the creative one shall rise again

the lovely people at the st. louis craft alliance have been so kind as to let me pay them to take their metalworking course for six weeks. so far I've made a copper ring that no one should ever wear (it's big, unruly, and has a few edges that might poke or get caught in things, but it was a feat in soldering and hammering, if I do say so myself!), and these:

UPDATE on 16 march: behold the better picture!

the first picture I put up was crap; my digital point-and-shoot did them no justice.

anyway, they're sterling silver earrings - about an inch tall in real life - filed, sanded, and soldered to perfection. I had quite a bit of help on them from my instructor, simply because I almost burnt my hand off with the soldering torch in last week's class. but I think that once I get used to the finer points of adjusting the gas-to-oxygen ratio, and remember that I'm pretty ambidextrous, I'll be an earring-making fool once again!

taking this class comes from the realization that I'd had a rough beginning of the year and needed an outlet. and I've also wanted to take a jewelry/metals class of some kind for quite some time, so I feel like spending my monday nights sawing and filing and playing with fire is entirely healthier than spending them sitting and drinking and playing with social fire at some south city bar.

I've been a pretty frustrated person in the last few months, but I feel like that is turning around. having a creative outlet helps... finally signing a lease and having a move-out date helps... being busy at washu helps, though I wouldn't want to repeat last week for a while... improving my communication with my friends and nick helps... and while I, as a proud dog lover and cat allergy sufferer, hate to admit it, taking care of fissell's cat helps. these are all things that make me feel like I'm finding my way back to a balance, which is what I think I've been missing for a while.