Beating the 9-5 blues away.....

by working at my bench sawing and filing the stress away.......   If only I could spend most of my time here, listening to music drinking good tea and taking solace and inspiration from my 'work in progress' garden.  But until that day arrives, when I can spend the majority of my time here. There is one thing that could make it even harder to walk away from my bench and that would be a window into the garden.

Practice makes perfect.....

as they say. So, I thought it was about time that I bit the bullet and did some stone setting....gulp!! It's not that I'm afraid of doing this, well actually I'm scared of wasting precious resources by marking, scratching the silver and stones beyond recognition therefore condemning the piece to the scrap draw!!!

But you've got to start somewhere and at some point in time, plus I need to stretch myself and learn new skills, as another great saying goes 'you really do learn from your mistakes' which has applied all along to me in my 'self taught' journey into jewellery making and silversmithing.
Most of which I've really enjoyed but it can be very frustrating and I end up behaving like a toddler having a tantrum because I can't do something.... I just have to walk away have a break with a cup of calming tea, take a deep breath and try again maybe with a different approach.
What I do love though is being out somewhere or reading a mag or having a conversation and my brain will suddenly spot the answer to my workshop conundrum. It really is like a eureka moment. Wonderful, joyful moments. Which certainly makeup for the meltdowns.....

Here's my very first attempt at setting a stone. A Garnet and sterling silver ring setting both purchased from  https://www.kernowcraft.com/  I still have some filing and finishing off to do on this to get it to where I want it to be.

Would love to hear about your Eureka moments?