Engraving

I am learning to hand engrave on silver. It is very difficult and painstaking but I love the fact that it is a very direct way of patterning metal. Yes I have a tool in my hand but it is a small tool, used almost as an extension of my hand.

I took a workshop 18 months ago where I first picked up gravers to work on silver. I planned to go home and start practising right away but I left it a long time as other things inevitably intervened. I started again this past winter and tried to practise regularly but it wasn't going right so I contacted the instructor of the workshop - Jane Short - and she invited me to come to her studio for a day of instruction and practice. It was wonderful and just what I needed to get the feel of it again and ask a lot of questions.

I am not so interested in traditional engraving, script and lettering, scrolls and figures. I want to use the technique within my own aesthetic sense. It combines well with enamelling as you can engrave a recess for the enamel to sit in which can itself be further engraved with pattern as I have done with the piece above.

I am aiming to practise often now. A little everyday is ideal and I did that for several months cluminating in this piece of engraving fired with enamel. I must start on another piece right away as time flies and I don't want to get rusty. 

Learn To Enamel

Come and learn the basics of enamelling with me on Saturday 21st May 2016. I am giving a one day workshop where you will learn how to fire enamel on copper. You will learn a variety of ways to make patterns and images in the enamel and layer different colours. You will also have time to make a finished piece that can be turned into a pendant.
The class will be held in the Memorial Hall, Cowden, Kent TN8 7HU where we will have lots of room and plenty of tables to work on. Although my own studio is lovely it is just a little bit too small to hold a class in. The class will run from 10am to 3.30pm. All materials will be included in the price - all the enamel and copper and any wires and foils you use. As an added incentive I am also providing a lovely vegetarian lunch so we can all take a quick break at midday and re-fuel! The cost of the class is £75. Please book early as places are limited. You can book a place by contacting me by email at anna@annaclarkstudio.com.

Architectural Inspiration

 A building or a brooch in silver?

Modern architecture has an amazing affinity with jewellery despite the great difference in scale,  Frank Gehry designs both art forms successfully. Not that I am comparing myself to Frank Gehry but I originally studied architecture at University College London and now many years later I design and make jewellery. Maybe it is something about the sculptural qualities of both that transcend the difference of purpose.

Lately I have become more inspired by architectural forms, feeling perhaps that I should broaden my inspirational source pool. I have been scouring the internet for pictures of architectural forms, collecting pictures on Pinterest for later perusal. On a day in London yesterday I looked around me as I walked the streets at the buildings that go up constantly. Many seem to be a straighforward box, but as I walked past the new Tottenham Court Road tube station I saw it as a beautiful curving brooch with grid pattern in silver.

I am sure I won't abandon my love of natural forms altogether but it feels refreshing to have a new favourite subject for a while!

Beginner Jewellery

Come and enjoy an evening of making jewellery with me if you live near Tunbridge Wells or Tonbridge in Kent. I am teaching beginner courses in both towns starting this September, details below.
I did not start learning how to make jewellery until I was 36 and I started by taking an evening course. I loved it and carried on from there with a 3 year full-time course that became my business. 

TUNBRIDGE WELLS Beginner Jewellery starting September 22. This will be on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9.30 pm for 12 weeks.

TONBRIDGE Silver Jewellery for Beginners starting October 1. This will be on Thursday evenings fro 7.15 to 9.15 pm for 10 weeks.

Please see www.kentadulteducation.co.uk for details on how to register or call 03000 41 22 22

If you can't make these dates there will be more classes starting after Christmas.

Now that I have a beautiful new studio to work in I hope to teach classes from there too. I am thinking that classes in enamelling for up to 3 people would work quite well. Any suggestions from you would be welcome!

My Beautiful Space

I am finally installed and working in my new space and it is truly wonderful, almost too good to be true. It is clean and bright - the first studio I have ever worked in that I did not need the overhead light on during the day. Being fully insulated with lovely sheep's wool the temperature  stays very even and comfortable. My work bench is all set up in front of the window overlooking my cottage garden and I have a long counter along the back of the room with soldering station, enamelling kiln, hydraulic press and bowl for water and washing pieces. We did not put a water pipe to the studio but a 2 litre jug of water is plenty for the day.

I have organised all my tools and supplies into two Ikea drawer units on castors. Each of the units has six shallow wide drawers so nothing gets lost at the bottom of the heap, all can be laid out individually, easy to find. The units live under the counter but can be rolled out if need be.

I chose to have a floor made of solid wood for strength. It is unplaned though it has been sanded and finished with hardwax-oil but it does have gaps between the planks - a nightmare under the workbench so I have painstakingly caulked each gap around the workbench area with clear caulking.

Next job is to make some narrow shelves to store my jars of enamels - floating shelves look nice but I don't think I have the patience to make them to the size I want - it will be good old fashioned planks of painted wood on metal shelf brackets. I like touches of that old workshop look after all. Maybe I should make an extra shelf to show off my old oil can collection inherited from my father whose workshop had hundreds of tools.

Meanwhile today is just the right day for gardening so I am putting in the climbing rose called 'Aloha' that I picked out to eventually grow around the windows, and lavender and pinks by the stoop.

 

New Studio

Spring is not quite in the air here in the south-east of England but I think it won't be long, the daffodils are in bud and just waiting for some warm sun. Nevertheless I am excited because we will be building a studio in the garden next month. Since moving back to England I have mourned the loss of my old studio in Canada. Under-appreciated at the time it was merely part of the basement of our large house, nicely warmed by the furnace and with the laundry sink close by with hot and cold running water, two windows looking out on my garden.

At this moment I am renting an old cowshed on a farm - clean and painted white inside admittedly but draughty and cold with no natural light, no sink and only cold water available outside. When I first rented it there were other artists on the farm too, a couple who do hand book-binding and a woman who carved granite sculptures. They were lovely and made it bearable. Since they have left and some unfriendly characters  moved in I no longer want to be there at all.

So, the decision to build a studio taking up part of our small garden was made, costs debated over, savings pondered and finally we gave the go ahead to a local man who is happy to have my husband help him build a wood framed fully insulated 'shed'. I can't wait for it to start and have already bought a climbing rose to grow over it.

Sublime Blue

Bluebells at Dusk

Last wednesday evening I went walking with friends in some woodland down in East Sussex. The bluebells have been better than usual this year, prolific and lasting for weeks and we walked among them as the sun was gradually sinking. The sublime blue hovers like a misty haze just above the ground and as the dusk deepens it turns slowly from blue to purple. We hoped to see badgers or foxes but despite staying quiet until it was dark all we saw was a tawny owl.

Afterwards we walked back through the woods to our hosts who own and manage the woodland and who keep 25 peacocks around their house including one pure white one. Their cries had been piercing the night since we arrived. Several of the peacocks were displaying their tail feathers fully and engaging in some courtship behaviour, but I did not see any glimmer of interest from the peahens, they were playing hard to get. We were served Victoria sponge made with peacock eggs.

It is not only the bluebells that have been wonderful this year but also the hollows carpeted with the white starry flowers of wild garlic and the boggy woodland studded with magenta orchids, the creamy blackthorn blossom in the hedgerows and the pale yellow primroses on the stream banks. I look forward to the wild anemones that come next.

Hello Again

I have decided to resurrect this blog, I think I have missed writing it. I really have no idea how many people end up reading it or whether anyone does, but I do enjoy writing it so long as it doesn't become a chore. So I will endeavour to write when I have something to say and never just because it has been a while since I wrote and I think I should write.

Since I last wrote I have moved from Canada to England. This involved convincing husband this was the right thing to do, selling our house in British Columbia, having the essentials shipped to the UK (my jewellery making tools and our bicycles), putting the rest of our stuff in storage, finding a house to rent in Kent, then finding a studio to rent, then after a year finding a house to buy and buying more stuff to go in it. Totally exhausting and stressful. But here we are now in a small brick cottage in an idyllic English village, and my husband loves it.

Moving my jewellery business has been difficult, almost but not quite like starting from scratch again. I had to find studio space which took four months and then unpack the tools I had brought over. I realised that the two pieces of equipment that I thought were too heavy or might not work over here - namely rolling mill and torch regulators and hoses - were the two that I really missed. Still there is always a way around - renting bench space on a day basis when I need to use a rolling mill, and for a torch - a cheap basic plumbers torch that was a stop gap but is still in use.

As for customers, I need to work on this area. I still ship work back to Canada to my favourite store that sells it so well and I sell online on Etsy which is worldwide anyway so no change there really. I now sell on another online store based in the UK  

www.notonthehighstreet.com/annaclarkstudio 

and I have ventured back into the art fair game. All in all it has been a good thing and I am happy to be here right now but international moving is not for the faint of heart. Having said that I have just booked a flight to Canada, just a holiday for three weeks to catch up with all my dear friends, do a little skiing and to rummage through our storage locker and look longingly at my old rolling mill.

Blogging Blues

I really like the idea of a blog - a diary that is public - two extremes of the spectrum coming together and becoming something new and different. There are some great blogs - well written, beautifully designed, great pictures and posted often, but I don't think mine is among them. When I started it I was dipping my toe in the online waters to see how I would like the temperature, and while I kinda like it, I don't like it enough to really want to stay in it. So this will probably be my last post on this blog. My thanks go to the people who cared enough to become a "follower" and my special thanks go to Sylvia who always has had something very encouraging to say to me.

I'll leave with a picture of a brooch I finished recently in silver, copper and enamel.

Etching Silver

I have been interested in the idea of etching silver for a couple of years now and finally this week I actually did it. So for anyone interested in the technique here's how I went about it, bearing in mind that at this stage I have etched exactly four pieces of silver!

My experience with etching has been limited to etching copper and brass with Ferric Chloride. The chemical that I was interested in using on silver is Ferric Nitrate. The traditional chemical to etch silver has been nitric acid but Ferric Nitrate is safer to use and I have read that it gives a cleaner etch. First I had to source the Ferric Nitrate, with the help of google and a couple of emails to artists I found online I quickly had a source in British Columbia - xenexlabs .com. Surprisingly they shipped it to me through the regular mail, it was $78 for 500g, plus tax and shipping. The chemical comes as greyish-mauve crystals.

I contacted Ontario jeweller and metalsmith Sandra Noble Goss for some notes on dilution strength which she kindly emailed me back right away. It appears that you can alter the dilution of the crystals depending on how long you are prepared to wait for the metal to etch. Since I had bought 500g I decided to make up half of that and keep the rest of the crystals for another batch later on. I used a small tupperware container which 350ml of water filled nicely. I added my 250g Ferric Nitrate crystals to the water and stirred until they were dissolved - I used warm tap water. According to Sandra's notes I could have used a stronger solution or a weaker one (1:1 water to crystals or 2:1), I simply chose the proportions that best fit my container and the amount of crystals I had bought.

I prepared my silver the same way as one would prepare copper or brass for Ferric Chloride etching ie starting with clean metal, the design applied in PnP blue transfer paper, the back and sides taped off with packing tape. If you don't have the PnP paper you can use an oil-based paint pen to draw on the metal, however I would recommend PnP paper above anything else - enamelworksupply.com has it and many other places I am sure.

It is necessary to suspend the prepared metal in the Ferric Nitrate solution and it must be upside down so the residue can fall out. I taped fishing line to the back and then taped the lines to the edge of the tupperware container pulling it tight enough so the piece is submerged but not touching the bottom, then put the lid on. I got a very good etch in 4hrs at this strength of solution. When you take it out put the piece in a bowl of water with baking soda in it and rub more baking soda directly on the piece, scrub well. This will neutralize the Ferric Nitrate and clean off the greyish film. The PnP residue can be sanded off or removed with acetone. There, you should have a lovely piece of etched silver ready to make into something beautiful.

Safety First: wear an apron and gloves and safety glasses, don't get the solution on your skin or clothes. When making up the solution I worked under a fume hood to be on the safe side, while the etch was working I had a lid on the container. Always use baking soda to neutralize. The solution can be used over again - as I have only just started I don't know how long it will work for, eventually it will wear out. The best disposal recommendation would be taking it to a toxic waste specialist.

If you have already etched with Ferric Chloride these notes should be enough to help you start with Ferric Nitrate. If you have never etched I would recommend you see a demo first as written notes are really just an addition to watching it done. If you have questions though, I'll try and answer them. Also if you can get Linda Darty's book The Art of Enameling, she covers the process in there quite well.

Bragging!

Earrings in sterling silver and enamel

Is it ok to brag about your own work really? To blow your own trumpet and say how great your work is? Well, what I am really saying is that I made these earrings and I really like them, I don't think I could make them any better.

Actually I think it is a very useful skill to be able to critique your own work. So here goes... I love these earrings for their slightly unusual shape - not complex but not exactly straightforward either. I love the pattern - a classic Japanese chrysanthemum pattern, and the scale of the pattern is exactly right for the size of earring. I especially love this green enamel - Thompson's unleaded Grass Green, which by the way is the easiest, most forgiving colour to work with on sterling. I also think that the plain silver, slightly textured domes work well as a counterpoint to the coloured enamel.

So, I am not really bragging just sighing with relief that a piece of jewellery went right for a change. Believe me I have a box of rejects waiting to be de-enamelled and re-fashioned or simply thown in with the scrap. After all if you cannot critique your own work how will you ever realise what went wrong with it?

Summer Time

Why is summer so busy?

There are so many things that I want to do including continuing to make jewellery that this blog has most definitely fallen by the wayside. My husband and I went away for five weeks to the UK to visit my family (picture above is taken on the Isle of Wight) and I just never caught up when I came home.

Every winter I always picture myself enjoying long lazy days in summer, promising myself that there will be outdoor sketching days, pure designing days, experimental metal work days, days for new enamel ideas, and on and on. It never seems to happen that way does it?

I have actually sold a lot of work this summer which is good of course, but what happens next is that I have to make more inventory and as I am only one person not a factory it seems to take forever. Cranking pieces out with no thought for their quality is not what I want to do, so I continue to work painstakingly on each piece - can't do it any other way.

In addition, I am working on some interesting 'things' in enamel - not jewellery - as part of a possible commission. I won't say any more except "watch this space" for further details! Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and continue weeding my garden.

Insurance woes

Peacock green enamel on silver, choker length necklace.

Calling all jewellery artists who have a home based studio - are you having insurance difficulties?
For years I have insured my home-based jewellery business as an add-on to my house insurance. This year the company said they would no longer insure me. That is, they would not insure the business nor the house.

Reasons given were mainly for liability issues, especially because I was selling online and customers could be anywhere in the world, also I have customers coming to the studio in person to discuss custom pieces. My torch was an issue too, although it never has been in the past.

I called a couple of other jewellers I know who have home-based studios and incredibly to me they said that they had never told their insurance companies about their business! I think that they are wasting the premiums they are paying by not disclosing their studios. I wanted to be up front about everything I was doing.

I could have bought commercial business insurance for around $1800 a year but I really didn't want to pay that much. So for the last few months both my business and my house have been uninsured as I look around for someone who will take the risk. They seem to think that I have piles of gold and diamonds laying around, customers tripping down the steps and an unattended blow torch left alight!

This morning I heard from the insurance broker, she may have found a company to insure our house, excluding the studio contents, but including business liability at a reasonable price so I am off to see if it will work. Am I crazy to worry about this, should I just leave things to fate?

Finding Details

Whenever I visit somewhere new I, of course, take my camera and what I love photographing are architectural details, especially metalwork. I have a series of pictures down the sidebar of this blog. A part of me would love to work in a big scale, I actually took a short welding workshop long ago, but my business is jewellery and for now that is what I am immersed in.

I have just returned from a quick trip to the city of Milwaukee, a place full of very interesting ornate architecture, much built by the origianl immigrants from Germany. These doors were on a theatre we passed walking around the historic Third Ward. I think they are made of copper. As my husband and our friends walked on I just had to stop and get up close to the doors. The copper had a wavy pattern embossed in the metal and I love the patchy verdigris and the large rivet heads!

Happy photographing!

Consignment Dos and Don'ts

Following up on my last post, here's a list of lots of Dos and a few Don'ts that might help you if you are consigning work for the first time.

• Do some investigation into the store or gallery. Preferably visit it in person and meet the owner. Or if it is long distance, talk with the owner and ask for pictures of the interior.


• Do ask for a contract if one is not offered. The contract needs to spell out who is responsible for the work when in the store, who pays for shipping work to and from the store and what is their policy on lost and stolen items.


• Do ask what the commission split is, when payments are made.


• Do expect payment in a timely manner.


• Do keep your own inventory list and check off items as they sell.


• Do offer to help promote your own work. Send images and artist statements promptly.


• Do send new inventory regularly as pieces sell. A good display is key to selling well.


• Do give the gallery at least 6 months to sell anything before re-assessing.


• Do exchange pieces if they don't sell.


• Do give gallery 2-3 weeks notice if you want your work returned.


• Do stop by if the place is local, check your work, offer to clean it and generally be helpful.


• Do be nice, friendly and reliable to work with.


• Do be open to suggestions.


• Do expect politeness, respect and good business practices from the gallery or store.

• Don't tell the owner how to run their business.


• Don't complain needlessly - save your complaints for when they are justified. Justifiable complaints include - not being paid in a regular timely manner; owner does not return calls or emails; your work is not displayed; your pieces get lost stolen or damaged.


• Don't send work off and then forget all about it.


• Don't hesitate to tell the owner if your inventory list does not match theirs, or if their is a mistake on a payment slip.


• If your work is not selling at all and you have given it at least 6 months then don't hesitate to take it out, try somewhere else or try a different line of work maybe at a different price point.

Sounds like the artist carries a lot of the weight? Well yes they do, but there is an enormous amount of work involved in running a gallery or store and working to sell art. If you are an artist who makes good work, is reliable and professional to deal with and you come across a gallery owner who is the same then the chances are that you will develop a very good working relationship which will benefit you both.

Selling on Consignment

Cobalt blue enamel on fine silver.

Since I began selling my jewellery 12 years ago I have sold in various ways - craft show, wholesale show, consignment in a store or gallery, direct from studio (including online sales) and by commission. I figured that I should try every way of selling until I found the way that suited my business best.

I have sold on consignment at approximately 15 different places from craft stores to jewellery galleries. Here are a few thoughts on selling by consignment...

• 'Consignment' is also known as 'sale or return' and it is when the artist places a number of their pieces for sale in a store or gallery owned and operated by another party. The artist retains ownership of the pieces until they are sold to a customer, at which time the artist is paid by the store owner. The store owner takes a 'commission', a % of the sales price.


• This commission could be anything but in my experience it varies from 35% to 50%. Some high-end galleries may take more. The commission covers all the expenses of retailing from paying sales staff to providing wrapping for the pieces.


• Selling on consignment leaves the artist free to make art and not worry about the business of selling and running a retail space. Especially vauable if this is not your strength and you find a good retailer.


• With co-operation from the retailer the artist can also use the store or gallery to test the market for different pieces, arrange small shows and presentations of new work.


• In my experience the best sales come from the best relationships (between artist and retailer)and the best relationships develop from mutual understanding and good communication. These things usually have to be worked at!


• Many artists grumble that with consignment the retailer is taking no risk with inventory, all the risk is taken by the artist. This is true of course, but can be mitigated somewhat if the retailer pays promptly for sales.


• Local retail outlets mean that you can check on your pieces - have they been moved, are they clean, are they displayed well, is inventory low? Long distance consignment requires far more trust in the retailer.


• If sales have been good and then suddenly drop off look into it right away, it could be a warning that things are not right with the store or gallery. This could be anything from it going out of business to it being so crowded with work that yours has been shoved out of sight.


• A contract with the gallery is a good idea, spelling out who is responsible for what and when cheques are sent out. Usually the pieces are insured in the gallery by the owner of the gallery and they are responsible for the work. Shipping work to the gallery is usually paid by the artist, shipping unsold work back is paid by the gallery. Most galleries pay out monthly, in the month following the sales month. If a gallery is constantly late with payment or often gets the payments wrong another warning bell should go off in the artist's head. The policy on lost or stolen items, and returned items is important to know.


• If things go really pear-shaped what can you do? If work has been sold and you haven't been paid, it can be a difficult situation, more so if the store is in another part of the country. This has happened to me and many other artists when Object Design gallery in Vancouver folded a couple of years ago after the owner pocketed money owed to the artists. Some of us launched small claims suits, some talked of hiring a collection agency. After considering the options I decided to take the loss.


• As of now I have work on consignment in two places. One is local and is the first store I ever consigned work with, it is far and away the best place to sell my work and the owner has become a good friend over the years. Mutual respect and commitment has been beneficial to both of us - I hope it continues a long time.

This is a long post, so I'll continue it next time with a list of dos and don'ts for consigning work. Meanwhile Happy Selling!

Calling all art students

Once a year I get asked to return to the school where I studied jewellery-making - Kootenay School of the Arts - to give a slide show and talk to the students about moving from being an art student to being an art business owner. As April is just about upon us and students will be graduating in a few weeks I thought I'd share with you my top ten tips on this subject.

1. Work hard.


2. Establish a routine of regular working hours, tell everyone you know, repeat it continually.


3. Buy a camera, learn how to use it and make a photo booth for your work.


4. Start selling locally, move further afield as you become experienced.


5. Try different things - you won't know if it works until you try it.


6. Book-keeping - do your own, then you'll know what is coming in and what is going out.


7. Artistic work feeds commercial work - do both if you can.


8. Be reliable and nice with everyone - customers, gallery owners, suppliers etc


9. Show off your art - wear you own handmade jewellery, clothing, accessories.


10. When you can afford it, go to a workshop or conference, for creative renewal and networking.

I have tried my best to do all of these things and my hand-made jewellery business will be 12 years old this year. Here's a photo of a brooch I made in my early years - Oak Leaf in sterling silver, 14k gold and acrylic.

Buttons

Enamel and silver buttons

A little taste of what I have been working on lately - some functional silver and enamel buttons. Most of them are constructed with both fine and sterling silver. I use the fine silver if possible for the enamelled parts and then the sterling for strength of construction. This palette of enamel colours always seems to fire easily and without problems, and I love these shades.

Ever since I was about eleven years old and picked up an old tin of buttons at a jumble sale I have always had a liking for these functional but pretty things. After I learned that buttons were originally purely for decoration, essentially sewn on brooches - buttonholes weren't invented until later - I had a resurgence of interest in them and decided to make some of my own.

Maybe it is because I am working in enamel a lot now, but I keep finding more things to do with enamelling - organisations, jewellers, museums, exhibitions and so on. I just joined Grains of Glass - have a look at their site, there is link to it on my side bar. Perhaps we are at the start of a new blossoming in the art of enamelling? I hope so, Happy Spring!

Exhibiting Work

See what happens when you make a resolution to do more exhibition work...blogs get neglected! I do have that smug feeling of well-being now, having accomplished what I had on my to do list - start a whole new body of work and complete two new exhibition pieces. Something had to give as I said in my last post way back in January, and it turned out to be this blog!

As far an entering exhibitions I would encourage anyone to do so - it is a learning experience. Here are some things that I have learned from exhibiting my work in the past:

• Making exhibition work is very different from making production work for me, no time and cost restraints, very freeing, but also very demanding as there is no excuse for mediocrity.
• Working to an unbendable deadline - find out if you work well under last minute pressure.
• Working with a group - can you be part of a team putting on the show together, can you take instruction from the group leader?
• Solo show - will you crumble under the pressure of doing it all yourself or is this your dream?
• Can you handle the picky details of labelling all your packaging materials, giving precise instructions on how to display your work, handing over your work to others to display?
• Will you be miffed if the image of your work you submitted is not chosen for the show poster?
• Will you enjoy the opening party or do you hate these kind of events - too many big egos?
• What will you do with your unsold exhition pieces?

Lots to ponder. Meanwhile if you live in the Kootenays come along to Connections Materialized at the Kootenay Gallery in Castlegar March 11 to April 24. Come to the opening party on March 11 at 7pm.

Beachcomber in sterling silver and found objects

New Year Resolutions

Rowan Berries in the Snow

When I first started my jewellery-making studio I had a lot of time to make pieces for exhibitions and shows because I had no customers taking up my time! Now I have managed to build up a number of customers but I no longer have time to make exhibition pieces. Of course it would be wonderful if all the exhibition pieces I made, I sold to my customers, then I would be able to have my cake and eat it, so to speak. Sadly it doesn't seem to work that way ...yet. I still hold out hope that I can turn things around.

Meanwhile, as I do every New Year, I am making a few 'rules' for myself and my art practice:

• stop selling on consignment at places where my pieces don't sell quickly, the pieces are just languishing there
• take some 'retreat' time to focus solely on ideas
• say no to repairing other peoples jewellery - why is this so difficult to do??
• stop worrying about worrying too much
• stop spending so much time on the computer
• stop spending so much time on Etsy, it is like a time-sponge and is only a small part of my business
• realise I can't do everything I want to do, so something has to go - this year it is less downhill skiing, and less knitting-group get togethers
• spend more time just wondering and thinking with my sketch book open in front of me
• stop thinking about money and how I need more of it
• get out of the production work head space whereby it is all about time and price

Well, I expect I could think up a lot more rules but as I said I must cut down on computer time. Now I am going to the work bench to see what gee-gaws I can clear away to make room for those exhibition pieces in the works.