Sta.sh
So what's going on with me?
A few things. First, I'm moving in July! Yay! Not far form where I am currently, but in a lovely duplex with an amazing Landlord...
MUCH better than the huge, nasty complex I live in and I KNOW I won't have noisy neighbors who don't give a crap about me!Artwise, I'm working on a few pieces...exciting, no?
Here's a quick list!
- best-friend's commission that's proceeding nicely.
- started sketching out adult ponies. I may do them as watercolors or a mix of acrylic, ink and watercolor...
Not sure yet!- working on the last 3 of my Sailormoon pixel art series: Sailorneptune & Uranus, Sailorsaturn and my Sailorsolaris.
- working on a commissioned jewelry piece, a necklace and earring due. I also have 3 repairs/adjustments to do for the same client.
- I have a wack-load of jewelry that I am remaking! Some of my earlier pieces reflect my lack of experience and are just not as sound as I make them now and so I am basically repairing their structures. For the most part, they will still look the same, they'll just be MUCH stronger and more durable!
- I'm learning how to make cabochons! My first one's almost done...
So that's the good news.
The bad news is that the little jewelry store I was working at was caught in a HUGE fire. We suffered the least damage because we were able to recover much of our inventory (including the artisan pieces made by me and other local artists), but the building is currently completely unusable...
The cordonnerie next door was completely destroyed as were the 4 apartments upstairs. What's sad is the cordonnerie has been there for 40 years! The community is being awesome and helping them out with donations.
The fire started in the restaurant next to us. The cook was cooking as usual, but something sparked off into the cooking flute and it just skyrocketed up and spread like wildfire...
A neighbor saw the flames shooting out the top and she was the one who called 911. The poor cook was trying to extinguish it and couldn't. The owner of the cordonnerie noticed the smoke and I swear he's a hero because had he not done what he did, I think the whole building would have burnt to the ground. As someone who works with leather and shoe repair and the like, his shop was full of solvents and glues and things that go boom. They had about 10 minutes to get out and he took that time to toss out all the explosives and burnables. He wasn't able to save any of his customers' stuff though and all his leather and cloth went up in flames. I heard that they were at least able to salvage most of his machinery...pieces that are about 150 years old! I saw the pictures of the front of his shop and I burst into tears.We basically can't do anything until they rebuild the interior of the building. My poor bosses are stuck having to honor the lease even though the space is unusable so they can't even just pick up and set up elsewhere...they can't afford to hold up two locations...
Thankfully, no one was hurt and they even found a cat safe under a dresser. She needed to go to the vet for shock and smoke inhalations, but she's alive after being in a burning building for 4 hours+!
I've told my bosses that I'll be there for them if they need me. They are wonderful people and so deserve to succeed with their business!
This changes some things for me too seeing as I was going to be registering for some fundamental metalsmithing courses that start end of April. I will have to wait until the fall now so it sets back my schedule for reopening Gifted Designs by about half a year...
Patience is a virtue so they say and I'll get to it eventually! 
