My wonderful, indispensible, reliable, cheerful, friendly, unflappable workshop technician, Fiona, is leaving on Thursday. She's found a better-paid job with more promotional prospects and she'll be superb. The students will all miss her and they arranged a lunch for her today, which was great fun.
Fortunately, we have someone else in mind for the job but unfortunately, we have no idea of when they will start (I can't even give gender details as we haven't interviewed yet), so we are running without technical support for a few weeks at least.
On the way to work this morning, I found a nut in the gutter, a somewhat unusual nut in that it was very narrow. It became my first solitaire:
Well, my first iron solitaire. I've made plenty of gold and diamond ones in the past.
I also managed to finish something I started in Istanbul:
The file was bent and the nail attached as part of a demonstration in Hrac's workshop when I was there. The rest of it was finished today, with one of the quartzes from the stone-dealer in the Grand Bazaar and an antique blue-glass bead against the evil eye which Ayse gave me.
I also managed to start another project which has been in my mind for a while, the "Oracle" bangle:
This was largely made from bits and pieces I had found over the weekend on a gap-site in glasgow. The quartz sphere is one of the ones I bought in Istanbul.
Finally, I received an email today from an online associate, an artist whom I really admire, Randy Reiger of NuPenny toys fame. His last NuPenny installation is to be held in Wichita on Friday and he invites anyone who happens to be in the area to visit. I would love to.
