One teeny step closer...

... to becoming a silver smith.  I realise it's unlikely I'll become the sort of silversmith I'd like to be.  I want to make jewellery using precious stones and metals Georg Jensen style but it takes years of training. Not that I'll let that stop me.  If I do what I can when I can, go to collage classes and learn from books and the internet then one day I may get a lucky break and realise the dream.  But until then I'll very slowly keep chipping away at it. I may never get there but at least I'll have tried. I'm hoping that I'll be able to go on a summer residential course at Central St Martins College when the boys are older. I was thinking it would be a great thing to do for my 40th but Mini cuckoo has flown into the coop and he'd only be six years old then.

A few years ago I decided to change my attitude towards learning new skills, I used to feel I wouldn't be able to learn half the stuff I wanted to learn.  Now I feel that I can learn anything given the opportunity and provided I try extraordinarily hard. I've wanted to learn how to make jewellery for a long time.  The sort that involved cutting up sheets of metal, banging it with a hammer and soldering the bits together, so last year I went to evening classes and I made the ring you see above, not quite the fine jewellery I aspire to but a start at least.  I can hardly believe that I made it.  It wasn't even that hard,  which was a huge surprise.  I can't wear it now as my fingers are a bit chubbier having had Mini Cuckoo recently, but when I did wear it I got plenty of compliments, which delighted me.  I can't tell you how amazing it feels to have made a piece of silver jewelry that I can wear and have people saying nice things about it.  I am so proud of myself, not just for making a ring but for striving to fulfil a dream regardless of how far fetched it seems.

It's such a shame but the place that ran the jewellery course has shut down now.  The nearest place to run a course is over half an hour away and the sessions start at 6.30pm.  I wouldn't be able to go as Mr Cuckoo gets home after 6pm and the Cuckoo boys bath and bedtime needs doing, the baby needs feeding...so until I find a course at a convenient time I'm a bit stuffed.  I've reached the point where I'd need to invest in some tools and a polisher if I were to continue at home (my dremmel is a little limited), I'd also need a place to work, out of the way of little roaming fingers.  So for now I'll continue to scribble down ideas and collect inspiring pictures that may one day become something sparkly and shiny.

In the spirit of learning new skills, I have decided this year is the year I'll learn to knit.  A friend of mine has subscribed to a knitting magazine which teaches the skills over the course of a year.  I signed up too and I'll show you all the bits when it arrives.

xxx

ps.  The Big Cuckoos are being little monsters today.  They've chucked ALL the lego around in the play room.  Took them minutes to do whilst I tweaked this post and yet it'll take ages to sort out.  No doubt while I'm tidying up they'll ransack another room.  I'm quite tired today and I just needed a little grizzel.  There, grizzel over.  Feel better now.