TGIF

I am so glad that Friday is finally here.  This has been one crazy week.  I've been busy as a bee and don't feel like I've accomplished much.  Do you ever get that feeling?

I am pretty happy about one thing I accomplished.  Today, I stepped out of my comfort zone and did some soldering.  I've taken about every class ever offered on soldering and it still rules my life.  I either melt the metal or apply fire scale so thick I don't need to patina the piece:O)  Today, I needed to solder six balls on to the piece I wrote about yesterday.  I knew that I had to do them all at once or not at all because when one is soldered in place and you go to solder the next one, you take a chance of the first one coming loose.  This afternoon, I finally sucked it up and set about accomplishing the task at hand.  The first attempt failed!  Into the pickle pot everything went.  Second attempt a success!!  I was so pleased with myself for trying something that I considered extremely difficult.  THEN, I realized that I needed to solder my maker's mark on the back - yuck!!  With the balls all tightly in their place, I had no choice if I wanted the maker's mark on this piece, and I did.  Into the pickle pot again to be certain that everything was as clean as a whistle.  Now for the big move - turned her over and squirted four little dots of solder on the tag, lit the torch and SHAZAAAM......soldered in place!!!  I sat there for a minute, smile on my face, enjoying the best moment of the week.  I had taken a chance and won!!!

Tomorrow I will decide how I want to proceed with this piece.  Do I want to just attach a jump ring to connect the 2 pieces or do I end up creating a more complicated attachment?  I can almost guarantee you that it WON'T be a jump ring - way too simple.  I'll also add a nice patina to her and I think the old girl is going to be beautiful!  Do you think these two piece look good as is or should I split them up and  have 2 separate pieces??  So many questions, so many decisions to make, so little time.

I really need to start thinking about packing for our trip soon.  We leave on the 27th for Ohio.  Oh, what the heck, I can do that next week. 

Nite everyone.....tomorrow is another day