She is finished and her name is.....

Tessa!
I received this via UPS on Tuesday morning! I could hardly wait to get the package open! I love her, she will become my branding piece of advertisement!


As you see she has no jewelry on at all. What was she thinking?????? Oh well, it
doesn't matter, she is in the right place. We will find her the perfect pieces right here at Hampton House Jewelry!

Thanks so much to those who took this virtual trip with me as she was painted, named and hung on the wall! I will be looking for the perfect frame for her soon.

Now to the advertising part!!!!

Finished!

After three days of working 2-4 hours I have my work area in order.
This is my workbench area. The pic does not show how perfectly clean they are!
I promise they are!



This is my storage area and free work space. You can see my small kiln in this pic.
My larger one is sitting on top of the refrigerator until I am ready to put it into use.


This is my metalworking bench for drawing, rolling and hammering metal!


This is my easy reach storage area. I have all the things that I need to set up a bench for work right there with in reach to my left, since I am left handed.



The wet area. I bought a new faucet that I could stretch to fill up the steamer with.
It is so nice to not have to keep filling up water jugs for that.


This is the polishing area. I love the old polisher. It is an antique, but was just recently rebuilt. I hope it goes for a long long time!


Now tomorrow...oh my is my bead area! Anyone want to come help?? I think my honey is going to hide as I clean and organize that area.

My 1st Sculpture...."Windy Day"

This semester at school has been very exciting and sometimes very challenging. The great
part of it is that the each challenge has made me a better jeweler. I am going to class each
day with the mindset that I am going to work and must get so much done as it is my job and
I must be efficient. So far that has worked very well for me.

Today was a wonderful day of doing a few things that I had not done before. Each thing
came pretty easy for me, even though there was a slight hint of trepidation in my heart
when I started out this morning. Once again, I got into that mindset, that I must get this
done for a customer and it must be done correctly and without error.

I was working on 3 six prong solitaires and a beveled bright cut. Taking the proper care
to do each step correct and with careful detail.

I glanced at my clock, and realized I only had 15 minutes of class left. I had one more prong
to push down on a six prong solitaire. I thought, "let me finish this up and I will only have to shape the prongs and polish in the morning." I couldn't get the last prong to lay flat against the stone so I pushed with my prong pusher just a bit harder and...............................

my prong pusher slipped....in doing this I created a piece of "art" that I titled ''Windy Day''.

All I could do was laugh! It was such a funny sight to see! I am so glad that it was me that made this uh-oh. In the morning I get the opportunity to ''repair" this piece. I figure it will take about 15 minutes at the most.

So, for all of you who do not like the sculpture I have created, rest assured, it is just temporary.

It will not look like this tomorrow by lunch. I will post a pic of the ''repaired'' ring in a future blog.

Be happy!

Life is gloriously grande!

There is about to be a marriage @ Hampton House

The past two years my business life has been about school and preparing the shoppe
for what is to come after school in December of 2009. Today I realized that we
are down to 10 months.

Today Wes and I were preparing for a rummage sale at the shoppe. Truly we have
been preparing for it for close to a year now, but we are officially at the
place where it has to happen. No ifs, ands or buts about it. If it is in my back
room and it isn't a fossil, vacuum cleaner, or can be considered a jewelry item
then it must leave my shoppe to never ever return.

As we were preparing the back area today, I begin to feel like a bride. Excited,
giddy, overwhelmed, not knowing what all to expect in the future, and knowing
in my heart this is the right thing.

Tonight, maybe tomorrow, surely by the end of the weekend, I will start
purchasing major equipment for my jewelry store. Just typing that, I stuttered.
I am saying "I do" to the business, and leaving the engagement part of dreaming
the initial dream behind. I will go across the threshold of the shoppe in the
next day or two knowing that the engagement is over and the honeymoon has started.