I don't have a lot of time this week -- I'm rushing to finish my projects for the final critique at school on Tuesday. I spent 5-1/2 hours at the studio yesterday, but when I went there this morning for the scheduled hours, the door was locked! On to Plan B...went to borrow my brother-in-law's cordless drill, so I can affix the steampunk pieces to the container I was required to make. I pretty much suck at soldering, so the box looks "distressed"...but I actually like it that way! Anyway, my brother-in-law only had wood drill bits, so I stopped by Home Depot on the way home -- after a detour to Glassworks in Morristown with my niece for her birthday. I made a picture frame for her sister...I'll probably post in the GALLERY when it comes back from being fired. :) The guy at Home Depot told me he had the size drill bit I need (3/64 works the best), but that it would be too small to fit in the collet of a standard cordless drill! Sooooo, I had to but the collets AND a Dremel 300 variable-speed rotary tool! :p $87 later, I'm back in business! Actually, I can use this tool long-term for other projects, so it wasn't really a waste of money. There are sanding, cutting & cleaning attachments -- similar to the ones at the MSU studio. I liked playing with the cleaning tool...brought a nicer shine to my pieces than they had when I left school yesterday! :D Anyway, so I now have two out of the four sides of my box decorated...after losing a drill bit (it flew off and I can't find it anywhere. I knew that it didn't lock, but it seemed tight anyway. Lesson learned! ALWAYS make sure the drill bit is locked into place!). I also broke a second drill bit -- the aforementioned 3/64. So, I now have to start the hole with the smaller size (1/32), but the tiny screws I bought don't fit into those holes, so I have to use the broken drill bit to make the holes larger. :( Very time consuming! Plus, I think the antique keys I have are too thick to drill through...I don't want to break any more drill bits! I may have to skip those entirely. Too bad, they look really kewl! Who would think you could buy antique keys on eBay? LOL I do have vintage watch faces and some gears of various sizes. And I did find one small key in Dad's old in-box while looking for the lost drill bit, so I used that. It looks like it may have been to a file cabinet or something. We have nothing locked here that I know of, so I'm pretty confident I won't turn out to need that key one day! :p Some of the gears have depth to them, so if I use them backwards, I can place cabochons in them like a bezel. I did that once already, but I had to glue it in place, since the sides aren't really high enough to bend over like a proper bezel. :\
Okay, I spent MUCH more time on that than I planned! LOL On to the "BIG announcement" I promised last week. As of the middle of May, I will officially be a full-time entrepreneur! :o The company where I work is having layoffs again...third summer in a row. I've decided to take a voluntary layoff and devote my efforts to building up Something Tangible, as well as continue classes at MSU. I can get health insurance through school -- about 1/6th of what I was paying through my employer, and the prescription co-pays are a lot lower, too! :D I'll also apply for Unemployment benefits. I just read in yesterday's paper that it is up to 99 weeks with the extensions in New Jersey. A few people have told me they might also pay for school -- investing in people's education helps to keep them out of unemployment in the future, I suppose. :) I'll definitely have to look into that!
So, there you have it. Look for some MAJOR changes over the summer, since I will have more time to devote to creating pieces, new business development, etc.
Have a great week! It's MUCH too hot and humid for May here in Jersey! I think it was 86 today? :p
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment