By Way of Salem: All That Glitters!

Sunday, October 18, 2020

All That Glitters!

Oh how I love October and it's already more than halfway over. Sad... I wish it would last for another 6 months! Our temps here have started to drop a bit, though this week we might be headed up into the 80's again when really temps should be in the 50's or 60's. That's the south for you, always on the warm side of things.

I've got a zillion projects going on right now. I just completed a HUGE one yesterday that I wanted to have done for the past 3 years. LOL! We built a smaller horse shed for one of my horses and it was just plywood so it was ugly, weathered, aging...looking pretty shabby. Yesterday I went out and painted it finally, and we trimmed it out in bright white to really finish it off. Looks 1000x times better! Next is our garden shed which I originally painted a bright yellow and has faded so badly, that I'm going to repaint and make it too fresh and bright.

So - all that glitters? Well....I've been working on lots and lots of jewelry. Did I mention how much I LOVE to solder?! Oh I do. I took some amazing classes this past summer and have been working so hard on new jewelry pieces. I've been so fortunate too to be able to sell so many this year. That's really gratifying. Here are a few things I've made so far:

My next addition will be hand stamping. I'm currently in the "collecting" stage; letter sets, metal blanks, and various tools. I'm in LOVE with this form of jewelry making too, though it can be extremely frustrating as well if you don't get a good impression with the stamp. The letter sets too are very expensive. I mean VERY expensive. Not the $50 or 60 that are in the stores. These are hundreds of dollars, so it's a huge investment. The difference in stamping though is comparable to buying a Volkswagen to a Ferrari! That huge of a difference. The work you put out though is also amazing, so it's worth the investment I think. This is one I made for a memorial pendant for an order: