I'm home

I got back to the US on Saturday (4/23).

I unpacked enough of my studio to start working on some new lockpicks today. I was kind of burnt out with my work when I left for Korea last year, and I was hoping after a year off that I would go back to the studio feeling good and ready to work again. But I really don't feel that much different. It doesn't feel like it's been a year, and I don't mean that in a good way. I mean it like, I needed a break, and after 1 year I still don't feel like it was enough of a break. I'm planning to go back to Korea for another year this summer, so maybe I will feel better after that.

I'm not really happy to be back here. I wanted to come back to the US for a while, I just hate the Chicago suburbs and wish I could spend my time someplace else. I was ready to leave this area after being here for less than a day.

Anyway, while I am here I am going to make some lockpicks and a silver vessel for Cheongju. I can't believe the price of silver, $47/oz. I'm glad I have a lot of silver I bought when it was cheaper. I bought the 12" x 12" sheet of sterling I will use for my vessel when silver was around $10/oz.

An update

There hasn't been much going on worth writing about lately. I have some commissions to do, but I really don't feel like working on anything. There is one piece I finished last month I still need to photograph. It's one of the folded sheet metal pieces. Those are always difficult to photograph, so I have kind of been putting it off.

I finished these lock picks the other day for a customer in the UK. They look simple but they were a pain to make. The simple looking things are always the most difficult. They are for picking dimple locks. A key for a dimple lock can be seen here.

I really didn't want to stop working on the copper vase before it was finished. I didn't want to have one more almost finished piece, but one of the reasons I put it on hold was to do a commission. Now that that's done I have to finish some things for the show at Taboo Studio. The show opens August 15th, but they need the work by August 5th.

Lately I have a problem with focusing on what needs to be done. For example, I have to finish some things for this show in August, but I would rather work on things that are not for the show. Once I have sent my work to the show and can work on the things I want to do now, I will probably want to start on something else instead.

And I still have my problem of having too many unfinished pieces. I tend to drag things out if I don't have a real deadline for them. Occasionally it's because I lose interest in a piece for what ever reason, like maybe its not turning out the way I expected and I start to feel like it's a waste of my time. But more often I procrastinate because I don't like the step of the process I am at.

I have to finish some of those unfinished things if I want to have anything to enter in the exhibitions and competitions coming up this Aug and Sept.

CAD

I really don't feel like doing anything lately. I have several pieces that are almost finished. And there are things I have to make, and things I want to make, but I don't really want to do any of it.

I was thinking about learning CAD. I was working with it and learning it, but I got so busy at the end of the summer, and I had my mind on other things, and then I went to Korea and I had so much stuff to do after that. Now I am wondering when the last time I even used it was. August or Sept, I think. Its hard to stay motivated to learn to use it cause CAD just doesn't interest me that much. Maybe if I had access to a CNC mill I might feel more like using CAD. But with out a CNC mill or rapid prototyping machine, I am just making designs that I do nothing with. Designs don't interest me unless I can actually make the piece.