The days are flying by. We are now into week five of social distancing and I could use some nice warm weather and some sunshine. I have been working on the family genealogy and sharing what I find with family members on a Facebook page we set up for that purpose. I read David Copperfield and my new life goal is to be as wise as Betsey Trotwood. I ordered some Fairy Lights to brighten up my basement workshop. The Philadelphia Area Polymer Clay Guild had its first online meeting and it went so well we are going to continue. I am baking bread having had the foresight to order 40 pounds of winter wheat berries (and two pounds of baker’s yeast by mistake; I could start a black market business) which arrived before the pandemic.
Here’s what’s on my work table right now:
I thought it would be fun to combine galvanized steel wire with vintage Swarovski crystals. I love making funky asymmetrical chains and I have a bunch of gorgeous crystals from old necklaces I snatched up at house sales. This is what I have so far:
I like the look, but I have to get motivated to to more. Here are some polymer beads. I am waiting for them to talk to me and tell me what they want to be (and if they want to be back filled first.)
I have been experimenting with different methods of cutting jump rings. I prefer sawing to cutting because I always have to spend time cleaning up the ones I’ve cut, even though I use good flush cutters. Too fussy I guess. But sawing has its own problems. For a long time I was using a jump ring jig I made myself.
The problem is how to hold the coils in place as you saw them. The jig I made was small enough that I could hold the coils with my thumb as I sawed.
Here’s one great solution-using a wedge of wood rather than your fingers to hold the coils in place as you saw.
But there are other ways of sawing perfect jump rings and I continue to search them out. I will share my favorites here. Stay tuned.
Ornamento 