I’ve been out of touch for quite a while now. For good reason. My whole life has been pretty much rearranged, and that takes some recovery time.
To recap—I saw an opportunity and I took it, but I had to move fast to make it work. I saw on Orchid that James Binnion, the Master of Mokume Gane, needed an assistant. I thought about it for a couple of weeks, then I applied. To make a short story shorter: in the space of two months, I heard, I applied, I flew to Bellingham, WA to interview, I got the job, I packed up my life and loaded it into a “pod”, flew to Bellingham again to rent a house, shipped my pod off and drove 2250 miles to start work.
Off the grid and in the woods
So now I’m living in Bellingham, a small but cosmopolitan town two hours north of Seattle, an hour from Vancouver, in a strange but wonderful house off the grid and up the side of a low mountain. A have not had the energy to totally unpack yet—I have not had a 9-5 job since I was in my 20s.
Bellingham is known as “The City of Subdued Excitement”. It is a lot like Evanston, IL, where I lived for about 30 years, but with a better view. This area is spectacular beyond belief—and looks a lot like the imaginary landscapes I’ve been putting in my work for 20 years.
Sunset from my window
I came down with a somewhat mysterious ailment shortly after arrival (can you say “stress”?) which I am now convinced is/was shingles, but of course I didn’t have a doctor here yet, so that did not go well. A month later, I’m regaining my energy but still in some discomfort. I do not choose to say exactly where the outbreak is, but suffice it to say this has all been quite a PITA.
My first month at work has been challenging. I’ve never felt so incompetent in my life! Working with mokume is very difficult, and at the price of gold and silver these days, believe me, you do NOT feel good when you melt it! But I feel as though I’m gaining ground at last.
So here are some fairly random thoughts and information from this life-altering period.
Here’s a news-flash for the metalsmiths: red gold (gold+copper) alloys very readily with silver, given proximity and heat—and then it is yellow gold (gold+copper+silver). You may have experienced something like this if you have soldered brass to silver (brass=copper+zinc; silver+copper+zinc=solder) but you don’t feel quite as bad about turning a silver and brass piece into a puddle.
I’m learning to use a PUK welder—that’s a little pulse arc welder with argon cover gas and a microscope. You can tack-weld parts before soldering, and you can use it to do things like melt a ball onto the end of a wire. I haven’t done it yet, but this means that with care, you can fasten pearls or gemstone beads onto a piece of jewelry with a balled wire. A very cool tool, but financially out of reach for most studio jewelers or classrooms. It feels like cheating to use it!
I’m also using a lathe and a mill. They are a little intimidating because we are working to incredibly tight tolerances (who’d have thought my style of working could seem sloppy!) but they are very fun tools.
So, for the time being, I am not doing shows, I am not teaching, I am not even making my own work—but I AM earning a living. I have withdrawn myself from nearly every aspect of my previous lifestyle, and it is a pretty strange feeling. I am learning a lot, and it will be very interesting to see how it impacts my own work when I can manage to get back to it. Plus, of course, with a “real” job, I have the luxury of only making pieces I really want to, I suppose, though I don’t have a lot of interest in making things just to have them sit in my jewelry storage. Well, time will tell.
I miss all my friends, acquaintances, students and loved ones (and there are big overlaps in these categories) more than I can begin to say. Please do not think I am not thinking about you just because I have been too exhausted (and, yes, at times depressed) to be in touch.
What a strange business life is!
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noelyovovich
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