Thursday, November 11, 2010

November, Week 2

Well, here's my NaNoCraftMo progress so far: 5 pairs of foldformed earrings.
"Fell from the stars and shattered"
(You can see pictures of the rest of the pairs here on Flickr.)
At 11/30 days, I'm at 5/28 pieces, and haven't done any "reach" ones yet... so I'm a bit behind. But I can feel my creative drive charging up, and I'm hoping to sprint ahead soon!

In the meantime, I'm going to give you guys a tour of my workspace! It's a little crazy, but it's the perfect kind of space for me to work--everything's in arm's reach, and since I don't share the space with anybody, I always know where something is. It's certainly changed since I first set it up in April.

Here's an overview of the space, from the basement stairs:
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You can see that there's a window for ventilation when I open it, and I've put in a bunch of lighting (very good for both morale and ability to see detailed bits of metal).

Starting at the rightmost part of the work area, here's my awesome old sewing machine:
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I use this for making silk necklace cords and gift bags.

Next is the newest addition to the space, a rectangular table with storage space underneath:
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The table surface is sometimes a workspace for light-duty stuff like wirework, and sometimes a place for photographing new things. Right now the components of my lightbox are not in use:
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Moving to the left, here's the soldering area:
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It's a very sturdy wooden table. The surface is protected from my torch by the combination of a metal tray and a fireproof ceramic tile. The crockpot is for warming a solution of vinegar and salt called a pickle, which is used to clean oxides and flux from recently-soldered pieces.

Next is the workbench:
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The workbench was in the basement when my housemate bought the building--lucky for me! It's quite sturdy, and I do my hammering, drilling, stonesetting, and polishing here. Since this area has so many functions, it's the most cluttered area.

Here's a view of the drawers under the workbench:
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You can see a little shelf with my beads, stones, and a few books, and sturdy wooden drawers above that. In theory, my hammers and pliers and other miscellaneous tools and supplies mostly belong in here.

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But instead, they're usually found within arm's reach on my workbench instead :)

This tour is part of the Aspiring Metalsmiths blog carnival. Here are some other great workspace tours:

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