The Edge

As in, I may be about to go over....
At the end of August, I got into a "back to school" mood. There were so many classes that I wanted to sign up for that I had to create a spreadsheet to list them out, organized by how much they were and when they were scheduled. It was the only way to manage the space in my head between reality and dreaming. In the end, I signed up for a one-night class on speaking well at the Guthrie Theater, a one-day writing workshop at The Loft and a quick class at a local bead store on soldering collage pendants. (To prove I have some restraint, my spreadsheet documents the classes that I did not sign up including a print making class at MCAD, a class in using PhotoShop Elements at the VoTech and a fall session in Taiko drumming. And yes, I'm serious about the drumming.)
At some point I'll write up the voice and writing classes. Interestingly, they both used an "everyone speak out loud at the same time, saying different things" technique. It seems it may be a trend.
Last night was the collage pendant class. I had had the thought of framing some Japanese paper in glass as a pendant, so I was pleased to find a low-key class where I could learn the soldering part. As slight as the class originally seemed, the new craft has clearly awakened a monster in me. A monster who loves to buy new tools and supplies, to learn how to master a new technique and above all, to dream about all the wonderful things it (the monster) can make, and who distracts me from what I really should be doing. Actually it's more like a Muppet monster than a scary one. Orange fur with big feet and pointy ears.
In about an hour, we had learned how to enclose a small collage inbetween two pieces of glass, tape it all up with copper tape, solder the tape and add a jump ring. Pretty simple, though as our teacher warned, our first efforts were pretty messy. By the time I went to sleep last night, I had thought about a better way to use the tape (which is the key to a neater piece), how to attach the ring so it was actually centered and perpendicular to the pendant, and researched the best supplies on the web.

Front and back of my pendants

Our teacher recommended a book by Sally Jean Alexander called "Pretty Little Things" (it's Sally's lovely charm that is featured at the top of this post). Hoping that there might be some tips on how to improve my soldering technique, I did pick up her book this morning. The scary news? The news that made my Muppet monster dance with impatience and delight? You can solder ANYTHING. Paper, glass, stones, wire spirals, glittered feathers...there's really no limit. Jewelry, crowns, lamps, sculpture, ornaments--it's all possible with just a few tools that can be picked up anywhere.
I had thought I might buy a soldering iron today, some copper tape and glass and work on a few projects, but now I can see that the only way to keep the orange monster under control (for the time being) is not to buy it any new toys. Or maybe I'll promise the monster the toys for Christmas. Isn't it more fun to get a soldering iron than another sweater anyway?