some round, faceted ruby beads I have.

I decided to go with the lemon quartz bead with the “Fairy Vine” pendant, because I figured the green color went well with the natural plant theme of it.

The “Fairy Whistle” pendant and the spiral pendant I strung with these bluish-greenish topaz briolettes I’ve had for years. They are delicate, beautifully polished and change colors at every angle.

I had a couple of small pendants/beads that I made a couple of months ago and I decided to string them on this thin black leather cord that I have and list them on my Etsy shop as pieces intended also for men.

Now I just need to list all these new items and begin working on the three charms…

Peace.

My tool bag…

Polishing and Making the Tourmaline Pendant

I had many things to do today and barely managed to finish filing and polishing the four new pendants. I decided to get them done first and then move on to the charms. However, I sawed off all the spruces’ remains and filed them off from all the pieces first.

The sawing is usually the most laborious task, which requires a lot of patience and concentration. I’m proud to say I did not break even one saw blade! I usually go through two to five every time I saw new pieces.

The filing is pretty straight forward and I just tried using my smaller Dick files (not joking) which I purchased from Rio Grande so I will not damage the pieces too much. It takes a little more time but it is safer.

After that comes the most tedious yet rewarding part – polishing. I use eight different grades of sandpaper, ranging from 400 to 8000, which means I have to polish every piece eight times until it reaches the smoothness I desire. I have to admit, this process takes a very long time, and I take many breaks in between grades to stretch my body and wash my hands. Even though my fingers are always blistered by the end, it is so rewarding to see the silver come to life with every grade of polishing. It is like there is moonlight hiding in it and you just need to polish it enough to get it to shine through. Man, I love silver.

 

Once I finished polishing them and blistering my fingers, I decided I still had time to at least complete the simpler looking pendant out of the four. I intended to string some tourmaline beads inside the groove on a metal string and secure them with some silver crimps. It was actually easier than I thought it would be and it came out lovely. I think it is one of the simplest, most minimalist pieces I have made so far (and probably the last lol).

Peace.