building character.....

I know......

That the hard stuff makes you stronger....

yes I know.....

You only get better with practice and challenge.....

But SERIOUSLY.....my Repair class.....the class I will NOT miss as this semester comes to a halt....

IS SO FRICKIN HARD.

The picture above is one of the most ridiculously hard soldering assignments I have EVER done....and lets just say I am SO GLAD its over.

Yep....Those are silver chains.....some with links no bigger than 2 mm. And one of 'em is that sneaky snake chain that just sucks.....at life.

AND YOU WANT ME TO CUT THEM OPEN AND THEN ATTEMPT TO SOLDER THEM BACK TOGETHER!!???? WITHOUT MELTING THEM!!!???

Oh man. Like I said....glad its over.

School is officially done monday. And then I will need a 12 hour nap, and a stiff drink. Maybe not in that order.

And then it's off to ALASKA!!! I will always plan trips at the end of semester now, it makes things so much more of a celebration....finishing only means you get to go on VACATION!

In love with wax...

New to me.....and in love.....

Wax carving!!!

It's a turtle sitting on a little lotus leaf.....

My first wax-carving casted ring!

Needs a little clean-up and maybe some liver of sulfur, but I am so excited about this new medium! Casting has been a very cool class this semester, and I see a burnout kiln and centrifugal caster in my future....maybe a good summer money goal.....

And a few class projects in my design and rendering class I also made out of wax and will set some awesome peridot stones in them.....more on that later.....

What a semester.....There have been so many things I have learned and gained this spring....but honestly....I can't wait to be done. Jesse and I leave for our three week Alaska trip this coming Wednesday....and that's really all I can think about. I have so much stuff at school to turn in, so many assignments due, it's literally been a studio marathon the past two weeks. Work is thankfully slow, but gotta start thinking summer at the brewery....so there's a whole 'nother set of things to do, a culminating list that I think never really ends. BUt if you'll notice, there are things actually crossed off the list.......not enough......but it's a start!

Thankfully, it's been a fairly gray spring so far, so today is a great day to bury myself in the studio, with a whole crap-ton of school stuff to do.

One day I will make jewelry that isn't an assignment again. One day soon.

Till then, I will continue geeking out, crossing off things on my never-ending list.

Thank god we are going to Alaska, light at the end of this tunnel!