Downstairs Work Space

Okay here are the pictures of my other workspace. Affectionately known as the Cave lol! This is where I do all the lapidary, glass work and metal work. No pictures of the metal work set up at the moment since I use the same space for that as I do for the glass. Temporary, I just haven't gotten around to putting up the other table for the metal work. I now officially own one whole wall of the basement. I do get a lot of laundry done though lol! The first picture is the lapidary machine that I cut cabs on. This is the grinding and polishing part. The trim saw is in the garage and I go to the lapidary club and use the club slab saws when I need to make slabs. The other three are pics of the glass bead making set up and an idea of what the torch looks like when I am in front (actually behind but you see what I mean) the torch. This torch gets up to 1700 degrees. It really hurts if you forget where the flame is.

New Shop

So I have opened a new shop on etsy named Silver River Metal (silverrivermetal.etsy.com). I struggled with this a little bit since I already have two shops on etsy, silverriverjewelry.etsy.com and silverriverstitches.etsy.com. I am expanding my skills in the metal smithing area and truth be told I love it! It meshes better with my addiction to lapidary (rocks) than the wire wrapping does and broadens my horizans by leaps and bounds. The lapidary addiction comes from taking and ugly rock out of the ground and turning it into something gorgeous and wearable. It's like a treasure hunt and you never know what you are going to get when you open that rock up, slab it, trim, grind it and polish it. Plus I find the whole process very relaxing. Weird I know lol! The metal work just compliments the stone work. I don't have to stress about finding the perfect setting, I can make my own. (I haven't achieved perfection yet lol, in fact I am perfecting melting bezels into small balls of silver more than I am anything but it is improving.) Plus I really like playing with fire, at least this way I am using that for a useful purpose! While I am not giving up the wire wrapping and beading, I will be shifting my purpose more toward the metal work at this point. As you can see there is a big difference in the two styles. Should be interesting to see where it will go.