I had intended to update my blog on Sunday evening after I returned from my Cold Enamelling workshop at the Bead Shop Scotland in Edinburgh. For a number of reasons, good and bad, that never happened.
First of all, last Thurday I received an e-mail inviting me to a job interview on Tuesday afternoon. I was very happy about that as it's a job that I really like the sound of and the salary would definitely cover the mortgage. :o) The downside was that I had to create a PowerPoint presentation and submit it by lunch time on Monday. Now I don't have any issues with creating PowerPoint presentations. I've done a few in my time. My concern was due to a combination of the subject of the presentation and the allotted time for presenting it - 5 minutes. Ordinarily I'd probably say that a 5 minute presentation was a good thing. On this occasion, when I started looking into it properly I thought "I have far too much to say on the subject to fit it all into 5 miutes and make a decent job of it." Panic!
So, on Friday, I cleared the decks, cleared my mind (or at least tried to) and knuckled down. I ended up with 9 slides in total - 3 intro & outro slides and 6 that I needed to talk over. A lot of reviewing and rehearsing went on during Friday and Saturday and I was starting to feel more confident.
On Sunday I had my Cold Enamelling workshop in Edinburgh. I don't know what I thought that was going to involve. Whatever I did think was wrong! When I walked into the room I saw tools and things reminiscent of my silversmithing workshop. This wasn't a good start. The lady running the workshop was the same one who ran the aforementioned silversmithing workshop..... so..... it all started off the same way - with a little rectangular piece of sterling silver sheet. I was a bit more clever this time though. Last time I spent almost the whole workshop cutting out, filing and texturing my chosen shapes. This time I went for the simplest option, triangles! In the end they were slightly trickier than anticitpated, purely because I seem to be incapable of sawing in a straight line so there was a lot of filing and finishing. I hadn't decided whether to use a transparent or opaque enamel so I decided not to texture the pieces as texture can't be seen through opaque enamel.
I was open to suggestion regarding colours and by the time I was ready to get to work on colour someone had mixed a lovely transparent blue colour so I decided to use that as my base colour. I then chose an opaque black to use to make a pattern. My hand isn't the steadiest but I was quite pleased with the result:
Yes, I know, they're quite plain and totally unadventurous shape-wise.... BUT.. I was there to learn how to use enamel, not spend the whole class sawing, filing and shaping silver. I haven't decided exactly what I will use these pieces for but they definitely have potential.
Can you believe I was the first in the class to finish? Are you impressed? I was! So I carefully put my not-yet-set creations in a margarine tub (they take 24 hours to set properly so no touching allowed) and headed to the car. As I was pulling out of the parking area a pedestrian walking past started frantically pointing at something towards the back of my car. I opened the door and looked where he was pointing and saw ... one half deflated tyre. NO!
I drew round the corner and pulled in at a bus stop. Fortunately the pedestrian reached the bus stop at the same time ... and ... he offered to change the wheel for me. Hallellujah! I would have no idea where to start. Thankffully he knew how to take off a wheel with a locking wheel nut and knew that the car had side skirts and that he would have to remove a section of the side skirt to attach the jack. What an absolute star! I don't know who he was but that young man was my saviour.
On Monday morning I gave my presentation a final review, bit the bullet and sent it off. Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning were spent rehearsing the words to accompany the slides. Fortunately The Boy had found a couple of dinner recipes that he liked the look of and was planning on cooking dinner on both Monday (chicken pie) and Tuesday (a leek lasagne with all sorts of interesting tastes in it) so I was able to concentrate.
Tuesday afternoon - interview. I arrived way too early as I had no idea how close I'd be able to park. I was so nervous at the start that I could hardly speak but I got through the presentation and statyed within time. Phew! I think I made a reasonable job of answering most of the questions. I can only wait now to see if I answered well enough to be offered a job. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday I had to take the car to have the tyre fixed first thing, then a hair cut. Ideally I would have preferred to do the hair cut thing before the interview but I didn't have time. According to The Boy my hair had exploded and I needed a hair cut. So it's fixed. I also managed to list on Folksy 2 new pieces of jewellery I made last week to match my copper, blue and peach tiara:
After I made them I realised I forgot to make a matching neclace. Doh! That will be the next item on my creative agenda.
Today The Boy and I spent a good bit of the day trying to clear out the box room and my ex-office to try and give ourselves some space. My blue recycling bin and my neighbour's one are now full. There are bin bags at the back door waiting for space in a wheely bin. The living room floor is covered in piles of DVDs that are being sorted through. I suspect eBay will become acquainted with a few of them soon. There are other piles for me to sort into 'bin', 'freecycle', 'eBay', 'charity shop' and 'keep' piles. So more work to do still.
Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend awaits. It's been a busy but productive week. It has confirmed to me also that my brain cells are still alive and kicking inside my cranium. That's a relief. What on Earth will next week bring?
First of all, last Thurday I received an e-mail inviting me to a job interview on Tuesday afternoon. I was very happy about that as it's a job that I really like the sound of and the salary would definitely cover the mortgage. :o) The downside was that I had to create a PowerPoint presentation and submit it by lunch time on Monday. Now I don't have any issues with creating PowerPoint presentations. I've done a few in my time. My concern was due to a combination of the subject of the presentation and the allotted time for presenting it - 5 minutes. Ordinarily I'd probably say that a 5 minute presentation was a good thing. On this occasion, when I started looking into it properly I thought "I have far too much to say on the subject to fit it all into 5 miutes and make a decent job of it." Panic!
So, on Friday, I cleared the decks, cleared my mind (or at least tried to) and knuckled down. I ended up with 9 slides in total - 3 intro & outro slides and 6 that I needed to talk over. A lot of reviewing and rehearsing went on during Friday and Saturday and I was starting to feel more confident.
On Sunday I had my Cold Enamelling workshop in Edinburgh. I don't know what I thought that was going to involve. Whatever I did think was wrong! When I walked into the room I saw tools and things reminiscent of my silversmithing workshop. This wasn't a good start. The lady running the workshop was the same one who ran the aforementioned silversmithing workshop..... so..... it all started off the same way - with a little rectangular piece of sterling silver sheet. I was a bit more clever this time though. Last time I spent almost the whole workshop cutting out, filing and texturing my chosen shapes. This time I went for the simplest option, triangles! In the end they were slightly trickier than anticitpated, purely because I seem to be incapable of sawing in a straight line so there was a lot of filing and finishing. I hadn't decided whether to use a transparent or opaque enamel so I decided not to texture the pieces as texture can't be seen through opaque enamel.
I was open to suggestion regarding colours and by the time I was ready to get to work on colour someone had mixed a lovely transparent blue colour so I decided to use that as my base colour. I then chose an opaque black to use to make a pattern. My hand isn't the steadiest but I was quite pleased with the result:
Yes, I know, they're quite plain and totally unadventurous shape-wise.... BUT.. I was there to learn how to use enamel, not spend the whole class sawing, filing and shaping silver. I haven't decided exactly what I will use these pieces for but they definitely have potential.
Can you believe I was the first in the class to finish? Are you impressed? I was! So I carefully put my not-yet-set creations in a margarine tub (they take 24 hours to set properly so no touching allowed) and headed to the car. As I was pulling out of the parking area a pedestrian walking past started frantically pointing at something towards the back of my car. I opened the door and looked where he was pointing and saw ... one half deflated tyre. NO!
I drew round the corner and pulled in at a bus stop. Fortunately the pedestrian reached the bus stop at the same time ... and ... he offered to change the wheel for me. Hallellujah! I would have no idea where to start. Thankffully he knew how to take off a wheel with a locking wheel nut and knew that the car had side skirts and that he would have to remove a section of the side skirt to attach the jack. What an absolute star! I don't know who he was but that young man was my saviour.
On Monday morning I gave my presentation a final review, bit the bullet and sent it off. Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning were spent rehearsing the words to accompany the slides. Fortunately The Boy had found a couple of dinner recipes that he liked the look of and was planning on cooking dinner on both Monday (chicken pie) and Tuesday (a leek lasagne with all sorts of interesting tastes in it) so I was able to concentrate.
Tuesday afternoon - interview. I arrived way too early as I had no idea how close I'd be able to park. I was so nervous at the start that I could hardly speak but I got through the presentation and statyed within time. Phew! I think I made a reasonable job of answering most of the questions. I can only wait now to see if I answered well enough to be offered a job. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday I had to take the car to have the tyre fixed first thing, then a hair cut. Ideally I would have preferred to do the hair cut thing before the interview but I didn't have time. According to The Boy my hair had exploded and I needed a hair cut. So it's fixed. I also managed to list on Folksy 2 new pieces of jewellery I made last week to match my copper, blue and peach tiara:
Today The Boy and I spent a good bit of the day trying to clear out the box room and my ex-office to try and give ourselves some space. My blue recycling bin and my neighbour's one are now full. There are bin bags at the back door waiting for space in a wheely bin. The living room floor is covered in piles of DVDs that are being sorted through. I suspect eBay will become acquainted with a few of them soon. There are other piles for me to sort into 'bin', 'freecycle', 'eBay', 'charity shop' and 'keep' piles. So more work to do still.
Tomorrow is Friday and the weekend awaits. It's been a busy but productive week. It has confirmed to me also that my brain cells are still alive and kicking inside my cranium. That's a relief. What on Earth will next week bring?
I like your enamelled pieces...can see at least two pairs of earrings or maybe a dangly necklace! Your week has certainly been more frantic than mine. I've had an invalid labrador who refuses to be an invalid and a frantic daily search for daylight for photos and that's been it...I'd hate to go back to the days when I had to do presentations etc....Good luck with that!
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