Wednesday Crafty Update

What's this! A combo jewelry-and-knitting post, you lucky folks!

Today was our second jewelry class which was much more satisfying than the first week considering we actually got to do some real metal work (and make a huge racket while hammering our projects). Our class demo today was: Sawing. And being the safety gal I am, I wore safety glasses for fear that fine metal dust would get in my eyes (thereby preventing me from ever being able to enter an MRI scanner). Better safe than scanless. We also had a demo on operating the drill press, which was pretty much how I remembered it from Grade 8 shop class, but with a few additional steps that will keep our metals looking nice and unmangled.

Sawing free-hand through brass - more difficult than you'd think

Here is my copper, all hammered with lovely little dents. I only hit my thumb once while flattening it out with a rawhide mallet (somewhere on Zarafa's blog, there is probably a picture of my hammer in motion). Next week we glue our paper template to the metal and start sawing! It doesn't seem like much for 3 hours time, but there was a lot of sitting around and waiting for the instructor to come by. While I do like the relaxed feel of the class, sometimes you can't get the direction you need quickly. It's a trade off, I guess - it's probably more enjoyable when you're a more experience student.

This weekend is the student art show at the CAC - there are some amazingly talented students displaying their projects, so stop by and check it out if you have a chance. After class, as a reward for our finger-jeopardizing work, we stopped by Pistachia Vera for a treat - lemon pine nut tart and coffee, mmm.

Knittingwise, Cherry is just one front panel short of being assembled. I finished the sleeves on the weekend and blocked the pieces last night. The pattern looks great after blocking - I'm excited to see how it looks all seamed up. Almost there...

On the work front, things are changing again. Some good and not-great news. In addition to leaving the private practice, it seems I might be leaving the bakery cafe too. My counter-help-in-exchange-for-pastry-work deal with the owner hasn't really panned out the way I'd hoped. He's had plenty of excuses, some legitimate, but none that motivate me to help him out any more than I need to.

The only pastry experience he's offered me is on weekends, so I'll be going in this Sunday to show him what I can do and see if it will be a mutually beneficial arrangement (i.e. I like it enough to give up my weekends). Apparently, if I'm any good, he says he might be able to give me a pastry shift on a week day. Honestly, how do you expect to keep your staff this way? After this weekend, it's hard to say if I'll be going back since I'm also taking a long vacation very soon.

The good news is that after I come back from vacation, I will be doing some freelance cake decorating for a lovely little bake shop on an as-needed basis. Very, very excited about that!