Last week I received an order of lab grown opal cabochons (a cabochon is a material, usually a stone with a flat bottom which can be set into a piece of metal). I was so incredibly excited to receive them that I set to work straight away!
To set the opal, I needed to...
- Saw a piece of silver sheet to the required size
- Make a bezel (setting) especially for each piece to fit their unique sizes
- Solder the bezel to the silver sheet
- Pickle and tumble (takes around an hour to tumble them) to clean and polish them up
- Set the opal (trickier than you'd think!)
- File, sand and polish each one
- Make and attach the hooks for earrings
So, you can see its a lengthy process, which I'd say goes unnoticed when looking at the final piece!
Lets backtrack now. Other than the weekend I'm currently indulging in, I have a market every weekend. This means that my time in the workshop has been excessive, to say the least! The weather isn't on my side at the moment, I have leaks galore in the workshop which means that not only am I getting dripped on, but I also seem to have a glorious shelter for spiders!
When I received the opal, I was a tad overwhelmed with the workload, but so excited to do them, that I decided to drop all projects to make these earrings! But I wasn't focused. I went through the entire process until the last but one bullet point, of file, sand and polish. I sanded waaaaaaaay too vigorously and sanded all the way through the silver bezel and onto the opal. Making them no good for sale. I was mortified. Beyond mortified.
At that point, I should have stopped my day and done some digital work, or filing of documents. But no, I made more silver and made more mistakes!!
I realised that I have too much going on, I'd have been more present, less manic, hurried, and more aware of my actions.
But the more people I speak to about busy lives, the more I'm hearing "same". Why do we take on so much, push ourselves to the max and, in my case, make big errors that cost me an entire day of work.
The prices I charge, do not reflect that time I put into making my jewellery, the hours or days lost when making up for silly mistakes.
This isn't a ranting post, it is a post of reflection and wonder. Wonder how many of us are also making the mistakes, in their own ways, which cost us so much time, money and energy.
Days like these make me truly appreciate my limited time with my loved ones. I cherish days with them, no matter what we're doing, days out, perusing through shops, sitting at home in front of the fire and now... watching Christmas films. I may even start thinking about putting my Christmas decorations up!!
Thank you for reading this post, may your days also have moments of calm and restoration.