A Few Cloisonné Pieces and A Mermaid

Okay, let's catch you up.  What have I made since the last time I showed you my jewelry?

I wanted to try setting some enamel cabochon (cloisonné, to be specific) into traditional bezel settings.  By "traditional", I mean flat wire, not gallery wire or scalloped or serrated.  Those other wires are very easy to "push over" which is a good thing when it comes to pushing metal up against glass... but I like the look of a traditional bezel setting at times (most times) so wanted to see if I could do it.

I made two pieces at the same time (because there's a lot of "waiting" time when doing enamel... waiting for the wetpack to dry, waiting for the kiln to reach temp, waiting for the firing, waiting for the piece to cool, etc.  So if you're working on two pieces at once, you always have something to do while the other piece is in "wait" mode.  So the first one I did was inspired by a friend's water color painting.  I went off the rails and totally ignored her awesome color scheme... I got more into trying out as many new colors as I could and ended up with this.



If you're not familiar with the technique of cloisonné, you start with a piece of metal (I usually cut it from a large sheet of silver or copper).  Then I anneal and dome the metal.  Next I add a counter-enamel (fire a couple of layers of enamel on the back or reverse side which alleviates some of the pressure of the enamel that will be going onto the front).  Then if I've used copper as my base I have to flux (fire clear enamel) onto the front, then I fire a thick sheet of pure silver foil to the piece, then I fire another layer of flux over the silver, then I cut and shape as many pure silver wires (the cloison) and set them onto the piece and then fire those into place.  After all that, it's a matter of building up layers of color by placing wetpack (moistened enamel that has been sifted and washed) into each cell (or cloison area).  The piece gets fired after each layer is added and I usually add about 8 layers.  After that, I sand the piece to make a level surface.  I start with 120 grit and work my way up gradually to about 2000 grit.  Then the piece gets washed and put back into the kiln for a final firing.  Yay!  After that, I start fabricating the bezel that will hold the new cloisonné piece.

Here's a photo of part of the process.  This is where I'm beginning the wetpacking of the enamel into the cells using a very tiny brush.



This is the second piece I did alongside that first piece.



The other piece of jewelry I made was this custom order mermaid with larimar.  I created the chain from sterling silver using the technique of Viking knit.

My New Studio Assistant, A Robot Vacuum

You may think this blog post is not metalsmith related, but you’d be wrong… in my world anyway.

Last June I was in some hot springs and got to talking with another traveler there.  Somehow we ended up talking about the fact that she got and loves her Roomba (robotic vacuum… you’ve seen the videos of cats riding around on them). 

I used to think I was the kind of person who would NEVER have something like that.  It just seemed so frivolous.  But I started thinking about it.  I started thinking about how every night when I’m done in the studio, I go to the hall closet and haul out the huge floor vacuum.  I unplug things to find room for it to be plugged in, then I move furniture as I vacuum, occasionally switching to the hose attachment so I can get into the corners and under furniture.  My vacuum has a bag system so if I think there’s a chance I sucked something precious up… I’m usually SOL (or disgusted by performing open bag surgery on a big spread out sheet).

So yeah, this robot vacuum thing was starting to look better.  After much research, I decided on the Ecovacs Deebot N79S.  It was in my price range ($179) and had good reviews.



The vacuum comes with an app you can download.  I ended up not downloading it for two reasons.  One, the app got bad reviews for requiring way too many seemingly unnecessary permissions.  They do explain somewhere why they need all those permissions, but I wasn’t interested.  I am getting along fine without the app.  The second reason is that I don’t NEED the app.  I don’t ever run the vacuum when I’m not there.  I like to be there in case he gets stuck; if he sucks up something too big or gets in a corner he can’t get out of, he stops and just calls out waiting for help.  Also, have you not heard the dreaded Roomba stories of people who come home to find their robot vacuum has gone over some dog poop and spread it throughout the house?!  Yeah, no.  

The robot has a remote control that works perfectly well for me. 

So here you can see a typical mess on the floor.  Not only are there a lot of little paper cuttings (from me cutting cloisonné foil), but over on the left (just under the table) you can see a ton of residue from sawing and sanding.



So it’s really nice to just reach for the remote at the end of my workday and turn the vacuum on for an hour or two (when his battery is low he automatically heads back to his charging station).

Here’s what the floor looks like afterward.



Oh, another thing that thrills me is he can get under furniture that my regular vacuum can’t.  Notice that station just behind him in the photo there.  He slides smoothly right under that shelf, which is great because that’s one of my sanding and polishing stations so the amount of ick under there is incredible.  And then if you look in the upper right of that photo you’ll see the bottom of my kiln stand.  That’s a corner and he goes right over that steel sheet, under the metal shelf, and gets into that back corner to clean.  Yay!

He has a little tray that gets cleaned out each session.  Since I like to just let him run himself until he runs out of battery and goes back to the charging station on his own, MY habit is to clean the tray out before each vacuuming session.  I think it’s a good idea for you to pick a time, before or after vacuuming, and stick with that until it’s habit because running him with a dirty tray isn’t a good idea.

Now, speaking of the dirt tray, look how easy it is for me to sift through quickly to see if he’s sucked up any important silver or stones.



Don't forget to wipe his eyeballs once in a while.  In order to know where furniture is and not run into it, he has laser sensors (or something like that).  His plan is NOT to crash into all the furniture, like pong, before redirecting.  Rather, he sees something ahead and stops an inch or two from it and changes direction.  If you see/hear him crashing into furniture before he turns, that’s a sure sign you need to wipe his eyeballs.

Now, I don’t know if this is just my house or what, but I woke up one night at 2am because I heard a weird noise only to find out my vacuum was off doing his thing.  I do know that if there’s a power outage, he starts vacuuming when the power comes back on but I have caught him taking charge more than once without me initiating anything.  So now I turn him off when he’s on the charger, just so he can’t run amuck without me.

I also don’t “program” him.  Instead I just use the “auto” feature which pretty much means he vacuums as much as he can get to, including doing the edges.  The edges is an awesome feature.  He goes along the edge of the room, hugging the wall, cleaning as he goes.

My floors are wood, but the reviews say he works on carpet too. 

So yeah… completely happy with my purchase.  So happy, in fact, I bought a second one for my living room.

Yes, I was away for awhile

But I'm back now and plan to add some awesome content.

Just a quick catch-up... I've been learning cloisonne...

The Organizing Journey Day 23 -- It's That Time of Year

I remember reading, while I was pregnant many years ago, that in the days before going into labor many women have a burst of energy specifically geared toward "preparing the nest".

This is sort of how I feel about New Year's Day.  Starting in late November, I start feeling like I want my house in order.

And so here I am back at it in earnest (between all my other life obligations and segues).  I've kind of managing to keep the kitchen and living room clean (okay, it's mostly because I've had a lot of company lately).  But I also made a decent dent in my bedroom.  And as I was cleaning/organizing, I kept finding things and going, "Oh wow, I have been looking for that."

Hmph!

So last week a friend was over and was mentioning that she needed to pick up some scrap leather.  I have some!  Bah!  You guessed it... I have no idea where.  I have no less than 20 boxes of stuff that needs to be sorted for the workroom.  While I won't be getting rid of everything, I will be storing the less used items off-site (meaning, in the garage or something).

It bugs me, seriously bugs me that I don't know where something is when I want it.  I am determined to put an end to that.  A place for everything and everything in its place.

As a start to that, there is that "first step" which is just the bulk organization tactic.  It works, though.  For example, I may not have time to SORT all the pieces of paper in my life, but if I have all the unsorted papers in one pile, at least, that's just one pile I have to look through when I'm looking for something.  It sounds daunting but not HALF as daunting as running around LOOKING for pieces of paper hither and yon.

So yeah, I'm excited to get this over and done with once and for all and then just MAINTAIN.

I also am hoping (fingers crossed) to get all the things listed on eBay or Etsy that I no longer want/need in my life yet are too good to just throw away or donate (yes, I'm stingy like that).  But seriously, a lot of what I have is niche stuff... and I'd rather have it go to someone who actually wants it than to think it's going to sit in some thrift shop for life.

So this is going to be brief because I have to get back to it now.  But I just wanted to touch base and let you know I *am* working toward the goal and I'll show you some of the good ideas I am implementing (when I get around to taking photos).  Right now I'm just gonna say the dollar store is your friend.  Don't go elsewhere for storage bins.  :-)

Seven Months After Starting the Elimination Diet: Follow Up

Yeah, so organizing has taken a back seat for now.  I'm not happy about that, but it is what it is.  I've got two more jewelry shows then I can get back to it with renewed vigor.  In the meantime, I've decided to share a personal experience with you.  This is one I'll be blogging about hopefully on a semi-regular basis.  It has nothing to do with jewelry making or with organizing, but that's why blogger has tabs. :-)

The short version of the story is that seven months ago I decided to try the "elimination diet" to see if I could pin point any food intolerances that were zapping my energy.  Yes, I'm overweight and that contributes to being tired, but I felt there may be something else going on.  We need to listen to our intuition. I'm a great believer in that.

In April 2017, I did six weeks of the hardcore elimination diet--where you cut out the foods that are most frequently the culprits (gluten, sugar, dairy, nightshade, citrus, corn, alcohol, soy, nuts, coffee, etc). [You can get lots of info if you google “elimination diet”.] Anyway, I re-introduced the foods one at a time and take note of any symptoms.

The other way to do this is just cut out one food for a certain amount of time and see if you notice a difference. As I see it, though, the problem with that is that if you are intolerant of multiple foods, you’ll never know it by cutting out only one at a time.

It was a pretty strict diet but it didn’t seem as hard as I thought it was going to be.

The results: cow's milk gives me migraines, yeast gives me eczema, sugar gives me the heebie jeebies, corn makes my ears itchy inside and stuffs them all up.

Of those four items, corn is the hardest to avoid.  I just got back from grocery shopping and it's pretty clear to me that I can never again buy even the slightest of processed foods. Things I thought were "safe" (regarding all my food intolerances) have hidden agendas.  I'm doing a 3-day show this weekend and wanted to find foods I can snack on throughout the day because meals are hard during shows, and I thought "Oh I'll get some roasted almonds". But no. They are roasted in oils that most likely contain corn. Hmph!  (Either that or canola oil which I want to avoid.)

I have to accept that my life is now "Make it yourself or you don't eat" (pretty much). I'm leery of anything that says "spices" or "flavoring" or other vague things. So I picked up celery, radishes, carrots, and raw almonds (I can roast them myself at home in coconut oil).

The days of convenience food are over but I am now migraine free, eczema free, and free of stuffed ears. It was worth it.  I do think I have more energy but that one is a work in progress.

Am I mad at the medical community for telling me (for seven years) that my ears itch because I must be getting shampoo in them when I wash my hair?  Am I mad at the medial community for never considering that forty years of migraines might have been avoided had someone thought to consider food sensitivities?

I don't know.  I'm certainly disappointed, but I can't say I'm surprised.

When we look back on archaic medicine and laugh (or shudder) at some of the things they did (ingesting mercury to cure irregularity problems) or thought (smoking cigarettes cures asthma and cancer)... it makes me realize that the early 21st century will eventually be looked back at with the same (or at least) similar shock and derision (assuming the human race survives).

But I do see a time in the future (I mean, it's in the present too but in such minuscule amounts!) when people will have a better understanding of the gut's role in our health.  The importance of a healthy, whole-foods based diet will be clearly understood.  Sugar will be a thing of the past (I can't picture that, but it's so detrimental to our health it saddens me no end).  I believe most illnesses stem from inflammation in the body and I believe that most inflammation is caused by what we eat.

I realize that doctors are excellent for trauma situations but I'm hesitant to make them the "go to" for illnesses or other complaints.

Anyway, just wanted to update you on the latest with my elimination diet.  In my next entry I want to share some of the foods I'm enjoying.  Due to sensitivity to copyright issues, I won't be re-posting recipes from books that I own, but I will be referencing them and the page numbers.  I'll also be giving you hyperlinks to online recipes I'm trying.  I will give you my opinion on the outcomes as well as informing you of any tweaks I make.

Here's what I'll show you next.  This was awesome!