Vacation ... Well Sorta

I took most of April off.  I didn't use the kiln much. I didn't list much. I didn't create much.  Instead I concentrated on my daughter who had our first grandbaby and my son who had been diagnosed with moderate melanoma on the same day she gave birth. It was bittersweet that day.

However, everything turned out fine.  My daughter gave birth to a 9 lb 3 oz perfectly healthy baby girl and my son learned a couple of weeks later that the melanoma had not spread to his lymph nodes as it usually does at that stage.

Happy Joy Joys abounded .... Deep sigh of relief ... thanksgiving prayers up to God ... some quiet time to absorb it all ...  and of course time to get to know Ruby, who by the way is the cutest baby in the entire known civilized and uncivilized world.  She smiled at me on Monday and that smile was so big that it took my breath completely away and my eyes swam in tears to where I couldn't see her anymore. I had to wipe them away and as I did, she gave me another smile. There aren't enough descriptive words in the English language for for that kind of happy.

 Saturday I had my friend, Lolly, over. I showed her how to lampwork beads and she showed me how to make a bezel.  Oh my ... what fun!

We are continually learning from our small bi-monthly workshops at each others' houses.  We had been quite mystified about soldering copper. It seemed that the copper had heated up fine, the solder melted and then the pieces would come apart. 

I finally kept googling copper and found that as a metal it has to fire hotter than the other metals.  What this meant escaped both of us, but we experimented and she found finally the answer!  Copper requires HARD solder, not easy, which is what we had been using previously.

Mystery solved.  So if you decide to play around with copper and solder it, just remember: use HARD solder.

Thanks for stopping by!
Natalie