Sue M

I fell and hurt my left hand when I was on vacation.

Being right handed and on vacation I was able to rest it, elevate it, ice it and basically let it heal up. I get to find out what the damage is tomorrow. Meanwhile I have become very aware of what movements use which muscles in your hand.

Jewelry making hasn’t been the most comfortable thing to do, I have to admit I hadn’t really thought about how much I take having 2 working hands for granted. I am taking things slow and not pushing through the pain (or least past the uncomfortableness), but rather taking the time to do things differently. Or at least to think of how to do it in another manner. I haven’t been able to do much in terms of producing anything in the week I’ve been back.

I often just throw myself into a project. Starting where it seems to make sense and working my way to the end of the idea. It is often in answer to my “what do I do next” thought that haunts me. I have also been known to make a mountain out of a molehill and take forever to get something done , but diving into the workload has meant that I conquered the mountain because I didn’t stop to realize it wasn’t a molehill. Not being able to do that at the moment, I had to figure out what I could do that would be practical to do in the summer heat.

I am currently making a lot of test pieces of my enamel colors. A necessary evil that will make my life easier in the long run and something I can do in a one-handed assembly line. I have purchased some leaded enamels, which I have just begun to use, so I will know what the colors will look like if I follow the same kiln temp and time as the tests. It is a molehill starting point.

I may even do them for the mountain of different colored enamels that I usually use - all ,what- 156 colors (I bought the sample kit of every color.)

I love jewelry. I don’t always wear a lot of it, but I love what I own. It has always attracted me. I have inherited some, made some and bought the majority- some of my favorites have been souvenirs.

I like to look at the jewelry that people wear. Is it a signature piece? Something that they always wear? Does it match their outfit?

What I don’t like is looking at an editorial that doesn’t accurately describe the piece. Couldn’t the writer have asked the designer? I was looking at the New York Times last Sunday and their editorial on summer jewelry had a photo of a nice shiny silver cuff that they described as oxidized. It was not oxidized. The earrings above it were oxidized. The bracelet was bright and shiny.

For those of you who don’t , but want to know, oxidized silver is when you darken the silver, usually using liver of sulfur. Hence the wrongness of the bright shiny bracelet.

Not that I have anything against great copy to sell your jewelry or in this case the magazine selling the editorial content, but I like accuracy too. I like to feel that I get what I paid for.

Though I have to say that the best marketing spiel that I came across just recently was a $300 organic copper bracelet. My first instinct was metal can’t be organic because you have to process the metal in someway to get it into workable material. A scientist friend said that metal isn’t organic because it isn’t carbon based. My marketing guru said great way to differentiate that bracelet from the competition.

Lately I have been reminiscing about why I do what I do. Why do I continue to enamel and solder in triple digit weather? What… well you get the drift, so I am listing them (inpo)

I still lose track of time when I am working on a piece.

I love the “will it work out” cliff hanger aspect of layering enamel.

It fills some creative part of me that I didn’t have the courage to believe existed within me. I love making something that adds beauty.

It is kickass to work with power tools and a 1700 degree oven.

More to come as I think of them.

Enamel…glass on metal at its most basic.