Dear Diary…
I finished watching The Watcher on Netflix today (yesterday, I wrote most of this yesterday), I love psychological thrillers and dramas. I was awake until about 3am watching 5 episodes last night (the other night). I watched the remaining 2 today (yesterday)… What a dud the ending was! Screw you Netflix and the makers of The Watcher for allowing such a disappointing ending. If you’re going to bother telling a mystery story you must have an ending otherwise put it in the scrap pile and find another tale to tell! However… I enjoyed watching it until the last couple of minutes. I’ve also recently watched Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and The Good Nurse. Why do people love watching killers? Are we corrupt deep down? Probably.
Today (yesterday, 28th) I sent my second batch of jewellery to be hallmarked and I’m hoping the Royal Mail strike doesn’t get in my way too much. Also today (yesterday…
I should have just posted this yesterday) I discovered that most of my first batch of hallmarked jewellery need remaking, so that’s fun. I’m not too bothered by it actually. The quality of my work is so much better now than it was earlier this year. I also don’t lose out on much, I can keep the hallmarked pieces of silver and use them in the remakes. This is probably not technically correct but who likes technicalities anyway? I would never use anything other than what I said I was using. [please note: the jewellery I’m referring to are less than the required weight stated by UK law] Some of the pieces are fine but I don’t like them enough now. I sold one necklace, for £70 to my Mom who had to have it apparently which is cool. I have it’s twin that is fine to sell. I have another necklace that I like and I’ve made that design for other cabochons too, it’s called Honour.
Yesterday (oh for God’s sake…Thursday) Mike’s parents came to visit randomly, his Mom has been keen to look at my work for a while. I had lain out the pieces on my bed to take a photo of them, not knowing they were coming. I send all my work to be hallmarked without stones in it, I think that’s what most people do. When she came into my room (where my work bench and everything is) I placed the stones into their settings and showed her my the pieces that have been sent to be hallmarked. She took a liking to a design I’ve named Bubble Moon, this one contains a garnet. She wants to buy that one when it’s back from hallmarking. She also liked a chunky Tigers Eye Moon necklace (Tiger Moon). I have a design that will be called Darren’s Wisdom in honour of my brother. I would like to connect this one to a charity to make it even more meaningful. It’s meaning will be written in the description on the website. I don’t yet know which charity to support, maybe something relating to science, maybe something supporting forests or cancer or mental health… I will probably just chose something I want to support because I don’t know which charity he would choose. I like the thought of doing this for him, it would bring the tiniest bit of life back to him if he’s still doing something, even though technically he isn’t. I would like to maybe offer a website discount on my brother’s Birthday each year or do a giveaway or something.
I know I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, it will cost a lot in more materials, advertising, running my website. I know I will have to put myself out there and get rejected when it comes to approaching gift shops and Christmas/gift market stalls. I’ve got a lot to do. Doing all this so far has given me so much, I don’t know where I would be without it. I get stopped in my tracks sometimes when I feel proud of my creativity and determination but then I remember he will never see any of it…
Early next year I’m hoping to buy a Durston Doming Set to make a design I’m quite excited about. It’s a simple design that will probably be difficult to make. There’s always something, it’s really costing the earth and I know I could slow down or stop but then what? I feel like I need this, this isn’t just jewellery, this is everything that I have. I made wine goblet necklaces and one of them took me probably 15+ hours to make, I stopped counting when I reached 6 hours. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it’s 3 hours work but sometimes problems arise and I won’t stop until I solve it. I work almost everyday. I can’t allow something mediocre to be listed on my website. I choose stones because I love them. I spend hours on each one. If someone buys jewellery from me it will mean a lot. Handmade is completely different from machine manufactured products pumping out hundreds of the same design. Sometimes you’re buying something from a person who puts so much into each piece. Refunds will be tricky for me to handle, I generally won’t be able to offer them because I won’t have pot of money spare. I will be putting the money back into the business. If someone buys something for £150, that money will go to straight to Cookson for more silver or tools or it will buy more packaging or go on a new cabochon order. If I sold 2 pieces of jewellery a week I could perhaps use some of it to pay bills. It would probably take 4 sales a week for me to be able to enjoy it on the pleasures that life has to offer: wine, cinema, nice food, clothes, other hobbies etc. Initially I will be happy to sell something to someone. I feel bad about my prices sometimes, I didn’t want to tell Mike’s Mom that the Bubble Moon necklace she wants will be around £80. It takes a while to melt down the little silver balls. Mostly they turn out dimpled or textured. I need smooth balls! Ha. I don’t quite understand how it works and I’ve asked some fellow silversmiths, they gave me some advice but I don’t feel like it had much effect. I need to stop worrying about how much my jewellery is. It’s killing me to make jewellery so give me a grand Goddamnit! Honestly this latest wine goblet nearly did kill me but it’s on it’s way to be stamped with my initials so life is good. Wine Goblets, Bubble Moons, crystal moons and space themed jewellery are my thing. I really wasn’t intending to go all moony because it’s so over-done, moons are everywhere and they can quite easily be tacky but during my logo design contest I had to offer the moon idea because the name is Evening Lake. A designer who I chose as my winner created the Moon Canoe concept and he said all the right things about the name and I fell in love with his idea. Ridiculously I then paid the runner up for his artwork too and I use it on my business cards. I couldn’t let that design go and if you ever see my website (which is coming soon, I’ve owned the domain for over 2 years) or my Instagram or if you buy something from me you will hopefully see why I loved both.
New day. Today.
I finished watching The Big Bang Theory yesterday, I used to watch it when it first came out when I was a teenager. I remember watching the adverts introducing the show over 10 years ago. I used to have a few of the seasons on DVD…DVD, Christ that’s such an old thing now. I watched most of it but for no reason I never saw the ending. Yesterday, I finally watched the final episode and it was emotional. I then moved onto The Cabinet of Curiosities, it reminds me of Black Mirror. I’m a little hooked on its weirdness. Life seems to be a series of TV programmes. Programme after programme.
A few days ago I thought of a new necklace design so I’m going to finish that in a minute. I just placed my first order with Turquoise Moose: 2 turquoise half moons (Wild Horse), two turquoise tear drops (Treasure Mountain) and two half moon rosaritas. Rosarita is something I hadn’t of either. “Rosarita is a by-product of gold smelting. Smelting gold is the process of extracting gold from an ore it is combined with. Essentially, when an ore that is gold-bearing gets heated to high temperatures, gold sinks down to the bottom and the non-metals solidify into boulders of red and orange. Red being Rosarita.” The half-moon shapes are for my wine goblet necklaces. This bright red stone will be perfect for this design. I will probably make this one backless so that light can shine through the Rosarita. I’m a little surprised myself that I decided to buy this material, I only choose natural stones, whilst this is natural it is formed from a process undertaken by a person rather than just forming without intervention. But I think it’s kinda cool and will definitely look good as wine. I also have an order with New Stone Age Cabochons, I’ve bought from them several times. I love choosing each stone, it makes what I do even more special. I’ve always been interested in crystals, I have quite a collection so choosing crystals for jewellery (cabochons) is fun for me. I have another idea for a necklace design, it’s a telescope with a moon stone inside it and words stamped on the outside. It will be customisable and again probably difficult to create. The problem right now is I’m very low on silver sheet, I have a little left and I’m thinking of holding on to it and making Turquoise and Rosarita wine goblet necklaces when the cabs arrive which means I need to wait. I have a Durston Rolling Mill which can be used to roll out new sheet and wire. The problem with that is I don’t have a torch powerful enough to melt down enough of my scrap silver. I can’t get a more powerful torch without endangering everyone in the building. You need a gas canister attached to a tube and torch thing. I wouldn’t particularly want to store a gas canister in my room anyway. If I make a sale or two I can buy a little more silver sheet. In the meantime I will make some rings. Although, I’m almost out of 1.5mm round wire which is the wire I often use for claws so I’ll have to be creative or… stop working for a while. I’m hoping that’s not going to be the case, I need to keep working..
I’m going in to work early tomorrow because it’s the big scan and I don’t have enough staff.
Anyway, I’ve rambled enough for now. Off to finish the leaf necklace.
Enraging rambles 