a quick, late post today...i've been in the studio since 2am playing with a new design...and i have the band-aids, bacitracin, and blood stains to prove it! yeah, i thought i could cut some copper without gloves, as if the wee hours were a shield against ignorance. 17 hours later, i almost have it. i've never been one to trouble a thing this long - basically, if it didn't work out the first or second time, i'd move on. something about having a business plan, and knowing that this IS my job and that i HAVE to turn in new work to the gallery...well that just makes it different. i finally took my sketches and bloody fingers to Loew's and got just the right person to help. we kanoodled a bunch of ideas, and since he wasn't trying to make a necklace, he could step back and look at it as a Guy Problem. and bingo...we arrived at a solution. and he wants one of the necklaces for his wife. sheesh. not too much pressure. plus he said he'd help my husband rebuild a spanky new deck as partial barter. oh hell don't tell him i would've given him the necklace. That's how great my relief was. there's a weird thing that happens when someone you know wants something you make. there's an instinct to give it free. but i really feel that's wrong, now that it's my source of income. and to be clear, no one has ever asked me for anything for free, because they understand that this is my job...my sole income. but there is that momentary weird feeling. can you tell i need a coffee? the train's getting off track already. diva hasn't let me out of her sight since she came home monday. if she wakes up from a nap and can't see me sitting there, she immediately starts her wolf howl. oy. this post is a mess of randomness, sorry. to answer some email questions, the skirt i had on saturday is from my friend Helen, the Renegade Seamstress. her shop is online - Secret Lentil. if i win the lottery, i will be buying every single thing she has. and handwarmers in every color. twice. enough now - back to destroying some perfectly good copper roofing stuff. wishing you unbound creativity today......