Tag Archives: Progress

Jewellery Design

Posted on by

There’s progress and I’m fully enjoying the fact that there is. It means I’m taking time for myself to reach my goal, slowly but surely! I’ve been working on the jewellery designs lately. I’ve changed my way of thinking, since I wanted to test all options to see what I could do myself to lower the costs. It was fun to explore the possibilities but it took time, lots of time. And sure I want the basics right but I also promised myself to let go if needed.

I have changed from bronze, to silver, to pewter, to silver clay, to other kinds of clay. I even took a workshop using silver clay which was awesome. Only one option stood out though; tin. I’ve made a mold and have been casting myself which was great fun and a cool learning experience. But I’ve decided to leave things to the pro who can do a much better job than I can *hehe*. It saves me time although I will still do the polishing etc myself.

I know it must sound odd but that way I feel I’ve still been taking part in the process of design. Everyone can place orders, look around for materials to use, or have something made instead of putting your own effort in it. It’s simple and easy, but I don’t want simple and easy. I’d like to put my thought and creativity into each and every aspect of this design and try to make it my own. So I’d like to learn the different methods and craftsmanship.

It’s part of the fun and a way to explore what feels right and what doesn’t. Fact is that I’ve been holding on to the basics for way too long now. I’ve tried but couldn’t make up my mind about the materials. So when I finally found the tin option I was excited to look into it. I received a casting set for my birthday and built some trial setups to help me with the mold making and casting. I ran into a small problem though whilst exploring this.

The back didn’t completely fill up no matter what I adjusted; temperature, preheat the mold, powder the mold, drill a bigger hole etc. Because of this I decided to look for someone who could help, so I found a very nice lady who runs her own tin casting business. Funny thing is that she ran into the same problems as I did but of course she managed to finish my first order. This weekend I’ll be polishing and fixing all 30 items using my wireless Dremel.

I’m having a ball and I’m grateful for the fun it brings me. Ever since I’ve met the lady I’ve had a smile on my face thinking about where this is going to take me. She told me that to her, getting the opportunity to do something different and participate in a new challenge was extremely rewarding. So I guess I’ve met my match! She will be going to China this month to show the people there about her craftsmanship and I’m happy for her!

Once she’s back I’m planning on placing a second order with her :) But first things first: polishing…

Redefined Quest

Posted on by

Gee, there is so much going on in my life that I have no idea where to start and what to write. Lately I’ve been thinking about the purpose of this blog which has changed several times over the last years. It should’ve since it’s been almost ten years when I wrote the first post. I have been reluctant to write though because I feel that ever since I moved back this blog has lost its purpose. This is not true. What happened is that I have changed focus over time and I’m in the midst of a self-improvement process forcing me to have a good look at all angles of my life, not just one.

So what I’m saying is, that the quest is still there, it just changed. I have changed, I still am changing. And I guess that in order for me to keep this journal updated I should redefine its purpose and start from there. I’ve noticed that I feel like reading lots of the same neuro-linguistic programming stuff, mostly ebooks about self-help and self-improvement. I have been listening to ebooks/mp3’s as well and not just once but over and over again. Each and every aspect is covered several times and I keep coming to the same conclusions. Stuff that I’ve already written about in older posts.

It’s good though but I think I’ll have to start rearranging these thoughts and ideas to create order because it seems utterly chaotic lately. Perhaps it will help clear my mind as well. Don’t get me wrong this is not about relaxation, this is about creating clarity for me so I can get rid of the clutter in my head thus avoid over-thinking of things. Thinking too much or worrying is a way of procrastinating and so I figured that if I’d use this journal to keep track of goals -thus give it a new purpose- I could benefit in more than one way. I would have a solid reason to keep writing updates.

I would be motivated to write plus it would be a great way to keep track of any progress, to analyse myself and learn from behaviour and/or mistakes. So what is keeping me? Well mostly the things I wrote about in my previous email. I am seriously taking into consideration the fact that what happened to my business blog/website could easily happen with this website as well. I’m still dealing with these dark subjects after almost two months, it’s under control but it doesn’t take away a serious problem. One I luckily managed to avoid so far on here but that is lurking around the corner.

Plus if I was to change the subject I would also like to move this website to the main url instead of hiding it in a subdirectory and keeping it visible only to a few people. I could move it to the root of my domain and install WordPress instead of the current CMS that I’m using which is an accident waiting to happen. So why am I reluctant to do so? First of all it is going to be a lot -and I mean A lot!- of work to set up a completely new website. It means I would have to redesign the look and feel and time is the only thing that I don’t have right now because I need to focus on more important stuff…

The positive side would be the fact that I could easily protect certain posts from being read, or keep the whole website protected from lurkers if I wanted to. That is a major plus! To be honest, I think I’m having a hard time letting go of this so familiar CMS that I have been using for such a long long time. Perhaps it’s time to move away and move on, perhaps I’m not ready to see or face this. What is best for me? To move on… It seems to be the topic of everything that is currently going on in my life, the need for change, the need for progress and the need for knowledge and improvement.

I am working on a lot of things at the moment and I know I would make it a lot easier for myself if I had a checklist (read posts) so I could keep an eye on progress and lessons that I’ve learned so far. It would still be a place to vent at times but also a place where I could keep track of how I reinvent myself, letting go of the past and things that I no longer need and focus on the ‘now’ instead of a future or a past. This is why I had to write this post today, it felt like the right time. Now all I’d like to do is make a decision whether to keep this CMS or move on to another option along with the consequences.

I’m in recess to think this over and make a decision…

(perhaps when you check back you will noticed a/the change ;) )

Note to oneself: if you focus on one thing at a time you get it done much easier and faster than you’d imagine. I have been postponing writing a post for a long time and I wrote this in less than 15 minutes because I was determined to get it done. Lesson learnt: don’t waste time making things look more difficult than they really are. You can easily do it when you set your mind to it! :)