New tools and new pieces

The MIT Radio Society hosts a monthly swapfest, so I went there this morning to see if I could find any useful metalworking tools. And indeed I did!



These tools will be a lot of help to me in forming and texturing metal. And I got them for a great price. It was definitely a worthwhile trip!

I've also finished some more pieces and listed them in the etsy shop, including something shiny and purple (finally!)

Things made in my very own studio!

Hair stick/shawl pin, given as a gift (may make an appearance in the shop as a "one much like this can be made to order" item (yes the gift recipient is ok with it :) ))

Detail:

The first post earrings I've ever made (currently in the etsy shop)

Earrings made this evening, claimed by Susannah (potentially also going to be a made-to-order Etsy listing)


I'm so so so excited to be making things in my own space!

New shiny workspace

I've switched from renting studio space to working in my basement with my own tools! I'm so excited to have my space right downstairs from me. Today I made a pair of earrings, and it went very smoothly.

I'm planning for more regular updates to this blog as I work on new stuff downstairs. Definitely more process photos and descriptions of how I make the things I make. I have fresh batteries in my camera and everything. Stay tuned!

(Mostly) successful time at Arisia!

I say "mostly" because I think I may have come away from the weekend with some kind of con crud (probably a cold). But I did better than I'd expected at the art show, and then made another sale on Etsy as a result of someone viewing my work at the con. I'm planning on transitioning from renting studio space to working in my own basement during the month of February; making these sales means that I'll be able to afford more tools of my own sooner, and hopefully there won't be much downtime while I piece together a metalsmithing setup of my own! This weekend I'm hoping to do at least a preliminary clean of the basement workbench area. I'm planning on posting "workspace in progress" photos as I collect tools and organize my materials so that readers can get a glimpse into how and where I work.

Learning

I'm not entirely sure how to articulate this, but biking home from metalsmithing in the freezing cold last night made me feel fantastically alive.

I'm learning more and more metalsmithing techniques and concepts and gaining confidence in my abilities to execute them; I'm making things that I see as a fusion of the metalsmithing world and the assembly jewelry I was working on before; watching copper glow bright red from my torch and shift on the flowing solder is a pure, elemental rush. Likewise, I'm immensely proud of myself for bicycling in such extreme cold, and surprised and delighted at the muscles that can suddenly Do The Right Thing when I want them to. After only walking and taking public transit for so long, a bike really gives me a new feeling of freedom-of-place. And it's fun to go so fast!

I know that at some point my rate of metals-related learning will stop accelerating, my bicycling-related fitness improvements will plateau. But I hope that I'll retain the feeling of hungrily racing forwards, able to smoothly and competently go wherever I can imagine.

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I'll be at the Arisia art show this weekend! I can't wait :)

Winter

Yesterday was the winter craft fair at the Washington Street Art Center. I sold several pieces, but most of them were older work that I'd marked down. So operation "put new awesome work on Etsy" can proceed! Last night I finished editing and picking out photos, and today I'll be gradually listing things.

I'm really liking how my most recent batch of photos cleaned up. Still need a better lighting setup so I don't have to tweak the brightness/exposure levels... that would really save time.



I'm glad that I'll have a bit of a breather to just make cool stuff for a while--no in-person sales scheduled between now and the Arisia art show. I've got a couple of commissions for friends to work on, and some neat ideas in my head. Selling things in person is fun, but I'd rather be in the studio!