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Melanie Fletcher

~ Mutterings of a Tired Mind

Melanie Fletcher

Category Archives: Arts and Crafts

Rabbit Rabb—Eh, You Know the Drill

02 Friday Jun 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Personal, Jewelry, Small Business

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June has started with me getting all of the personal and business finances organized and up to date, all bill paperwork and receipts filed, and I even have the projected taxes calculated and ready to go on 6/15/23 and a reminder set up in Outlook. Because I know, I know, that something will happen that will completely blow any thought of that straight out of my mind and I’ll be sitting here at 11:59 PM on the fifteenth thinking, “…wasn’t there something I was supposed to do today?”

Computerized reminders are a godsend, I swear.

In the meantime I’ve got a new custom pendant order on its way and I also got word that my next quilting project is in the mail. I’m doing a t-shirt quilt for a friend’s daughter and she wants a stained glass effect with different sized panels so I’m going to take a look at the shirts when they arrive and see how best I can fit them all together. This should be fun.

A Productive End to May

31 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Jewelry, Personal, Writing

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Seeing as I had a hell of a time getting to sleep last night I had a remarkably productive day (I did kinda think I was going to collapse into a coma around 5 but I powered through it). Got another Nicola book formatted and off to Smashwords and Google Play, worked on another episode for Kindle Vella, did my blog posts, updated the financial records for the month, got the bezel soldered for a pendant I’m making (I know I’m too tired to do any more work on it now—the setting will involve eensy pure silver balls and I need to be fully awake for that) and now I’m gonna go do my time on the treadmill, tra la!

I’m also looking forward to tomorrow because the On the Hook cod and chips truck will be in Plano and I can go pick up some excellent fish and chips for dinner. Hey, sometimes it’s the little things.

Back to Work

30 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Cats, Jewelry, Personal

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I’ll take Sunday off, I promise.

But I got a lot done today for Nicola, and then I went into the garage and finished a gorgeous little silver decoration from an antique shot plate. It looks like a little Victorian doodad and I’m going to use it with a Petoskey stone cabochon for a pendant. This is going to look glorious when it’s done, very stylish and elegant. Can’t wait to hammer out and finish some of the smaller decorations and start using them in my scrollwork earrings.

Speaking of which, I hit Daiso today for some kitchen things and picked up a little tray that will be perfect for holding my plasticine while I put together those finickity little earrings. I didn’t get started on the amber earrings yet and it’s a little late to do it now, but I’m going to solder together all the bezel cups I need for that tomorrow, then try out the plasticine/investment soldering method. Wish me luck.

Also, I have a large orange cat currently sprawled next to me who really, really wants a chunk from the pork chops that are cooking for dinner. I keep trying to explain to Jeremy that there’s no way he could take down a pig in the wild, but he doesn’t care—he loves him some pork. Weird cat.

So Did I Actually Relax Today?

29 Monday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Books, Jewelry, Personal

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Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Have you met me?

I did wake up late because I felt like having a lie-in, but after breakfast I got my proof of Random Realities, decided it looked spectacular and went upstairs to put it with my other proof copies in my office, and thought, “Hmm. This room is really dusty. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a good cleaning and vacuum the carpet. Ooh, and I can reorganize the electronics rack at the same time and store all of my print books that I’ll be selling up here.”

So instead of relaxing, watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and generally recharging the way I wanted to, I was climbing on a freaking stepladder to dust and reposition pictures on my office wall and hanging the standing thread spool rack over my sewing machine. Because I am an idiot who does not know when to take a break.

Oh, but it gets even better. When I was putting stuff away in my closet I noticed the non-functional Brother label printer and decided to pull it apart and clean off the leaked battery acid that was fouling the battery terminals because, well, tomorrow I was going to start being a proper small business owner and being able to label my newer files in my filing cabinet would be a goodness (see: I am an idiot).

In the process I managed to detach the wire leading from the terminals to the guts of the machine, so I asked the Brit to solder it back on. He wound up having to replace the entire wire, but even with fresh batteries it wouldn’t turn back on (no big deal—it was a freebie that came with his Brother printer). I put it in the recycling pile and ordered a new one because I’m OCD and it’s a tax write-off since I’ll be using it in my office.

Then I sent off two invoices for custom projects, did laundry, vacuumed the downstairs, fed the cats, and made to-do lists for Belaurient Arts, Belaurient Press, and the pending business stuff in general. It’s 9:37 PM and I haven’t had dinner yet. I clearly need a minder.

I Do Love a Productive Sunday

28 Sunday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Jewelry

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Tags

Jewelry, jewelry designer, sterling silver, sterling silver jewelry

Woke up and got a bunch of Nicola work done and dusted, had coffee with T and hit Daiso for some kitchen stuff I needed, then made dinner, got my treadmill time in, and now I can actually relax for a change before heading off to bed. Luxury.

And I have made an executive decision. I am taking tomorrow off from the writing business. I still have more work to do but it’ll be there on Tuesday. Tomorrow I am taking my investment and my plasticine into the garage and I’m gonna make a set of earrings that I’ve wanted to do with some gorgeous 6mm amber cabochons and two flower-shaped shots that I pounded out a few weeks ago.

The image at left shows how I want to set the cabochons in plain silver bezels with open backs so that light can shine through them, connect them with silver balls, add a jump ring onto the setting and another one onto the flower, then connect them together and solder an earring post onto the back of the flower. Since this will involve working with a lot of small, fiddly pieces, it’ll be a great test for the plasticine/investment soldering process. If this works the way it should, making anything with small pieces or intricate scrollwork is going to get a LOT easier.

New Covers

26 Friday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Random Realities

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Since I have to reformat Random Realities ANYWAY, I thought it was time for a new cover. And to be frank I needed a break from formatting.

The problem with covering this collection is that it has SF, fantasy, one horror-adjacent story, and a Sherlock Holmes pastiche. How the heck do you represent all those on one cover? Which is why I went with the “girl blowing bubbles with the bubbles representing different realities” on the old cover.

But let’s be honest, my graphics skills have improved mightily in the last ten years, and the SF/fantasy antho market has also changed. Gotta keep up with the times, don’t you know? So this is my new provisional cover—gonna give it a couple of hours to cool, then come back and see if I still like it. If I do, I’ll add it to the Vellum file and upload to the assorted platforms.

What I especially like about this picture is that with all the cool stuff visible through the door, the girl and her teddy are still looking off to the right like something even better is over there. I think it gives a sense of hope and optimism for the future, and God knows we all need that right now.

Yay, My Investment Came!

24 Wednesday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Jewelry

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No, not that kind of investment. I mean the super-fine casting powder that can be used when casting lost wax figures that are then melted out in a kiln and metal is poured into the void.

And no, I’m not doing that, either. For one thing, I don’t have a kiln. But investment can also be used in a soldering technique where you put delicate, fiddly pieces of a setting together on some plasticine, then form a barrier around them and pour on a layer of investment. Once the investment, which can take incredibly high temperatures, is bone dry you turn it over, peel off the plasticine, and the jewelry parts remain in the investment and are ready to be soldered together on the bottom.

This has two benefits:

  1. I don’t have to hold my breath while putting together fiddly bits or worry about bumping something out of alignment.
  2. Soldering everything on the bottom keeps the top looking clean and pristine and means a lot less cleanup for me.

I’m going to make up some bracelet links this weekend with this method and see how well it works. I think it’s going to make my job as a silversmith a lot easier.

And That’s a Wrap

22 Monday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Cover Art

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Just finished a project for a client who wanted me to do an illustrated cover for her contemporary romantic comedy. It’ll be coming out in June and I’ll post links here for interested folks—it sounds like it’s going to be hella fun.

I still have to make some ad graphics and a paperback cover for her, but she needed the ebook cover ASAP and the paperback cover will be based on the ebook cover, so this pretty much completes all of the paid commissions I have at the moment. Coming up are requests to see if I can make a custom Apple watch bangle from a pair of sterling forks (my buddy T also wants one of these if I can do it), a t-shirt quilt, and a coin for a roleplaying game. In between getting all of the Nicola books put into Vellum and published wide, finishing the current Nicola WIP, and starting the next two books on the writing table, of course.

I would very much like a cruise right now, thank you.

Hot Off the Bench

20 Saturday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Jewelry

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This is a pendant I made for a friend and colleague who saw a golden rutilated quartz pendant I’d made as a giveaway and wanted to know if I could make her something similar.

So I found a stone she liked that was very similar to the first pendant, ordered it, and when it arrived I realized it was faceted (the first pendant had a smooth cabochon). Since facets really deserve prong settings I decided to make my first double gallery (that refers to the “basket” that the stone sits in) prong setting with V-shaped prongs, which were also a first for me.

After watching a LOT of instructional videos on YouTube I got to work. The galleries are made from 16g square wire with 16g spacers, then I created the V prongs for the ends. Why did it need V prongs, you ask? Because any stone with a pointy end on it like a marquise (the shape of this stone), pear, or square needs extra protection on the pointy corners to make sure they don’t get chipped. A V prong has a groove cut out for the girdle of the stone to fit into, plus an extra pocket burred out for the very tip of the corner that protects it from being banged around and chipped.

Said a prayer to Hephaestus and soldered on the V prongs and round prongs. To my delight nothing fell off or melted in the process so I trimmed everything, soldered on a jump ring and bail, polished off any extra solder, tumbled it in the burnisher, cut the grooves for the stone’s girdle and the pockets for the stone’s tips, then carefully seated the stone…

…and it popped right in without a problem. I tell you, I was shocked. I could have simply pushed in the prongs and rounded their tops but because this is a big ol’ stone I wanted the extra security of claws holding it in place along with the V prongs. The client has seen a picture and is happy with it, which is all that matters in the end.

But the really nice thing about this is that I can now make a setting for my teardrop moldavite (a forest green, olive green or blue greenish vitreous silica projectile glass that was formed by a meteorite impact in southern Germany and is considered a gemstone) and wear it as a pendant.

My Finger Is Fine, Thank You

15 Monday May 2023

Posted by Melanie Fletcher in Arts and Crafts, Jewelry

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And no, I’m not going to show it to you. There’s the tiniest black spot under the nail plate next to the cuticle that is obviously an eensy clot and the tip of the finger is a bit tender, but that’s about it. All in all, it could have been a lot worse.

And may I just say that trying to type with a band-aid over a fingertip is a royal PITA. I kept making I don’t know how many mistakes while I was working today, to the point where I finally yanked off the band-aid and went with a smaller one that just wrapped around the finger instead of going over the tip.

In other news I’m starting a commissioned piece that is going to be a number of firsts for me and has the potential to go dreadfully wrong. I’m building my first double gallery collet out of 16g square sterling wire, creating my first V prongs, and then I have to solder everything together without melting anything or causing any parts to drop off (because why make things difficult for myself when I can make them really, REALLY difficult).

That being said, I am going to order myself some investment (the super-fine Plaster of Paris-like mixture that can take very high temps and is used when casting fine jewelry) so that I can use a technique where I position setting parts on some plasticine, set up a barrier around them, pour investment over them, and when the investment is bone dry pull off the plasticine and solder the underside of the parts together. It’s a lot easier than shoving prongs into a soft charcoal block and praying that they stay in place while I solder them to a collet.

Or I can just buy some Hold It soldering clay. I dunno. But I do know there are easier ways to put together small, complex setting parts than the way I’ve been doing it.

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