Trying To Do Everything At Once

Here's a photo I took of one of my etching plates. It still has the asphaltum on it and hasn't been submerged in the etching solution yet. The "white" lines are the exposed copper and they will be etched down into the copper. After they are etched, I will remove the dark resist, the asphaltum, and you will see the copper with the grooves in it. After I finish with the etching, I'll cut the plate into strips and make them into bracelets. It also occurs to me that I could bend the sheets of copper and make them into three dimensional pieces, rather like sculptures. Then people could put them on a table where they would be more visible. So I might consider pursuing that possibility.

I was back at my outside worktable today, working on the etching and also on a little bit of jewelry. A fair number of people came by including a brother and sister from Phoenix. They both make jewelry, and I enjoyed talking to them about what they are doing. The brother made Indian figures cut from sterling silver that sold at Goldwater's, an old department store in Phoenix which has since been taken over by one of the large conglomerates. I remember going there in the 1960's when I was going to college at the University of Arizona in Tucson. What a small world it is.

Jon moved a chest over near my outside table, under the window. It is just there temporarily, but it's nice because I can hang one of my etchings on the front of it. Philip was looking at it, and we were talking about creating a place on the other side of the patio where we could hang framed work. And Andy, the glassblower, had suggested that we could hang artwork on the railing of the glass platform, too. That might be nice. Also, I'd like to get a print rack that sits on top of the chest to put some matted pieces in. I don't have any that are already matted, but I could work on that.

There's so much to do. I was sitting at my table today and thinking about the fact that I really should get busy and make a sign that points to my studio. I did use the computer to create a paper one to tape on the door that tells my hours and days off, but that wouldn't work for outside in the garden. That's the quandry. Do I create art or do I work on business stuff. I'm trying to do both, but it makes my progress slower. Oh, well. It will be awhile before I can say, "look out CocaCola."