Silversmithing, a Failed Attempt at Italian, and a Promising Future

Yesterday afternoon/night I had my second Jewelry Making class. I was very EARLY this time! Not that it will make up for the big tardy of last week, but I'm sort of paranoid about having a relapse into a late funk. I don't think I explained how cool this class is yet, so here's what I have to say. It is NOTHING like I expected. I signed up for it thinking I'd be an expert at stringing beads and maybe bending some wires or putting clasps on necklaces.

However, after two class periods, I'm essentially a silversmith. That's right. I'm now practically an expert with the soldering iron! . . . I'm lying. I'm horrible at it. My stupid solder pieces always fly off when I start torching with the blow torch thing. I either use too much or too little solder. And I burned my arm. But I have already improved so much! Here's my ring, in progress.

After the first class period

In the middle of the second class period

After what you see in the second picture, I spent literally two hours filing the "bezel" so that the inside of the ring is round. Very tedious work resulting in very sore arms and hands. Next week I'll be doing more filing, sanding, polishing, and then I will get to set the stone! This is a legit ring, people. Nothing like I ever would have thought I'd be making. I have a whole new respect for silversmiths!

Last night we also got to see pictures of the earring project that people from other classes have done. For the earrings, we can basically do whatever we want. Some of the pictures are amazing. I hope mine turn out well! Although at the moment I have no clue what sort of earrings I want to make.

Today, I had Italian again. I'm terrible at Italian. Mostly, I didn't study. Like at all. Our homework for today was to study what we had learned in class, so naturally, I didn't look at it. I hate homework that doesn't call for anything written! I figured I didn't really need to look over my notes because I didn't need them to write anything or do a worksheet, and there wasn't a quiz today. But the teacher went around and asked us questions, in Italian, which we had to answer, in Italian. And there was me, fumbling through my notes like a bad student, wishing I had taken the (in my opinion) vague assignment more seriously. Lesson learned. And Thursday's homework? Hallelujah. A worksheet, AND book work. This I can do.

One more topic. Today, I polished off my final piece of chocolate from the chocolate festival. Then I checked my calendar, where I was reassured that tomorrow, Wednesday, also my day off, is the start of ROUND TWO of this thing. Life is good. Beautiful, you might say.

So I may not be so great at Italian, but I do have my priorities in order.

Umm. . . Yeah. . . Priorities. . .