MY KILN

So my Caldera Kiln from Paragon arrived last week and over the weekend I finally had the chance to use it. It is absolutely a great kiln. It works really well and is sooo easy to use with digital controls. I made a few glass beads and used the kiln to anneal them and it was perfect! Not that I can say that about the beads yet. I need more practice but I am getting there. They look good and the colours are such fun to play with. I get the feeling though that I am going to go through glass fast and need to buy more... only problem is I have to ship it to oman.

Another exciting purchase to add to my tools is a ring sizer. I found a great one in the souk the other night at a silversmith supply shop. I was going to eventually buy one online (BUT they are very heavy) and so was excited when I actually found one here AND it was only 33OR. HOWEVER it is made in India - not US or Italy so here's hoping it works just as well. I am still waiting for my silver order to come to test it out.

SLOW mail - it's so frustrating when I need something quick. Fire mountain gems use fed ex and it always gets here within 3-5 days. Some other purchases I ordered nearly 2 weeks ago still haven't come and since then I have got 2 orders from fire moutain.

Success!

Well my sale went really well and now I am busy busy busy making custom orders. I really enjoy creating custom items. It gives me a base to start and love it when something turns out really well.

I had huge success on my hunt through the souk the other night too and found a way of getting any size silver sheeting I need or strips of silver. Perfect - now I can really set to work on my silversmithing ideas.

Souk Wandering Wonderings!? Be thankful...

The other night we went on a trip to the souk. I had a few items in mind that I wanted and of course ended up with completely the opposite. I didn't even get to my usual silver shop.

We have a friend right at one of the front shops who runs a Kashmiri shop for his family. They have a factory back home in Kashmir where they make the majority of items he sells in the shop. We usually don't stop there for long but we know how lonely he gets (he works every day mornings and evenings), so last night we made extra effort to stop and chat with him. He has been really kind to us and always gives us "best price"!

Of course he had new items in and usually it's our friends or family that buy from him - but this time he had a rare find wall hanging made with a lot of silk thread and we couldn't resist. It is beautiful and the thread has a special name in Arabic (zari).

"Zari is a type of thread made of fine gold or silver wire used in traditional Indian and Pakistani garments. This thread is woven into fabrics, primarily made of silk to create intricate patterns. It is believed this tradition started during the Mughal era."

Then we headed off to the Silversmith Supply shop! It's not at all organised like you would think of a shop in Australia or many other places. Finding things is by pure luck or chance or sometimes surprise that they even have it! I can ask for an item but there is no guarantee that they will know what I am talking about. Last time I took pictures of items I wanted with me and that was the best way. Nothing is really displayed in the shop - just crammed into every spare space and odd boxes, although they seem to know where everything is. I got an assortment of items including pure silver granules and a small amount of sheet silver as well. What he did bring out this time was a great find - not cheap but worth it and exaclty what i had been looking for. Steel blocks with designs in them - to put designs onto the silver. Some really nice omani looking designs and i got an elephant! I also got some copper wire and sheeting to play around with - far cheaper than practicing with silver! A few other supplies were found also. But all set me back a fair bit again. Oh well it's worth it when you see the end product!

My most interesting part of the night, other than my jewelry making finds, was my little insight into the way these men live! My baby became quite upset and I needed to feed him! As it is not appropriate to breastfeed in public here the owner of the shop offered me a room to go feed my baby! One of his indian workers who was in the shop lives next door in a small room with his wife. No one was there at the time and I was able to sit on the small bed and feed him. To me this was not a shock (the room I mean) - but to many it would be. A room about half the size of my bedroom contained a small bed for the 2, a table with a gas burner (the hose ran out through old louvers in a window), a broken cupboard and a small fridge. There were a few other possessions around but otherwise fairly bare. No sink, no bathroom - I suppose they share a toilet with others and wash up in a tub in the room. The air-con was switched on for me and the thump thump started over the hum of the old "wall banger" as they are known locally.

By standards this would be considered a good place to live by many! For me the stench of the cat pee wafting in from outside, the musty dampness of the room and the overpowering frankinscence wafting in from the souk was all a little too much. Another reminder of how lucky we are to have such high living standards. Even if we do get the odd rat outside our house - I think the threat of rodents in those conditions would be even worse!

FINISHED

Finally we have finished my studio and I now have a wonderful space to work in and make a "mess". My bench didn't turn out how I wanted it. It wasn't cut to the correct size so we had to do it ourselves, but that meant pulling the legs apart and cutting everything down - something I didn't want to have to do. I want to use it - so we just adapted and even though there is part of the frame sticking out the side I think I will find it useful for using to clamp things etc.

Now I have purchased some supplies from the US and I am waiting for them to come, along with my KILN. Yeah I have got a Paragon SC2. I wanted the SC3 but was too expensive to ship to Oman!!! More than 250US dollars so that was not such a viable option.

So now I can really get into my lampworking and silversmithing!!

BUT

on a sad note for me...

I am going to have to go back to work for 1 or 2 days a week or so. Nothing set just some temp work. I don't want to leave my babies... and I want as much time as possible to use my creativity. But has to happen sometime so...

Will let you know how it goes.