Eyes closed, breathe catching in response to the cold water, the scent of the clear crisp ocean air..? then you exhale and relax and open your eyes to the beauty of it all?
That is what I feel like -
Well, sort of.
But without the sound of the waves, or the fresh air.....or the icy cold water.
hmmmmmmmmmm.
anyway - Its been a long couple of months.
There was a baby, and an earthquake, and hurricane Irene who left me with a SEVEN day power outage......then, after all of that, there was the subsequent rain storm and local flooding - and water and mud in my basement. There's been the SLEEPLESS nights getting up with the wee-one, my son being back in school (FIFTH grade - where do the years go?), a blown computer (um, yes I'd like my power back on, but no, please don't blow my hard drive in the process....*sigh*), unpacking and cleaning
My life has always been a bit chaotic, but it was chaos that was familiar and 'controlled' and it morphed slowly over the years. THIS recent couple of months was chaos that just came barreling in like a freight train! I've just been trying to peel myself off the tracks.....and now I think I've finally dusted myself off and ummm 'adjusted' - things are starting to feel normal again. ;-)
So yea, there's no ocean air, no waves, no water (well, there has actually been TONS of water - rain rain go away) - but I've got the exhale....and the relaxing...and seeing the beauty.
In the midst of all of that has been happening, I've managed to mostly unpack into the new house -- and,
the best thing of all
FINALLY
I unpacked my studio.
YAY!
I have the luxury of space.
Its unfinished.
Raw.
Concrete and block walls, exposed beam ceiling, wires, cobwebs, dangling lights kind of space....Yes, its one of those scary basements.
But it is large. LARGE I SAY!
And its mine!
MINE MINE MINE! (mine!)(I SAY)
(well, yes, there are other people who live there. and yes, LG does have half the basement....and uh, yea, I'll let the baby come down sometimes. . . BUT HALF OF IT IS ALL MINE! mine!)
Anyway - in MY SPACE, I have decided to create 'stations' for my studio. In the past I did almost everything in one spot - and I kind of like it that way. But I have decided that it might be nice to dedicate an area to certain tasks and move about the area.
So I will have my actual bench where I will do pieercing, filing, stone setting - that sort of thing.
Then to the right a table where my flex shafts hang and I will drill and grind and semi-polish.
At the end of that long table is an extra area, for a visiting friend maybe? Right now I am using it for resin.
To the right of that, along the wall is a desk for soldering. Just past that a desk with my bench polishing unit.
Then to the right of that is a H UGE wooden work bench that has my stakes and a vise (or 3) and several stumps.
Moving around the room to the right again - along the other wall is my long table with my cabbing machine and saw.
Next to that is a table set up for tumbling and patinas.
And finally, turning back towards the beginning, sort of floating in the middle of the room is a long chest of drawers that is my enameling/firing/glass/clay/whatever area. the kiln is there just waiting to be fired up!
I am planning on enclosing the polishing station and the kiln area - just with shower curtains hanging from the ceiling, but the idea is to help keep dust in and out.
I will share some photos soon.
In the meantime, I finally sat at the bench over the weekend - first time at the bench in over two months. I was a bit afraid that I'd have forgotten how to do everything! I pulled a stone, a little 6x4 emerald cut peridot (inspired by my friend Jennifer of www.wearablebydesign.etsy.com who recently shared a ring she crafted that is set with a lovely little emerald cut stone) and got to work. Surprise! Surprise! it actually ended up passable! I haven't forgotten how to solder and I actually set that little stone without too much trouble! YAY! I made a little step bezel and put it on an organic backing - and ended up with this:
not my best work - and I am not crazy about the stone in that particular setting....they contradict each other too much for me -- though in person its not half bad - but
its DONE!
So goodbye freight train - and hello ocean......
do I get to relax now?
~Janice
