Friday Faves

I have a fave, but its by way of wishful thinking. Meaning, I don't have it, or one....yet.

My fave today?

A 'proper' workbench/surface/place.

This really made an impression on me during/after taking the weekend workshop with David Huang. At the Creative Metalworks classroom space there are proper jewelers benches. In addition there are glorious humongo tree stumps - on wheels of course. I'm in lurrrrrrrrrv.

Its the best. Having the proper surface height and stability makes an incredible difference, especially for certain things. Chasing into the hollow forms - yea, its important.

I was excited to work on my vessel at home, but have run into numerous issues. One being that I don't really have the correct chasing tools. I have some tools I bought years ago, they are like toothpicks compared to the tools we used in class. I actually tried to use them just to 'stamp' a pattern on one area of my vessel and stopped and said out loud, "are you kidding me?". It was ridiculous. So I'm back to attempting to make some chasing tools. I have two that are semi-workable for now.

HOWEVER, my worksurface in my studio is metal. It was the best kind of bench/table/surface at the time. FREE. It came from an office setting - its about 5 feet long and ALL Metal. Top, legs, braces - the whole kit and caboodle. Great as a fire retardant, not so great for hammering on. First, its loud. Second, there is far too much recoil (or kickback).

So I turned to the lovely stump my DEAR friend Christy gave me. Its a very nice stump, depending on what its used for. Its rather tall and sort of slender (its a sexy tree stump) but its a little awkward to sit at to try to chase on top of. This is however where I ended up the other night. Legs sort of straddling the stump because it rocks the tiniest bit, hammering too high for comfort (maybe I just have a short chair).....and probably wasting a lot of my energy when more could have been going directly down onto the chasing tool.

So my favorite today is a proper jewelers bench, something I hope to have one day.

AND a lovely short, fat, sturdy hunk of a stump. That would be sexy in a whole other way.

Hmm, I'd have his and hers stumps, sort of, in a way........

Do you love your workbench or do you wish for something different? I'm interested in hearing what you have or what you'd want if you could redo it -- maybe it will help point me in the right direction one day. (for the record, I did have a tip on two jewelers benches through craigs list - RIGHT in my own town, but sadly after one email the owner has stopped responding)

Have a fab-o Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh, and wait. I've had people wondering about eating raw. Whats a typical day look like?

Well, for now it goes something like this:

breakfast - a big bowl of cut up fresh fruit. Watermelon, peaches, strawberries and bananas have shown up a lot recently.

lunch - a plate of chopped veggies (yellow squash, zuccini, onion, carrot...or whatever I find in the fridge) with some nuts chopped on top or some flax seed. Often I will top it with a mixture I make - soy, honey, ginger and red pepper flakes. Sometimes I just squeeze a lemon over it. Other days I have a typical green salad and sometimes I forgo those and have hummus on red bell pepper or celery. (not sure hummus is really a raw food. at this point I"m about 98% raw)

dinner - something similar to lunch

Snack - I've been making the YUMMIEST frozen slushy drinks. I chop fruit and put in freezer. Pour soy milk in blender, add some frozen fruit - BLEND. Enjoy.

I am looking into some recipes with alternative items -- using ground seeds and nuts to make a sort of 'graham cracker' like crust. . . making a puree' out of red bell pepper and seasoning, things like that. I just haven't gotten that creative yet.

I still feel REALLY good. Lots of energy, good mood, etc. I'm VERY pleased with this as a way of eating and a way of life. I'm not totally sure how it will work come winter. I love the idea of eating locally, but am not sure how that translates into being a rawist come winter. We shall see.

Any other raw foodists out there?

~Janice

Friday Favorites!

Sooooooo, I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow - we must ALL know that vacation is a FAVORITE thing. :) I am going to Ocean City MD - we go every year. This year we are staying 2 weeks, which is new. We always stay at the same place so its like going home. I won't stay the whole 2 weeks, I'll come back up for work for a couple of days, but then I"ll go back down - so I still get over a week of relaxation. YAY!



I was thinking of other favorites on my drive to work this morning. There wasn't anything that was really sticking out to me, sad to say. Other than a bunch of philosophical stuff. But I had in mind more tangible things when I started this weekly feature so I don't want to get all esoteric.


Hmm, faves......what is a fave of mine? Hmmmm. ok, I have one. Nothing exciting, but this DID come to mind this morning for some reason and its come to mind again so here it is...



paste flux.


I like it.


I used liquid, prips I think, when I very first learned to solder. Sprayed it on, painted it on....used it, never thought much of it til someone recommended paste. Uhh, yeaaaaaaaaa. LOVE it. :) I am not sure what brand I use - only that it comes in a big tub and I've been using it for quite a long while and its still a quarter full. And it would be more full if I didn't constantly leave the durn lid off of it. Then reconstitute, leave the lid off, reconsistute - you get the idea. There is also a lot of weird stuff floating around in there - its a quagmire really. And its a rather disconcerting shade of grey now because I got some burnt toothpick in there....yea, its delightful to look at. NOT. But it works. And works well.



I like it.


What do you use?

Paste or liquid or something else? (firescoff anyone??)


I may or may not check in while I am at the oshun. Oh, thats how you say ocean in Bawlmorese.

oh, Bawlmore? Thats how you say Baltimore if you're REALLY a Bawlteemoron -- which I'm not really...but I like the nomenclature that surrounds the city.....



Honfest anyone?


Think "Hairspray"......




Oh, and what do you think about the new colors? Yes? No? Make em go????


I wanted to lighten up a bit.....

Janice