Living the Family Motto and My Hollow Beads

I started on project number five, learning how to make hollow silver beads, last week, and planned on finishing up the project quickly so I could start working on creating a bracelet with a set stone. Finishing up should have been fairly easy, as I had already completed all the forming, soldering and filing, and just had to polish the beads. Polishing is performed on a rotary polisher which runs at around 3300 RPM, and beads tend to be small and difficult to hold onto with just your fingers, so when polishing I was taught to thread the bead onto a stiff wire (in this case a straightened out part of a paper clip) and carefully keep the bead up against the polishing wheel. I was nearly done with the first bead, and had just glanced up for a second when the bead popped off of the wire and shot off into the corner of the workshop!

I saw the bead as it flew thru the air, and managed to quickly locate the bead behind a box of rocks. I considered myself quite lucky, as my grandparents workshop is full of interesting rocks, tools, and other nic-nacs which provide lots of little nooks and crannies for little beads to hide. My grandmother chuckled, and reminded me to always put a little bend in the ends of the wire to prevent the bead from flying off. I did as I was told and quickly finished polishing up the bead. I started working on the second one, and found myself having to switch the direction of the bead around on the wire to remove some of the touch firescale. I guess at some point in the process I failed to remember to kink the wire, and sure enough, right as I was finishing up the bead, off it sailed into the distance. This one I had no idea where it went, and try as I might, I was unable to find it.

Of course my grandmother thought this was quite amusing, and stated that I was sure living up to my grandfather's famously sarcastic family motto; "Never learn from your experience, its more fun to make the same mistakes twice!" I guess I know what he means now!

Anyway, I ended up making a second bead to replace the lost one, and found that I was quite a bit faster making this bead then I had been the last time I tried. I mounted the beads onto sterling wire, and hung a nice turquoise bead (to match the ring from last week) on a decorative end post below the hollow bead to create a nice pair of dangle ear rings.

Sterling silver hollow beads with hand cut turquoise tube beads

Its been one of those weird weeks, where it is really long, but at the same time the days are flying by. I haven't managed to get much done at work as I have been in so many meetings and dealing with little fires that seem to keep popping up. I really am ready for the weekend!