Here's a photo of the glass furnace. The door is open and you can see inside where the glass is melted. It's turned off right now in preparation for repair tomorrow, and it's always locked behind bars at night for safety reasons. The glassblower warns me that tomorrow they will be chipping away the glass with a mini jackhammer and that it will be very noisy. But I will survive. I might spend the time using the drill press that Jon loaned me and assemble some copper and brass bracelets.
I stopped by the studio after hours today and found that my latest order had arrived from Graphic Chemical and Ink. One of the things I ordered was some polish to put on the etching plates before putting ground on them. That will make them smooth and shiny so that when I wipe them before printing, the white areas will be very white and not mottled as they sometimes are. I tried some on one of my bracelets; it looks beautiful. I wish I had ordered a larger container of it. Oh, well, now I know.
I spent some time this morning going to several bead suppliers to get more gold-filled wire and a few strands of beads to make into bracelets. I have an idea for taking beads that are randomly strung and re-ordering them. So with a strand of carnelian beads, for example, which are strung randomly so that a dark orange bead may be next to a pale cream bead, I will string them from dark to light, or light to dark. Same thing. But I think it will make a nice necklace or bracelet. It's an idea I've had for quite awhile and finally I had a short strand of inexpensive beads so I tried it to make a bracelet. I like the result very much. Anyway, I got various strands of inexpensive stone beads to try it. And then I bought a few Austrian crystals to go with the stone.
One jewelry manufacturer told me that the department stores and jewelry stores don't like to get pieces in which the stones are combined with crystals. Well, maybe not, but I personally think a few crystals make a rather ordinary necklace very eye catching. Of course if you make a piece with very high-end stones, you don't need to mix in crystals. However, if you have less expensive stones to make less expensive pieces, you can still get a nice look by adding the crystals.
I tried to solve the problem with my new camera the batteries of which don't seem to hold much of a charge. It seems Konica, the manufacturer has gone out of business and when a camera is no longer being made, the batteries are no longer made either. So I can't get new batteries for it. I can try to charge the ones I have to the best of my ability. The other option is to take out the battery and plug the camera in with the charger and/or get a car adapter. Then I can use the camera. So if the normal camera is cordless, mine is not. That's disappointing, but at least I can attach it to a tripod and use it to photograph jewelry in my studio. And actually, that was the main reason I wanted it: to photograph jewelry and etchings. I just won't be able to use it anywhere else unless I get a car adapter and use it in my car. Actually that could work. I do frequently take photos from my car, especially around Balboa Park. Otherwise, I still have my cellphone camera with which I've taken all the photos in my blog with a couple of noted exceptions.
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