Well, this weekend was NICE. Quiet. To the extent that things CAN be quiet around here right now. It seems the past 5 weekends or so have just been a little nutty. We were on vacation for two weekends, and then I took that workshop over a weekend. I can't recall what was going on the weekends prior to vacation, I only know that I hadn't been to church in over 4 weeks and it was GREAT to get back. yay! We had family in late Sunday afternoon which was a lot of fun and other than that and going to church (and grocery shopping and laundry) I didn't do much of ANYthing! My son had a birthday party to attend on Saturday which left me free to grocery shop by myself for a change and I took that opportunity to run to a little natural food market not too far from home. It was interesting. I picked up a few items - more than a few actually. I was able to buy raw almonds in bulk (at only 4.99/lb!) and I bought some seeds and sea salts and some other interesting items like 'noodles' made from tofu and yam flour. I'm still eating at about 98% raw. I'm using some vinegars and oils that aren't raw and things like hummus on occassion and little tastes here and there of whatever my family might be having (especially while I am cooking their meals)...all in all though, I'm pretty sure I'm very close to 100% raw which is great!
A week or so ago a friend of mine found a great ad on Craigs list where a jeweler in PA was offing a lot of items for sale. I toyed with the idea of going up and shopping with her but in the end, with my son having the bday party to go to and all, I just decided not to go. However, it did inspire me to look at Craigs list (which I do occassionally, but definitely not regularly) and guess what I found? A jeweler in MY town dispersing his entire jewelry studio. Can I tell you how quickly I jumped on that? Quicker than quick. I am now the proud owner of a 'proper' jewelers bench (which I am crazy over as it has a sweeps tray!), a full size bench polisher with vent/fan/filter system, a little rolling mill (on its own little wood stand), a sandblaster, some hand tools....and I can't remember what else. YAY! And to top it off, I had the pleasure of making a new friend. Dave is a really nice guy and I hope to keep in touch with him. He was even kind enough to deliver the bench and rolling mill to me! I told him he could come visit his tools any time if he wants - to make jewelry or whatever. Dave is now working on a larger scale in steel sculptures and decorative home items. I'll be sure to post some pics of the things I was blessed to get, I just haven't moved any of it out of my garage yet.
As I've been reading more and more about eating raw, I've come across a lot of very interesting health/food information and beyond. Some of it I just shake my head at (though two months ago I would have shaken my head at eating raw as well...) but some of it will be very useful to me I am sure and some of it is just plain interesting.
Take these two links for example:
Eco Friendly Protein: 8 Best Bugs for Eating
Forget Gas, Batteries — Pee Is New Power Source
Some intesting stuff out there, no? Its amazing what daisy chaining through the internet or bloghopping will reveal. :)
OK, lunch break is over, so its back to work for me.
Ohhh. I did some more work on my vessel.
Since I was tearing the heck out of it with my flat 'planer' punch/tool I went back and used a round chasing tool to texture all the lower areas. I really wanted to just keep pushing through even though the tool (or the operator) was marking up the metal really bad. I hope to melt the wax out of it tonight (or soon) and then reshape the opening a tiny bit. Then its a patina and we'll call it 'done'!
I'm kind of excited to see how it will look in the end. I know its going to be very crude, even without comparing it to David's vessels...but I am hoping it won't be so awful that I will want to hide it in a box somewhere.
We shall see. :)
Janice
Wow! I am super jealous of your Craig's List find. I never thought about checking out mine for things like that.
ReplyDeleteoh, check, check!!! You never know what you might find. I'm purposefully NOT checking right now, I need to quit spending and start making!
ReplyDeleteJanice