Monday, March 8, 2010

No longer down.

I am back on the up again and not so down and out about my jewelry adventures.

Yay!

I have an addictive, but also fickle personality. When I find a new hobby, I generally tend to dive in head first and very full on. But because I am fickle, I can easily give up or get bored of a hobby too. So I was very worried over the weekend when I started to get downhearted about jewelry making. This is my most expensive hobby so far and I would feel really bad if I were to give it up now after all my hubby and I have invested in it. That is why I had to vent in my last post. Sometimes you just need to be brought back to reality. That things are going to go bad whether you like it or not, but you have to get over it to move on.

Well all that being said, I made a new friend over the weekend in the jewelry world.

Fire scale.

At first, I didn't have a clue what it was. (But I was very excited at the same time as I had gotten quite a good shine/polish on my silver!!) So I did the first thing I thought of, I posted my questions about it at starvingartists.com

And the next morning I had plenty of replies explaining what it was and the options I had to remove and in future prevent it from appearing. I was very relieved. Starving Artists has helped me several times and I would recommend it to others as they are a very friendly/helpful bunch!

So this week my shopping list is:

Bead Caps - thanks Amy
for pointing me in the right direction, I have found a supplier of those flower ones here in Australia! Yippee!!

Sterling Sheet.

Firescoff. Found 1 place I can get it here in Australia online!

And I really really would like to get myself a disc cutter too......but I will have to wait and see.

My mum has kindly offered to purchase me a rolling mill and all the crucibles etc and go halves with me. She has loads of silver I can smelt (antiques dealer so has loads of cutlery old jewelry etc). I don't know that I will take it up tho, as I would rather see some return from my hobby before I spend on more tools of that expense. Plus I would need to get help on how to do it all correctly too.

And last but not least, I am mulling over going to Gold/silver smithing school. So many choices to make. But that is what keeps me involved and interested!

Oh and my mum gave me a very very old (from the 70's) enameling kit, I torch fired a copper domed oval with green opaque enamel and I have a great idea for doing more, so I need the disc cutter in order to do circles. I will dome them so I don't have to counter enamel things.

Phew! That was another long post. I need a cup of tea :)


4 comments:

Amy Nicole said...

I saw myself in your post today. I'm the same kind of addictive/fickle personality, and have had the same fears with this metalsmithing thing. I'm in too deep now though! Glad you are feeling better. It is a roller coaster for sure! Glad to have you along for the ride.

Unknown said...

So many great ideas & directions to take, wonderful! I have Starving Artists bookmarked, but I haven't been back yet to really check it out. I'll make sure to, thanks. The enamel kit sounds like fun & I would sooo love to take a silversmithing class! Really hope you can work that into your budget - best of luck w/ that. :)

littlecherryhill said...

Amy - lol I think I am in too deep now too! But it doesn't stop me worrying...

littlecherryhill said...

Thanks Kim :)