My video chat last night with Mischa was wonderful and wide ranging, as it often is, and in response to one of the topics we talked about, my day began with setting up my workbench zone to tackle the setting for Babs' heraldic regalia brooch. Of course, before that could happen, there were other morning chores, but turning on the shop pickle pot first of all meant that later, it would be ready for dealing with soldering or annealling...
And before returning to the workshop, there was adding fresh food and bedding to the worm habitat, and dealing with laundry. Washing the duvet cover means first taking it outside to untie it and remove the inner duvet, since there are always bits of downy feathers that come loose, which is better outdoors. That washed while breakfast happened, and as today was going to be chilly and sort of damp-ish, a quick bike ride to the laundromat (+ 75¢) spun the cover warm and dry, ready to tied back on the duvet...
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~ third time is the charm? ~
Truth be told, this project has been sitting on the workbench for more time than clearly remembered, as there were first one and then another failure. The brain weasels of Imposter Syndrome had more than one field day. The first enamel had to be redone (which happens occasionally, sometimes for unknown reasons), and then my initial attempt to fabricate the complex setting failed when about halfway done. Ugh! And it sat in a box on the workbench for months and months, sticking its tiny little tongue out at me...~ third time is the charm? ~
Yesterday, when it turned out that there would be an unexpected porch visit today, Karen suggested that if one or both of the Olympia projects were done, they could courier it back north. Well, that suggestion combined with the "Do One Thing Different" conversation was enough torque for a restart. While it may not look like much, and being only 1" x 1½", the setting is really complicated. The upper layer has the serrated bezel to hold the enamel, and will be riveted to the lower layer through the four lugs on each point of the diamond shape. The lower layer, which is not yet completed, has four additional lugs centered on the sides of the diamond shape, which now have "pearl cups" attached. That soldering task was nerve wracking, as possible failure then was at the highest point, until all four were well placed and not melted. It still needs to have the pin findings soldered to the back, holes drilled for rivets and pearl pins, the upper and lower pieces riveted together, the setting polished, the enamel set, and the pearls attached. Fingers crossed that all goes smoothly.
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When Beth and Karen stopped by today, they dropped off some interesting potential pinafore fabric for me. Cotton herringbone in medium blue warp and light blue weft, so the overall color is sort of pale denim-ish, and the herringbone stripes are really wide, like 1⅜". While it isn't perzacktly my color, it is adjacent, and I'd been wishing for a wide stripe to play with seamline zigzags on skirt gores. I'm taking this as the universe delivering just such a thing!
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February SMART goals (x=extra)
| # | THINGS MADE | THINGS FIXED | THINGS GONE |
| 1 | plaid flannel shirt | rice bags | greenwaste bin |
| 2 | 23 postcards | INTERNET!! | recycle bin |
| 3 | teal linen pinafore | hydration station | greenwaste bin |
| 4 | bedroom shelves | grey felt slipper | recycle bin |
| 5 | tiger pocket | teal turtleneck | greenwaste bin |
| 6 | teal long janes | long jane borders | recycle bin |
| 7 | lots of drawings | removed 2 ferns | greenwaste bin |
| 8 | x | x | x |
| 9 | x | x | x |
today's gratitudes -
- starting the day differently yielded different results
- a porch visit from Beth and Karen
- more than halfway done with Babs brooch
- the worm bin appears to be thriving
Time of Isolation - Day 2060
