Indian Summer

We have had such consistently good weather, we haven't even closed the windows in a couple of weeks. We've had sun, cool nights, and temperate days. Although fall is spreading yellow through the fields and some of the trees are changing, there is still an awful lot of green out there when I look out the office window.

However, our walnut tree - always one of the first to toss in the towel on the summer - is looking pretty sparse, and the violent thuds of walnuts hitting the house on their way to the ground are sounding less frequently. Brian learned something the other day about walnut trees that makes me feel slightly better about my failed (although admittedly meager and erratic) attempts at gardening in the back yard. Apparently the peel that surrounds the nut-shell of walnuts is extremely toxic to many other kinds of plants, so most seeds that fall (Or are planted. By me.) underneath a walnut tree will not grow. Our entire back yard is underneath our walnut tree. But, since it provides us constant entertainment in the form of an abundance of squirrels, I suppose I don't mind its herbicidal ways.

Room Design

Before:

After:

Road Trips, Visits, and Picnics

Well, it has been a busy time for Brian and me. Last Friday we journeyed north to Hayward, WI, so Brian could race Chequamegon. In spite of rain, mud, and long hours in the car, we had an enjoyable time.

Only a few hours after we returned, I drove up to the Eastern Iowa Airport to meet my mom, who had made it in only after many kinds of delays.

She graced us with her presence until Thursday, and in the time she remained, we accomplished many great things - such as planting pansies in the planters on the porch step railing, and painting/redecorating the bathroom (photos pending). I also took her out to meet Steen, where she took this photo of him getting his grain fix.

Finally,I took her back to the airport and she flew away.

The rest of the week was hectic, with a big rush job at work, a gallery opening, old friends in town, etc. But today, Brian and I took some time to cool our jets. First, I spent the morning at the barn with my horse. Then, I came home. Brian and I filled up our bike-baskets with home-made cucumber sandwiches, baguette, and a bottle of port, and rode our single-speed townies to Hickory Hill Park. There, we laid out a blanket, sat down upon it, ate our food, drank our beverage and enjoyed the beautiful late summer/early fall afternoon/evening. When we had exhausted our consumables and started to grow cold, we came home.

With such momentous events behind me, I am now looking forward to a few weeks of staying within a 20 mile radius of Iowa City, and not doing anything particularly interesting.

The Soldering Life

My basement studio has reached a point that I am pretty happy with. I have a basic jewelry-shop set-up down there, lacking only large quantities of precious metals to fashion into whatever I desire. I also found a pair of lightly used speakers for a very good price,


and when they arrived Brian discovered they slide perfectly onto the ends of the brackets that hold up my heating-unit concealing curtain. So, now I can sit down there, happily sanding or polishing away, whilst I listen to my current audiobook*


or my favorite radio station.

Of course, jewelry making, like many other very fun things, requires chemicals and substances that aren't necessarily safe. In the interests of keeping my studio as non-hazardous as possible, I have taken to using things like self-fluxing and pickling solder (to avoid the presence of a pickle pot), and a tiny little propane-fueled torch.

Before attempting to set up this studio, I didn't know such a thing as self-fluxing and pickling solder existed. Naturally, when I found it on the Rio Grande website, I was quite excited. It came in a tube instead of a roll, and my first experiment involving this high-tech substance failed miserably. Luckily, I had anticipated this. One's first projects with new tools fail miserably almost across the board. So, I was not discouraged, and immediately thereafter successfully soldered three bracelets and a necklace in row - which is to say they are completed pieces today. Then I took a jewelry-making break.

In the last weeks, however, I returned to the studio and I began another bracelet. As before, I cut out the pieces, filed them, sanded them, etc. Then I went to solder them together. Since I don't have any ventilation in my basement, processes that produce toxic fumes (soldering and polishing with compounds) must be done outside at the picnic table in our back yard. This isn't ideal, particularly at times of the year when our back yard is wet and mosquito-infested. Although I embarked on my most recent project without the faintest doubt in my soldering abilities, the process once again failed miserably. The solder wouldn't flow or take. The two pieces of my bracelet would fuse only in a very irritatingly imperfect manner. After several attempts, varying slightly in technique, I gave up.

So why wouldn't the solder work all of a sudden? Was I distracted because of the horde of mosquitoes trying to feast on my flesh while I worked? Was I out of practice? Had I applied the wrong amount of solder? I searched all my jewelry-making knowledge for an explanation, and came up with nothing that could help me. Then, I compared this time's problems to the problems I'd had the first time I tried to solder at home, and found them exactly the same. I immediately isolated the key similarity between the failed projects. My first attempt at soldering involved brass and copper. The middle four involved silver. The most recent, brass and copper.

Thinking I was on to something, I looked at the tube of hi-tech solder. It did indeed say "silver solder" - but when I was learning about jewelry-making I had often used the old fashioned kind of silver solder on brass and copper. Still, the more I thought about the problem, the more my failure seemed due to the solder. I grew indignant. Shouldn't they put things like this in the prodect description?

I went back to the Rio Grande website and found the product. I read the description. It said, "Perfect for all non-ferrous metals except aluminum."

I reflected briefly. Then, I clicked the "similar products" link. This immediately introduced me to another self-fluxing and pickling soldering compound, this one "for copper and brass." I added it to my shopping cart.


*I read Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell last year, and liked it so much it seemed only logical the revisit it in audiobook form.

Side-tracked

Although I will admit I have rather been neglecting this blog, I've been doing a reasonably good job with my other one...

The Wet and the Falling

The seasons are changing here in Iowa City. As much as some aspects of the winter aren't all that pleasant here, I do love this time of year. The walnut tree in our back yard is already shedding leaves and nuts - much to the peril of our heads but the delight of the squirrels. Today it looks like we are going to enjoy a chill drizzle for all our daylight hours. Although I would have happily gotten up this morning and gone off to ride my horse if the conditions weren't so exceedingly miserable, part of me is not upset at the prospect of staying all cozy and warm indoors until I have to go to work after lunch.