Mental Blocks

I've always been a little ditzy, but as I get older it gets worse.  It's like my mind says...... I'm done thinking.  I won't do it and you can't make me.  (Hey, that's what my last piece of jewelry told me too...... must be a conspiracy.)

That's why I do something the minute I think of it.  If I don't,  the thought will be gone and it won't get done.

There are certain things that I seem to have a mental block about.  No matter how hard I work at it, I just can't seem to remember certain things . One of those things is the order in which to use the Tri-M-ite polishing papers.  (I do remember that green is first, followed by gray, then blue.)  The papers are colored as to their coarseness.  When sanding dry clay or polishing fired clay the papers are used in order from the coarsest paper to the finest paper.  

To help you see  if you've sanded enough, it is recommended to sand in opposite directions which each paper.  In other words, sand vertically with the first paper and horizontally with the next paper.  The third paper will be used vertically and the fourth horizontally and so forth.  

At the last PMC Connection Retreat at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, TN, Ruth Greening taught a class on using the Flex Shaft.   She provided each of us with a kit that included a set of 3-M radial bristle disks.  Inside the lid of the set was a chart showing the location of each disk, it's color and it's order of use.   When I sit down to use my Flex Shaft (I don't have a Flex Shaft but I'm having a mental block to the generic name for that tool.)  I always use that chart.  

At the PMC Conference this past summer, Rio Grande gave everyone a little packet of Tri-M-ite papers with an insert that explained the coarseness and order in which to use them.  So....... following Ruth's idea, I taped that little insert to the lid of my tool box.  Bam!  One less mental block to deal with.  Now, if all those blocks were that easy to solve.

Roll Reversal

In a previous post (June 26, 2009) I shared a picture of a ring that was way too large and way too feminine to be a man's ring.  So, I cut it in half, filed it, soldered on some earring posts and turned it into a pair of earrings.  Yesterday I did just the opposite.

In 2009, PMC Connection had their first retreat at the Arrowmont School in Gatlinburg, TN.  (Oh what a great time that was.)  Anyway, I took a class from Linda Kline in which we learned many, many techniques to make a large variety of earrings.  

One of the things we learned was the making of photo polymer plates (without the use of a UV light...... we went outside and did a happy dance with our plates extended toward the sun.  Can't do that in PA!) The earrings were made in a flat strip with a little tab at the end.  After firing the pieces, we bent them around a ring mandrel to create a hoop and used a pair of pliers to bend the tab up.  Then we learned how to solder posts onto the tab.  Just this one pair of earrings incorporated multiple techniques.  We made a lot of earrings those two days ..... sort of a mini-course in working with metal clay.

I never wore those earrings.  They were beautiful but I don't wear hoops very often and this pair was exceptionally heavy.  

Lately I've been trying to go through pieces and re purpose them or save them to send into Rio Grande to be recycled (for some money...... the price of metal clay took a big jump! )

My first thought was to recycle them but I loved the look of them too much to take that route.  Since I love rings, that seemed like the most sensible approach.  It was actually very easy too.  Took the cutters and cut off the tab, filed the little ridge that was left (how can anyone find filing relaxing) and hammered the ring to size on the ring mandrel.  Since it is a split band, it can be adjusted to fit .

Fine silver is soft and rings need to be made thicker for longer wear ability.  I usually make my rings six cards thick and the bands are usually at least a quarter inch in width.  This ring has width but since it started it's life as an earring it is not as thick as normal.  (Although it was made thicker since a PPP plate was used to create it's design.)

I'll have to wear it for awhile to test it's strength and how well the split in the band works.  

As I've often said..... my jewelry talks to me.  This one told me it didn't want to be an earring anymore.