Happy New Year! Huzzah!

*This entry is for the Etsy Bloggers Street Team weekly Carnival. This week it's hosted by AliciaMae.*

I hope everyone had a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season.

Mine was relatively quiet. Things at work have been a bit busy, so when Scott and I were both home at the same time for Christmas Day, we totally just vegged out. It was nice.

What's in Store for Athena's Armoury in '08? And what was with the "huzzah" in the title of this entry?

I feel the winds of change stirring in my life. In a good way. I have been a successful theatre professional my whole life, however in recent years I've been feeling like I'm in a rut. I could not for the life of me figure out something else that I would rather be doing with my life. Scott kept saying to me, you should think about doing Ren Faires. And I kept thinking no, I could never do that. Until recently, it dawned on me: "Why the hell not?" It will allow me to continue to be involved in an extremely theatrical environment, I would be able to work for myself, making something I love, and (hopefully) have fun doing it. I've started researching how to get started and all that it involves so that I can start making some concrete plans. In general, I plan to start bulking up my inventory big time, so hopefully that means continuing to list regularly at Etsy. Now, I have to learn to speak with an accent and learn the Elizabethan language. . . and get a costume! Look out geekdom, here comes Athena's Armoury!

We're Homeowners!

I know I've been fairly MIA as of late, but for a good reason! Things have been insane for the past few weeks with this whole house buying process. I must say, dealing with the banks and finding out your net worth is a very humbling experience. And then looking at your bank balance after your have them cut the cashier's check for closing is just damn depressing.

The weeks leading up to closing was spent like so: eat, sleep, work, pack, repeat. And not just packing up the apartment, but packing up tools to be brought over for repairs and such. We're big kids now, we even have a lawn mower.

Then immediately after closing the fun began: cleaning. I swear, I got into every crack, crevice, and surface that existed in this place. Some situations required yoga poses to reach. It was a little insane. I never thought I would be so sore from cleaning.

After a full week of cleaning, repairing, and painting, we finally got a bunch of Scott's absolutely amazing friends together to help us move furniture and boxes over.

And even had one special guest to help us move. ====>>

Needless to say, we're living out of boxes right now. The kitchen and bathrooms were the very first rooms I cleaned and moved in and once our furniture was in, we moved into the bedroom. But, aside from that. . . cleaning, repairs, and unpacking will continue. Oh, well. It will all be there tomorrow.

In close, here's a pic of me being super happy after closing in our very own pool!

Check out more pic's at flickr.

Metalsmithing Class #4: So Close to Being Done!

OK, so lots of people, not enough tools, and a few snafus later and I'm not quite done with my ring yet. I really thought that myself and two or three other people were going to be able to finish them off last week, but it just didn't happen. Oh, well!

I finished getting the back of the ring face (which, coincidentally looks more like a watch face with that big ole spitball that I had to add) nice and shiny since this was the last opportunity I'd have to get at it without anything else in the way. Then, I took the band that I made in our very first class and sawed it open at the solder joint. Thank you to everyone who warned me to wear my safety glasses while sawing. A couple of people in class got a little giggle out of me, but I'd rather that than lose an eye! I did break the blade, by the way. It didn't snap back and get me, though! Oh, and I did saw into my thumb, just a little bit, too (it didn't even bleed). Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

It was after this part that I got into a little bit of trouble (well, more trouble). I was supposed to saw about a half an inch long up the center of either side so that it was a pretty V shape where it attached to the ring face. Well, for some reason when I sawed, I veered to the right and thus made one side of my V quite a bit skinnier on one side than the other. I saw that it didn't look good, but didn't truly realize my mistake until a couple of steps later.

I wrapped the wire around a ring mandrel and shaped it to my size, taking into account that the ring face would actually be a portion of it. Well, when I went to file down the ends to get a nice flush surface in order to solder it, is when I really realized the sawing mess I made. Once I started to file, one side of the V bent back. Oops. Susan said, "No problem. You'll just attach it with a V shape on one side and the other side will be soldered in the space in between." Cool, again, I'll be making a mistake into something unique and neat looking. So, I went back to filing and trying to get my nice flush surface. The same thing happens with the V on the other side of the band. Ggggrrrrrrrrrrr. I show Susan. "Well, it will work, it just won't look as cool." Insert sad face. Here it is after the soldering:

I needed to use a third hand in order keep the band from falling over: after I got through filing it, it was just a little too thin to stay upright on it's own.

Next step will be polishing and making it shine like a mirror. Then, I'll get down to business getting that shell in place. With any luck, I'll be able to finish it this week, but who knows what will happen next! Plus, this week's class is on the 4th of July, so we'll probably be a little bit more raucous than usual. Someone mentioned bringing in sparklers. I wonder if I should bring in a lighter so we don't have to use the torch to light them. . . =)

Metalsmithing Class #3: Ring Halfway Done

That's the black mother of pearl shell I chose (which is what was giving me problems that first night) instead of the cab like everyone else (silly me). You can also see the short (yet very pretty) decorative trim which was the result of the problems from choosing the shell.

In my last class, I did wind up adding a spitball to connect the trim, but now it looks like a watch face. Hmmm. I might file some of the ball away so it's not quite so big. After getting a nice smooth surface on the bottom of the trim, I put everything together: trim around the bezel and soldered the whole thing to the sheet metal. The next step will be to file the sheet metal so that it bevels nicely against everything else, it should be seamless.

In my next class, I'll get to play with a jeweler's saw as I make the band for the ring. Two people who had gotten that far in my last class snapped three blades and one of them sawed into her thumb! Oh boy.

So Many Pursuits, So Little Time. . .

Welcome to Athena's Armoury!! I'm so excited to be starting so many new things right now: this blog, my second Etsy shop, a new flickr account, and I've even signed up for a new metal jewelry class being offered at my local fine art center.

Blogspot
OK, this being a brand new blog, bear with me as I add stuff, play, and make it fun. I'm looking forward to meeting so many interesting people through this venue

Etsy
I already have one Etsy shop: http://beachbumcreations.etsy.com. I opened it almost a year ago and was doing a lot of, well, beachy stuff at that time. I was making hemp jewelry, macramé stuff (like belts, grocery bags, coasters), candles, fan pulls, etc. I hadn't really been including any of my other jewelry pursuits at Beach Bum, but when it started taking over more and more, I decided it was time to do something about it. I was teaching beading and wire wrapping at home parties for a little while, but my obsession with chain maille was pretty much taking over. Thus, the second Etsy shop with a name much more appropriate to chain maille: http://AthenasArmoury.etsy.com.

flickr
http://flickr.com/photos/athenasarmoury/ flickr, too, is a work in progress. I've got some of my chain maille pieces up and have started to join some groups based on metal, jewelry, crafts, and, of course, chain maille and Etsy! I've also added a couple of personal pic's, so you can see me, my wonderful boyfriend, and my best friend who I don't get to see enough of.

Metal Jewelry Class
First of all, I'm one of those dorky people who love learning and taking classes (as long as there's no homework or exams, anyway) and, obviously, I love jewelry. I am so excited about this class! Yes, I get to use power tools when I make my rings for my maille, but I get to work with all kinds of goodies in this class including a torch. I'll be soldering, making woven chains, hinges, boxes, fold forming, granulation, fusing, and mokume gane. Did I mention I was excited?

With so much going on, I hope to continue to posting updates with all kinds of exciting news!