Luckily, it's not to drugs of any sort, nor gambling, nor ... well, I can't think of what all else one might get addicted to. Perhaps I just haven't tried enough things in my nearly 70 years. However, I do seem to get ... well, fascinated, maybe? ... by different activities or hobbies. If I follow previous patterns, 12 years is about my limit. Then I get bored, restless, or something new just pops up into my life. Been there, done that, time for a different t-shirt.
If you've been following, for the last few years since retirement I've been involved in lapidary, the "And Stones" part of the Sterling And Stones club. But after a couple surgeries, I didn't have the stamina to sit at various saws and grinders long enough to keep it up at the level I previously could. I used to be able to put out anywhere between 2 and 4 finished cabs in a single session. Some of that depended on the hardness of the stones involved, but I'd gotten spoiled by my ability to produce. Returning to that facet of the hobby and finding out that not even two hours of work exhausted me was pretty good at putting the brakes on that. At the very least, it was discouraging.
Something like 50 pounds of rock are sitting around waiting for attention. When I really feel like grinding rocks, I try to stick with chrysocolla, rhodonite, or something else softer than agate or jasper. Of course by far the largest percentage of what I'm sitting on consists of agate and jasper. At least they don't decay.
This year our club started something new. Rather than having to take a couple full days and pay a fee to learn any kind of new skills, there are a lot of "easy" and lesser skills being taught in free workshops which generally take just a couple hours, materials included. It's a good deal for the club, since suddenly lots of us are experimenting with our new skills - or at least trying to perfect them to a level which can be referred to as a skill. In the process, we buy more supplies from the club, where the club makes money and still gives us a discount because they in turn buy in huge wholesale orders from very reliable sources.
Also to the club's benefit, as we combine our new skills in new ways with new ideas, a larger variety of items show up in the jewelry shop for sale, of which the club gains a modest commission, and attracts more new members and customers, and around and around. Each member's - or "artist's" - commissions are our own personal bonus, besides just the satisfactions that come from the creativity process.
One of those workshops late last fall was an introduction to chain making. Large, clunky, cheap materials, but a skill gained. Of course, some members will take some workshops and decide that some particular thing is not something they wish to pursue. I can solder and anneal metals, but neither skill holds much appeal, particularly since it will take a heck of a long time and a lot of mistakes to approach anything near the results I would want. Maybe next time I'm bored....
But as a complete surprise to me, chain making grabbed hold of my psyche and clung on for dear life. If you're on my X-mas present list, I have already made everybody a bracelet in the first pattern I learned that's more complicated than hooking rings together at right angles until you get the length needed. I loaded up on wires, tools, and ideas, and spent hours in front of the TV assembling away, much like a dedicated knitter might do. Not only did I do bracelets, I did necklaces (usually from stronger, larger links), and mostly for sale in the shop. I even got my confidence up to the point where I was willing to risk using sterling instead of merely silver plated or other copper-core wires. Of course, I'll wait till those sell before going more into sterling.
It came time to find new chaining patterns, so the woman who taught me the first one taught me another one a couple days ago, with the advantage it of having two variations, so I can do nearly the same thing to make two chains which look radically different. I just change the count when I get to a certain point in each pattern, an actual difference of using 4 links or 6. These also take a lot more time and wire. Oh, and concentration so you don't pick the wrong link to hook back to (this is a forward-backward-forward-backward process), and enough experience to look at wherever you are in the process to decide what your mistake was and correct it. I mean, you can cut your way out of it, and I have done that, but that's a waste of materials, and doesn't help for next time you arrive in the same place. You're working with a toothpick to separate and mark your place; that's how intricate this one is. See why I'm fascinated?
I made three bracelets in front of the TV last night. The woman who taught me wanted me to show her how I was doing so she could critique me and point out what I was doing wrong. Stubborn me, I just kept going, and figured out on my own just where to hook up the fastening rings and lobster claw so the pattern would stay together as it was supposed to (by taking out a pair of starting links), giving me completed bracelets in both patterns to bring in for jewelry store submission this morning.
Really, I would have shown her, but she wasn't there this morning when I was there. Too bad, since I had another reason besides showing how well I picked up the ideas. She works in sterling. Period. End of discussion. I play around. I think the color selection is about ten now, if you count the two different shades of what were supposed to be identical spools. (Nevermind, I just keep them separate.) Her final comment to me yesterday had been a scornful (teasingly, I hope) "You and your colors!" So one of my bracelets had been a combination of red, white, and "flag" blue. I used it in the pattern variation that looks like a bar, then a ball, then bar, ball, bar, ball, etc. I decided the bars would be white, and the balls alternating red or blue. I wanted to see her reaction.
Really, really, really wanted to see it!
I can't now. Not unless I make another one, which just may be today's project. But the one is gone. Sold.
We were in the selection or jurying process, which serves as a quality check on what goes into the store, with rejections coming back with comments and suggestions so we can do better next time, or fix and resubmit. Examples might be something sharp, scratched, too flimsy, needing polishing, or not having the mark designating something as "sterling" if it is. Design is not judged, being left up to the artist and potential customers.
A store customer wanted something that would work as a child's bracelet, and it sold before it even made it through jurying. Someone from the store knew it was in this morning and ready for evaluation, so brought the customer back to check it out. It was a bit big, but we showed her how it could be fastened to a different link than the end one, leaving a dangle, and be something that could be grown into, should the kid not lose it. Or something. She bought it on sight, and now has my name and number to custom order more, if she likes the other possibilities I can offer.
Such success could be heady, but I'm well aware I'm just starting to handle this pattern. Using the tri-color design actually taught me where the stray links are getting misplaced, just by having a separate color. So it wasn't just for grins and giggles, it turns out. That difficulty sorting through the loops may well be part of the reason it's nicknamed the idiot's chain. The solid design is known, at least in the club, as the full byzantine. And the real demonstration of skill in either pattern variation is being able to do it in links so tiny that the fully assembled 3-D product is about as thick a pull cord on a set of window blinds.
Maybe it's time for that annual eye exam for new glasses. And smaller toothpicks.
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