Week 39

This week I'm working on glass jewelry (seaglass, broken glass that's been smoothed by sand and water). I've tried a few times in the past and haven't really been happy with it, but I like this go at it. Bob wants me to make a piece of seaglass jewelry for his mom because we both share a love of picking up seaglass- though all of mine is from the Caribbean and all of hers is from Lake Michigan. I'm not sure that this will be the gift piece, but it's a good mock-up/practice run for a gift piece.

On a side note, my clumsy streak has struck again. This piece took me two days to complete, because when I went looking for the length of chain (the chain part is purchased chain) to make this, I fell down my stairs. My mom was just over this week and commented on how my stairs really ought to have a railing too. I know I'm lucky- I didn't break anything- but I have a big bruise on my thigh and I wrenched my shoulder pretty badly (I'm gonna give it a week before I really worry though. It hurts/pinches, but I'm pretty sure that if I'd torn anything it would be excrutiating). I only skinned a fingertip and an elbow so I'm lucky for that as well. The Xarata Project lesson of the week? Always wear the socks with the grippy dots on the bottom.

Week 38

I have a cold. I would like to veg out on my couch until I am better- unfortunately, i still work. LAME. I just did commissioned orders this week. The different thing about all of these is that I used a pattern (a printed picture behind the glass) for all of them.

The first was just to personalize a set of glasses I already had painted. These were purchased on my etsy site by someone who picked up my card at the wine show- read as NOT my family or friends- which is kind of exciting. They chose Lucida Handwriting font (which was my pattern)-  it's not necessarily what i would have picked, but it's cute.

The second was those tribal shotglasses I was telling you about:

And the last wasn't really commissioned- it's a coffee glass I've been trying to paint for Bob for awhile. I've painted it several times actually and never been happy with it so i keep washing the paint off while i still can. I decided i liked the tribal design so i made it smaller and then painted a chain of the design around the top of the glass.

Week 37

It's Thanksgiving week, so lots of visiting to do and lots of work at the end of the week, but still some work in progress.

I painted the leatherback turtle family wine glasses my sister requested. They came out pretty cute. Not sure if I'm going to add any seascaping to them yet. I usually draw more traditional (green) sea turtles with the soccerball shells, but leatherbacks were kind of fun. I freehanded them while looking at photos. Some of the lines (for the vertical white spines on their shells) kind of bother me in their waviness, but in the photos, they're not perfectly straight and i feel like they would be less realistic if they were perfectly straight.

This first photo was actually taken before I opted to make an adjustment to the lone turtle's shell. I just really like the relationship placement i got in this photo.

And...painted wednesday, posted sunday:

Margarita glassed with orange flowers! (purchased gift- requested as such)



Week 36

This week is all about sales and commissioned pieces- ergo, glasses. My etsy site had 2 sales this week- a hairflower and a set of shotglasses. I also had requests for some painted glassware for xmas gifts, so this week i started in on the sets.

I started by finishing the set of daggers wine glasses that I redesigned in an earlier post- it is now a complete set of 4.

The set of shotglasses ordered was a set I've done before, but have since added to my own collection and used at parties, so i painted them to order.

 As you can see on the left side of the first photo, i'm planning on painting a bunch of shotglasses (as gifts), and in the bottom right you can see a shotglass i did with a tribal design on it that I will be re-doing due to poor placement of the design.

This week's doodle:

Still to come in commissioned work- a set of margarita glasses and some sea turtle wine glasses.

Week 35

This week I played with a multiple stone setting. The overall shape is nice, but I feel it's too wire heavy and could use some work.

Also made some headbands this week. I made 5 out of 2 fabrics. I love the batiks, this one is a sort of green and brown mix and the teal on white damask for some reason makes me think of snowflakes (i don't know why, it's not even cold today) I took pictures of them on, but today is not my most photogenic day so you'll just have to settle for the closeup:

Pain

 New development this week...I've developed a hand twitch...which is probably not good :( It doesn't twitch all the time- mostly if I spend too much time on the computer- but I haven't started on a piece yet this week and am not really sure what effect pliers will have on my hand. We'll see. The twitch seems to be associated with the same movement (pinching something between hand and thumb, like pushing a button on a remote, turning keys/dead bolts, holding certain things-like a measuring cup) that caused me a lot of pain when I originally damaged my hand 3 years ago (oh wow, has it really been 3 years?).

For those that don't know, I popped the cartilage is my hand (where the thumb and index finger bones meet the bones in the wrist) 3 years ago opening a jar of honey (yeah...the jar won...) causing permanent damage. I didn't originally have it treated and after a month of two of diminishing motor function in that hand (related to the aforementioned pinching/squeezing actions- i couldn't turn the deadbolt on my door, couldn't take the parking brake off my car, couldn't scoop ice at work or even feed the dog without intense pain) I went through a couple months of physical therapy with exercises and a fluidometer to regain the full use of my hand/joints. It was my senior year of college so while I was going through physical therapy and wearing an immobilizer, I was still abusing my hand through ceramics, metals, and sewing classes.

 I also have carpal tunnel in both of my hands which in the past few months has caused random pain from hand cramping and stiffness, pins and needles, and sensitivity to cold- especially in the last two fingers on my hands- to unexplained throbbing that radiates in my forearms from wrist to elbow.Carrying really heavy trays aggravates it- which is why i don't pick hours in the banquets department anymore- though the regular trays I carry every day can still leave my fingers miserable.

 Most of the time, I either wake up in pain or I don't and that sets the tone for my day, occassionally the pain comes suddenly in throbbing waves. It's been worse the last couple of weeks and I'm not really sure why- I suspect the incoming winter cold is to blame.  Hopefully this new twitch will be short-lived, but in my experience my hands have only gotten worse over time- there are good days and bad days- but new symptoms don't go away. My carpal tunnel didn't used to bother me, other than occassional pain and tingling- now it bothers me all the time. It doesn't mean that I'll stop working on pieces, because they offer me a sense of fulfillment I don't find in my job, but it does make me remember being told by a doctor that there would come a day where i would have to choose between my hands and my career...I told him I would cross that bridge when it came, I hope I still have a ways to go...

From what little I know, once cartilage is damaged, it is damaged forever and will never be the same. There is no fix for it. The only cure I know of for carpal tunnel is surgery to cut the tendons in the wrist that are aggravating the nerves- and if you continue to use your hands the way that you did, the carpal tunnel will return. Immobilizers offer temporary relief of symptoms. Maybe I should see a specialist, but what are the odds that they can do anything for me? Magic 8 ball says the odds are not in my favor.


*There will still be a week 35 post this week. I just felt the need to vent/share/put my thoughts down in writing. This post will not be facebook linked or anything, but it will be here- mostly because deep down, part of me is terrified that that doctor was telling the truth, and it's a choice I am completely unable and unwilling to make. As I write this, my right hand is twitching- a muscle or tendon in it clearly spasming, and every time i pick up grab something cold with my left hand, the last two fingers seize up and curl- only for a moment, but a moment is enough. The things we take for granted...like being able to use our hands...

Week 34

Right about now is when I realize the irony of the fact that I spent all my warm summer months upstairs painting glass- because I lit up the torch again and my studio(aka the concrete basement) is COLD!!! And full of house centipedes fleeing the cold outdoors- if you don't know what a house centipede is, I strongly encourage you to google image because it's a very disturbingly creepy bug and it lives in my house... Actually, I will google it for you:

creepy, huh?

Ahem...anyway...Last week I promised you a peacock pendant and so of course, I have made good on my word!!!

 I'm actually even happier with it than I really knew I would be. I want to wear it all the time. I need to buy it a worthy chain... For awhile, I felt kind of guilty for never attaching the pieces to earcuffs, but I'm so much happier with them this way... I have no idea what the stone is- my guess would be cubic zirconia, but i'm honestly unsure. It's clear and it's sparkly...