My workshop

I think it's time I show you my workshop -the place I create my jewelry. Now, since I do the "real" stuff and not only assemble pre-made parts into pretty pieces, but actually saw, file, solder, etch, polish etc, it's a noisy and dirty business. In other words: not a thing to do at the dining table in my Nørrebro-flat. Luckily, I got the permission to occupy a corner of the boiler room in the basement of my building. It might not be charming, but it holds the 3 essentials: warmth, running water and electricity. A flask of gas hidden under the table (inherited from my father and horribly molested with a jigsaw to fit my needs) provides the fire and I’m dancing –well… not entirely literally. The room has been painted in a cheerful yellow, which is nice, given the limited amount of light. It’s my own little piece of heaven.

I have collected quite a lot of tools by now, neatly stored in the drawers, and absolutely necessary in order to shape the metal how I want it. Quite often I have to invent ways to achieve the specific shape I am looking for, and equally often the finished item ends up looking somewhat different from the original drawing, as you can see in this example, featuring two of my favorite brooches. Yes, the smiling face (which you can by here)was initially intended to be a pendant!

My next purchase will be a tumbler, which both polishes and hardens the finished jewelry. This is especially necessary when creating earrings like these airy silver-wire ones, which have been shaped out of 1,2 mm wide wire. This time I hardened them in the oven, but I feel quite bad for using that much CO2 (they have to stay in there at maximum temperature for one whole hour). So: If I get my way, I’ll have a tumbler next month and a lot more wire-earrings coming up, like the ones I drew yesterday at the never-ending parent meeting in the kinder garden. Can’t wait!