After the long hard winter we have all just endured the Lapidary workshop was just too cold to be worked in, even the wood burning stove couldn’t cope, so it’s lain dormant for a quite a number of months.
So yesterday we spent much of the day cleaning up out there, sorting out rocks, while all the time resisting the temptation to switch the machines on.
Of course the machines all had to be cleaned down, checked over and lubricated, with that done, it wasn’t long before Shalini fired the cab machine up and gave herself a manicure again.
Now only the saw remains to be cleaned up, but there is no rush as we have plenty of slabs to be worked on.
She was working on some larger Labradorite tumble stones that didn’t quite work out in the tumbler, so far they are cleaning up nicely so lets see how it goes.
I found a small piece of Lapis and tried my hand at a bit of carving, didn’t really know what I was aiming to achieve at the start and to be honest I don’t really know what I have ended up with, maybe a “Gollum’s foot” would be a good description, but I will take it through all the stages and get it polished as it’s all good practice.
On a different note, we had a good show at the Stamford Arts Centre recently, Shalini managed sell all of the stalls so there was a wide variety of crafts on display and, considering there wasn’t a massive publicity push for this show, there were a lot of visitors. The wire tree sculptures got their first official airing to the public as well and they were well received with some nice comments.
I sat at my stall for a while making a tree and numerous people stood there watching what I was doing and asking questions, so I have learnt that doing a live demo does increase people interest in your wares.
The biggest seller on the lapidary stall seems to be the tumble stones, kids and adults seem to love them and it’s great to hear the kids telling me all about their crystal collections, who knows, maybe Lapidary will come alive again in the UK in future generations, that would be cool.
On the tree side of things I have two rolls of brass wire for another tree soon so am looking forward to getting into that one.
Following on from that one will be a bare iron wire tree, maybe 4 foot tall I hope to go outside in the garden, why bare iron? Well the idea is that it will rust and give the tree a natural colour over time.
On the horizon, we will be attending the Stamford Military Tattoo on the 19th June, the organisers have asked the Stamford Artisans Guild to set up a crafters area so we are busy on that and we have our next show at the Stamford Arts Centre on 25th July, so looking forward to that.
Anyway all for now, got to and sort out some more rough to go on the shop.
All the best
Dave