Making Jewelry and Trying New Tools

One of the mistakes I made when I was having my house built was not putting sufficient lighting in my art studio. This weekend, my dad installed a giant fluorescent fixture with "sunshine" bulbs, which is fantastic and extraordinarily bright. From the living room, it reminds me of the trunk of the car in Repoman. He also switched the table I make jewelry on with the one on which I was organizing photos, which is lower. A few weeks ago, I ordered some more tools for making jewelry, including a steel block, a few hammers and some jigs for bending wire.

Tonight I decided I had to try all these things out. I find making jewelry very satisfying, especially when I'm trying out new techniques. These aren't perfect, by any means, but I hadn't done any hammering in approximately fourteen years, since I took a metal smithing class at the now defunct Duke Crafts Center, so I'm pleased. When I had my jewelry making business, I didn't do any hammering at all and it's certainly nice to be able to work harden the sterling silver. I'm looking forward to making a lot more.