Really scared of silver now!

[Tela]

You guys have no idea how silver shy I am. Especially after that failed piece yesterday. I'm going to do a blog on it, but here is my latest fear. I was fully ready to do this in silver. Then I got too nervous and did it in copper. I'm pledging this here and on the blog later: I will do this again in silver. You may notice that the back of the bail is unwoven. I ran out of wire and thought, well- I'm redoing it in silver, anyway. The whole time I was making it, I kept telling myself that. It was really liberating to not think of mistakes. I really didn't care if I made any. (consequently, I made few) It was copper, what did I care? The exact opposite happens when I pick up silver.

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[las]

Hi, I just read your Blog . I have some silver wire I bought almost 2 years ago in a draw in plastic bags. Every now and then I think OK I am "gonna do It"and I put the bags back. I even did it yesterday. I wanted to make balled head pins.
I am scared of the flame , have no Idea what I am doing. Not sure on the gauge ........You get the idea!

So as far as I am can tell you are doing just fine ......I am sure you will get your groove back.
Beside I need the eye candy
Lee-Ann

[Tela]

Hey, Lee-Ann- don't be afraid of the flame. Go to www.beaducation.com they have some really good videos about torches and torch safety. When you are ready, they have basic flaming videos, too. I believe they are all free. Once you start doing it, it's real easy. Just for balls, all you need is the torch and pliers or tweezers.

I'll be glad when silver comes down. I remember how cheap it was when I started making jewelry. I only used gold fill then. Wish I had stocked up on silver, though.

I managed to finish the piece in silver. I'm going to update the blog with it. It came out alright, I guess. Could have been better. The bail is kinda wonky to me, but it will do.

[wirewrangler]

Hi Tela,
Okay a little story. For me, 'In the beginning', I wanted to work in White Gold or Palladium. Of course, the reality check brought me firmly to silver. It is all 'relative'. You could call this the metal workers "Theory of Relativity"?

My first passion is sculpture. With sculpture, the clay we use is an oil based clay called 'plastalene". You can move the clay around, put more on, take some off and after casting, you can re-use the clay over and over.

Here is my point: with the noble metals, you can always melt them down and start over. Many metalsmiths (I do not consider myself as a metalsmith) melt down their own scrap, and form their own wire and sheet. Even if you do not go to this degree the metal is not really lost! It will come back to you in some way, or maybe, your scrap will come back to me! It's kind of fun thinking about the metal bits traveling into other artists hands!

I hope this helps!
Flame On!
WW

[christine]

WW, Love your story. It is great to think about the metal scraps flying between artisans. Flame On is wonderous!
Thanks for sharing

[Tela]

WW, that was great to read. I never thought about it like that before. It's like owning antiques and wondering where they have been. Too cool

[shiny]

Let me see if I understand this, Tela ... you're completely comfortable working in gold, and in copper, but silver scares you??

Maybe you could think of it as working in gold, only cheaper.

I wish I had those problems.

[Renate]

Shiny, you think Tela has an argentophobia? ;D Great suggestion to cure it with gold!

[Tela]

;D ;D LOL!!!! ;D ;D Good one!

Shiny- I haven't bought gold in eons. I had a little and it is all used up. I don't even think of using it now. Gracious- I'd be a basket case!