Wednesday 20 July 2011

Summer Timetable for Posting Orders

I always try to send out orders reasonably quickly, normally within a day or two of payment, but now that summer is pretending to be here (it's cooold!) and school summer holidays start today, I figured I needed to set a formal timetable for posting orders.

There will now be three posting days per week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and orders need to be received before 12pm on each of those days for the order to be sent on the same day.  If at any time posting on that day is not possible, I will let you know and more than likely the order will go the following day.

We will also be taking a week's holiday from 15-21 August when I won't be able to process any orders, but we will be looking forward to opening the shop again after that with lots of gorgeous new products for your jewellery making!

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Pyrography Is Not For Me...

Having recently added the wooden tiles to the range, and already having rather a lot of equipment from my other life - I figured I should absolutely try pyrography, the art of burning a beautiful design onto wood.  Well, I can sort of draw, and I'm pretty deft with a torch, so I figured it should be easy.  

Easy?? Yeah, right.


This is one of my smaller torches, my trusty little dremel Versatip.  It comes with various attachments that I can't figure out, so I generally just use it as an open flame - however, it has a nifty tip for pyrography.


One-handed-switch-on and off I go sintering away...


 I'm resting on two soldering sheets over a floor tile over an Ikea table!

 

By this point I was already worried - it is harder than it looks to hold the torch steady, and despite the fine point I was sinking into the wood faster than I could move it!


Result - a pig's ear.  That's meant to be a "J" surrounded by tasteful swirls, but I think I really can spy an actual pig's ear.

I'd need more practice, but probably a thousand years of practice couldn't change a bad pyrographer, so that's, regretfully, another one I'll leave to the experts I think.

....Or at least until the would-be conqueror in me pushes me to try it *just* one more time.

Then I can have a matching set of pig's ear-rings!  oink oink!  :)