with a little help from my friends...

A big BIG thankyou to Conor for not only being willing to let me use his buffing wheel, but also driving it over here so I didn't need to take three hours out of my day to go over to his house to use it. All will be well...
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Taking a short break, as I need to pretty regularly change tasks to keep my hands functioning. The buffer is really making a difference, and if all the rivettey bits come together properly I needn't be ashamed to send this out with my mark on it. Only about forty or so more rivets to drill and set, and a bit of fabrication of the joining plates, and setting the enamel, and it will be ready to photograph. I'll be done before twilight. I hope.
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And I hope that my writings don't come across like all I do is grouse and whinge about my life. It is a great and wonderful thing that I can support myself with this curious mixture of odd skills, and not have to do work that I hate, for causes that are antithecal to all I believe. If I "let it out" here - A: I don't explode, which would be messy and scare the dog, and B: It shows that thingmaking is not a mystical ever-smooth process, but a very human, lumpy-bumpy journey.

"...you can't keep all that stuff bottled up inside, you got to let it out sometimes, or you'll get strange, and punch the baby in the mouth, and you can't do that...You get an awful big ticket, and it makes you feel...lousey..."

~ Rosalie Sorrells [monologue intro to] "The Hostile Baby Rocking Song"