o, world.

{wonderfully} Busy.

So much happened this week{+end}. My afterschool art classes finally got into full swing. The kids painted, glued, drew, collaged, sculpted and built. I got a sticker that said 'I love you', more hugs than I can recall getting in the last several months, and two drawings of Wolverine.

I went to the thrift for the first time in awhile, where I bought several wonderful things: a cracked, kelly green coin purse that is essentially useless but un-pass-up-able, being practically perfect in every way (very green, very old, very tiny), an old, red leather bag with a very confusing strap, and...



...which quickly, excitedly became...



I made a necklace for a friend's wife...



...and something I can't show you quite yet with these Moo cards.



I spent Saturday wandering around Cincinnati, which kept my over-excited (Moo cards! Silverware to slice up! Tiny coin purses! *falls over*) brain from burning out, and made for some lovely photo ops.



The light was perfect, and I took more pictures than I had in a long time.



And now I'm here, catching up on emails, looking forward to tomorrow's dinner with my parents, and to next week's finishing of above-mentioned projects and the start, inevitably, of a few new ones.

I am so there.

Who's with me?

It's a Rad, Rad World..

I made something new today....

...and I think I'll go list it in the shop!

Typical Saturday in Dayton

You know. Get up, call your best friend, scrounge through several buildings worth of old metal/electrical parts. Same old, same old.

I came away with a bag of brass - yes, a bag- wire, same with copper. Both in hard to find gauges.  You set your metal on this huge scale and pay by the pound. $3 for copper, $4 for brass. $1.25 for stainless. I plan to make the copper and brass into headpins and sell them in the shop. Copper webbing that I intended to make into a belt by fabricating nickel or even sterling findings for the fittings, and then realized it was actually tubing! What to do, what to do. I also found a huge stash of phenolics that are perfectly sized and shaped for jewelry components and can't wait to mix them with sterling. It'll have to wait a few days, though - Monday and Tuesday and shipping days! The recycling center and Mendelsons are my favorite places to scrounge and find the most unusual things. Things I didn't know existed! Hardware and strange science equipment, mannequins, electrical bits and old industrial baking equipment. The employees are just gruff enough and can't be bothered to count exactly how many pieces you've picked up, so a transaction usually goes something like, "Looks like you've got what, 3, 4, 500 there? Alright...how about $3?" There's an elevator operator and the workers who've grown to respect that fact that I can carry my own huge box of collected hardware, thanks. They trust me when I tell them the price something was marked, and they let me go into sections I really shouldn't be allowed. It's dirty and it's strange and it's my favorite place to take people who've not yet experienced it. It's hard to make myself wait a whole week to return. Love, B