(no subject)

I think we have pictures of the new work; I have to look at it hard and make sure the firescale is gone, but J did some fabulous work with annoyingly mirror-like pieces. He says I do it to make his life harder, but I don't. Really! I'll be posting them in the next few days, I think.

I've been thinking a lot about catches for my poison rings. To the point of dreaming about them, and that's a bit much. I have at least 2 ideas, and need to figure out which would look best on which ring.

(no subject)

I worked on the honeycomb pin today, and am thinking about redoing the settings.

The problems with the loose fit- besides the hassle of filling the gaps with solder- are that the solder flowed up between the two pieces of tubing, messing up my nice crisp shelf that the stone was to sit on and requiring cleaning up; and that the whole process pulled the centers of the sides in a little bit- not much, but enough to make an 8.1-8.2mm stone not quite fit.

I spend some time today cleaning one of these up, and it's now close to a fit... but it's still not ideal, and I'm thinking that I may want to make 2 more settings, and this time cut superthin sheet into shims that will fit between the 2 tubes on each side. This will help the positioning, and reduce the amount of solder needed, which are both of the good.

I will probably try that tomorrow.

(no subject)

J has suggested that I take a piece of argentium sterling and try to produce firescale on/in it. If I succeed, we can send it to J's dad's lab- he's a materials physicist, who specialized in metals (albeit mostly steel) for much of his professional life, and he ought to be able to figure out at least what happened, if not how it happened.

I'm excited about this!