GET INLAID

I got a second light put up over the far workbench tonight, and put up strips of corkboard for miniature bulletin boards where I need them.  Yeah, I’m a bit fussy about my workspace.  I want everything where I need it, when I need it.  I hate shuffling through shit to find what I need 5 minutes after I needed it.  Wherever Antiguo is, he’s either appalled at such a clean workspace, or laughing at me.  “Oh, you think it’ll stay that clean once you actually start working???  That’s what they all say.”

I also put together a rolling chair just for my shop area.  “Assembly required” are not my favorite words in the English language, but it wasn’t so bad, and it’s the perfect height for sawing at the bench pin.

Thoughts about superglue:

Every single one of the warnings on the bottle is good advice, which I found out tonight.  I stuck my left index finger and thumb together while gluing pieces of the design to the shell for cutting, and the fumes hurt my eyes and made my nose run.  Note to self:  look into superglue solvent IMMEDIATELY if not sooner, and get to Ace for a mask.  It does bond skin instantly.  Scott brought me nail polish remover, but it wasn’t working with the alacrity one would wish when she’s facing going through the rest of her life doing her Buckwheat impression.  I was mere seconds away from heading out to the garage to grab the Exacto knife to cut through the nanometer of superglue bond between skin surfaces, but a combo of constant pulling apart of the fingers and the nail polish remover separated the fingers.  Whew!

I swore to myself I would do some actual pearl sawing this long weekend, so I needed to get the patterns glued to the shell tonight if I wanted to saw tomorrow, since I’m off.  (The patterns will ultimately be sanded off.)  I’m excited to start, to have something to show for all this shopping, made with my own hands.  I went with the green abalone and the MOP, as the green abalone was in bigger pieces than the paua, and cheaper.  The MOP is pretty standard, but I picked through the green abalone for the least perfect pieces.  No sense in wasting the good stuff on my first outing.

I talked to my brother and his wife on the phone today, and realized that I still have 2 living professional woodworkers in my life.  My sister-in-law is a cabinetmaker, actually, and so I told her I may be calling upon her for advice.  She was enthusiastic, so that’s cool.  I have to admit, I was a bit sad talking to her about her newest job, a kitchen.  Antiguo and I talked about his jobs all the time.
Scott got me some foam sanding blocks, several books, and some colored (dyed) wood veneers from Woodcraft for Christmas.  They also sent me their catalog, and I found a few more things I cannot live without that I’ll order in due time.