Wire 1 class three of four

May 25 through 31, 2008
Well gang, Wire 1 class was excellent. I improved my skills substantially and I am very happy with the results of my efforts for the week. Nothing special happened this week. It was just go to school, or what I am now calling geriatric summer camp, as 90% of the participants are over the age of 60, but they are all young at heart.

Here is a photo of my class



The school did not have as many students this week as they had the previous week. Several classrooms were empty I do not know whether it was due to lack of teachers or lack of students. Next week will be my last week here and then I move on. I still have not decided where I will move on to but move I must.

Here are the class show and tell projects for this week

These next to shots are of the wire sculpture class. they got a ton of projects done this week, with only three people.




This is the "Gem Tree" class it had one student.


This is the "Glass Fusing" class. They got a bunch of stuff done too.


the rest if the "Glass Fusing" class.




This is the "Silver 2" class they did some great work.


This silver feather braclet is fantastic.


This lady did a great job in the "Chain" Making class


Aparently there was only one student in "Lampwork Beads"


This is the "Opals" class


here's "Cabachons"




And our class of "Wire 1"


Here are the close up’s of my work







This afternoon Sic Fiddy has an appointment for his 600 mile break-in check up. I haven’t been able to run his engine over 4000 rpm during the break-in period which has been fine. 4000 rpm = aprox 55 mph so that has been plenty for me, However I am glad to get the break-in service out of the way. Sic Fiddy has been great running to the store and to school. He is saving me a bunch on gas. The worst thing has been running 55 down Georgia back roads at 8am when the temperature is a brisk 42 degrees. This has a tendency to wake a guy up real quick and brisk is a bit of an understatement. Fortunately I have not had to ride in the rain either way, as I make two trips a day, one in the morning and one at noon. I put more miles in one month on Sic Fiddy than the three previous months I have had him.

Got to get ready for our appointment, see ya.
AV

Jo goes, Opals begin

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I tried to get Jo to call her boss and tell her that she broke her leg and could not return to work for at least another couple of weeks, but she said she couldn’t. We left for the Ashville airport at 7:30 am to catch a noon flight. I had estimated approximately a three hour drive; we made it in two and a half. Jo did not want to take any chances of missing her flight. I don’t blame her, I hate to be late for anything too and if you miss a flight out here in the boonies, you might not get another for several days. We hugged and said our goodbye’s and I drove away. It sure was nice having Jo spend the week with me but now it’s over and I get to sleep in my own bed.

Sunday night is orientation and sign in night at William Holland School and this is week is my highly anticipated class “Opal Cutting”. I got to the school around 5:30 and signed in, sat down and started taking to a lady from Kentucky. She had one of those slow southern drawls that makes you want to finish her sentences, about that time, all hell broke loose in the cafeteria. I thought it was one of those old time church revivals, what, with all that holler’en and scream’en a go’en on. (I’m even talking like that Kentucky woman.) Apparently, six long lost women found each other at that very moment in time and weren’t shy about letting the world know about it. I told them that they were having entirely too much fun and that they would have to leave. They collectively boo’ed me and invited me to sit with them. Since I had already sat down with the K-e-n-t-u-c-k-y lady I felt it would have been rude to change seats, so I told them that I was afraid to get too close to that much estrogen. I said, I thought that it might rip the space-time continuum and suck me into an alternate parallel universe where women ruled the world. One very quick rabble rouser shot back "As if we don't rule the world here", and we all laughed at that. I labeled them “trouble” and we kidded around with each other during the week. I didn’t see a lot of them as they were staying at the school and I wasn’t, but it was a nice diversion. There are pictures of them on the “Web album” I don’t even remember all of their names. (just click on any pic in the blog and then click on album)


Monday - Friday May 18 – 23, 2008

I won’t bore you with all the details, but I will say it was a great class and I got to cut a maximum amount of stones. The teacher said that for a beginner that I was very good, my stones were smooth and scratch free with just the right amount of crown and girdle for the stone selected. However, he said that I was a little heavy handed. Which means: I am impatient and perhaps might cut away some of the color in order to uncover the treasure too quickly. I agreed with his assessment.

This is the Opals class projects. My opals are on the right side of the photo. 21 in all.



Here are a few of the individual stones I cut. (More pics are on the “web album”).

This is a fossil shell that opal replaced the shell. I left it in it's origional shape and just smoothed and polished it. It was one of the nicest stones in the class.



The instructor had an opal evaluation program on his computer and we entered this next stones characteristics (fire, pattern, clarity, etc. anout ten in all) and it said it should retail for around $3,000.00 dollars. I don't think so. I maean it's pretty but there is no way someone would pay that much for it. It is hard to get the real fire in a picture. It is concidered a predominately green and purple multi color crystal stone with a broad flash pattern. It is 8mm wide X 16mm long and weighs 5.5 ct.




I love this next stone. It is an Ethiopian opal and has a very rare ribbon pattern with lots of fire and color. Ethiopian opal is uausally too dark to see much fire but this stone is a special one.












I also got pictures of the other class projects here are some of the best.

This is the Glass Fusing class. I would like to try this stuff it looks fun.





This is the Wire wrap 1 class for this week. I think they did better and more complicated projects than we did. I was supposed to have Wire II next week but the teacher canceled so they had to put me in Wire I. Which is this teacher. I am looking forward to her class.







This is the Chain making class. It is amazing that they assemble these chains with one conecting ring at a time. This is another cool class. I just don't have the time or money to take them all.







This is one of the Cabachon class'es projects. he seems pretty good. I thought he had the best stuff in this class. I thought I would need to take a Cab class but I think I have the hang of it and can get better with practice on my own.



This is the Silver I class. I will be taking this in my last week.



Well I'm finally caught up on the blog but classes take up much time and I'm sure I will fall behind again, but I will eventually get it all down.

See Ya'

AV

School Days

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

It rained again last night and somehow one of the windows leaked and got Jo’s bed wet, so she moved to the couch after soaking up as much water as she could. I couldn’t find a specific reason for the leak so I covered the entire window with plastic film and I will wait until it rains again and see if it is indeed the window that is leaking. Fortunately it looks like it’s going to be a nice sunny day so I pulled the mattress out of the camper to let it dry while we are at school. When we returned at lunch time to walk Cutter they were almost completely dry.

Class was nice today we made a ring in the morning and a bracelet in the afternoon. I will have pictures of all our stuff at weeks end. Every Tuesday evening the school holds an auction of donated items to make extra money. The school is non-proffit and all donations are accepeted. If you would like to send an item for auction the address is

William Holden Retreat
230 Lapidary Ln (or) PO Box 980
Young Harris, GA. 30582
Identify the item as “For Auction”. I am sure they will appreciate it.



Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Today we made another bracelet and a pendant Jo’s getting the hang of it and I am exploring alternate designs.

We only have class for half a day today so we are going to go to the grocery and pick up some extra items and eat at a bar-b-que that we saw last time we were in town called “Rib Country” I will let you know how it is.

Wow, best bar-b-que I have ever had. If you are ever in Hayesville, NC on highway 69 check it out.

Cooking is not something I look forward to doing; however I have worked out a system of sorts that lets me keep my stove time to a minimum. I grill anywhere from 5 t0 8 items on the grill at one grilling and bag them up to use in salads and other concoctions during the week. That way I only end up slaving over the hot grill about twice a week.



Jo got a picture of Cutter and his toy early in the morning.



Thursday, May 15, 2008

We made another bracelet today and had the option of making whatever we wanted. I chose to make another bracelet and Jo chose a pendant. We are getting pretty good at this for beginners. I took a pendant and asked someone who was walking by to guess what it was and they guessed RIGHT!!!

Friday, May 16, 2008

Another half day of class today and then “Show & Tell” each class displays their projects in the cafeteria and everyone gets to see what everyone else did for the week. I was impressed by some of the work the other classes had done. Especially the glass & and chain classes. The fused glass was spectacular, the chains and other things that they made out of little silver rings was unreal. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of the other peoples stuff this week but I will next week.
Here is the stuff that Jo and I made.

This is what I made.



This is what Jo made.







Just Kidding



The stuff turned out pretty good didn't it.
If you want to see close ups and other pic's just click on any jewelery photo.

Got to go class starts in 20 min.
AV

Jo arrives

Thusday, May 8, 2008
Well, I have chased Mack around for two days trying to get him to dag out the rocks that he said he would sell me and he keeps coming up with excuses and dragging his feet. I even offered to do all the work myself and he could just watch, but to no avail. I told him that if we couldn’t do it today then we could not do it at all because I had to pick up Jo tomorrow and then my schedule would be too hectic to even attempt the sale. So we came too an agreement that he would give me his cell number and I could call him in a couple of weeks and possibly set something up where we could make the exchange after I had finished with my classes. I am not holding out much hope but I will think it over and decide if I want to make some kind of deal.

Friday, May 9, 2008
I loaded up Sic Fiddy and his non motorized cousin, Bountain Mike, we call him “Mike the Bike”, on to their special carrier on the back of Cazee. I already have 90% of the truck and trailer packed up so tomorrow when Jo and I finish visiting the Rock and Gem show’s we can haul our bottoms out of here.

One of the agreements that Jo and I have is that I will sleep in a tent outside of the trailer. The reason for this arrangement is not what you might think. It is not a modesty or privacy issue it is a “sleep deprivation” issue. You see, I snore.

A couple of years ago I got together with a group of guys and went to this Dude Ranch kind of place in central Flotida. For sleeping accommodations they had bunkhouses that slept six persons. The first night the guy in the next bunk kept kicking my bed and waking me up. We were packed in this place pretty tight and I thought he was just a restless sleeper and that I would talk to him about it in the morning. His restlessness was not the problem. It was my snoring. Apparently I make noises that no human could possibly make. According to them I sounded like a cross between a small herd of asthmatic horses after a twenty mile run and the steam engine room of the SS Clermont. Therefore Jo’s in the camper I am in the tent. Earlier in the week I had set up the tent on the wooden deck, approximately thirty feet behind the camper. By the way, I highly recommend this tent; it is a “Eureka Apex XT” 2 man tent, it’s light, easy to assemble and waterproof, however if you plan to put 2 men in it they should be very small or lovers or both.

Around noon I left for the Asheville, N.C. airport via the interstate system to get Jo, who would arrive around 2pm. We connected as planed hugged and started off on out little adventure. It sure was great to see her again.
We decided to drive back on the “Blue Ridge Parkway” and were rewarded with some wonderful scenic views.





Jo was impressed with the Old Corundum campground as I gave her the tour. That evening we sat on the deck and relaxed, soaking up the mountain tranquility.







Saturday, May 10, 2008

It rained fairly hard last night and although the rain hitting the tent was quite noisy I stayed perfectly dry. Come morning the sun came out bright and cheery. Jo informed me that during lulls in the rain storm last night she could hear me snoring, even over the babbling stream and then still with the window closed. It such a joy having Jo visiting.

Around 10am we set off for the gem shows.



It was huge and it was a bit overwhelming at times. It was hard to get a handle on prices as one booth might charge less for one type of item and more for another than its neighboring booth. I had planned to purchase a better grade of opal than I already had but when I found out I was looking at between two thousand and five thousand dollars for the material they had, I decided that the 3 small bottles of opal that I had would be just fine for what I was doing. If things worked as planed I could always reconsider and contact the opal dealers at a later date.
Two and a half hours later we went for lunch and then to another show for another hour or so and decided that we had had enough.

We returned to OCM (Old Corundum Mill Campground) packed up, hitched up and hatted up to the Sundowner RV campground in Hayesvill NC.



The Sundowner RV Park is a rocks throw from Georgia and 6 miles from the William Holland School.





We are due at the school on Sunday sometime between 3pm and 6pm to sign in and have our get acquainted dinner with the staff and students. In the mean time it is time for me to erect my bedroom. Which, at Jo’s instruction, is approximately eighty to a hundred feet down the hill and into the woods.



The Temperature tonight is expected to be in the high thirties. Man it sure is good having her here sharing this adventure.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Another sunny and beautiful day and even though it got down to the low 40’s last night I was warm and snug in my sleeping bag and tent. We ran into Young Harris, GA for some supplies. Young Harris is about 5 times bigger than Molina GA but we still could not find a grocery or hardware store, so we ended up going to Hayesville, NC which is a teaming metropolis in comparison.

At 5 pm we left for the school and signed in. The meal was a good old country dinner of roast beef and potatoes, which was very good but did not go with my dietary plan. I will be eating most of my meals at home rather than at the school. Afterward we had our class orientation, which lasted later than we expected and we didn’t get home until 9ish.

Monday, May 12, 2008

William Holland School is a two story building built into the side of a small mountain in Northeastern Georgia. This picture is from the uphill side of the building and the second story is below ground on this side and exposed on the other side. The class rooms are on the bottom level and the Lodge or student sleeping quarters are upper level. That is what you are seeing in this photo.



Here is the mess hall. The meals looked good in that down home southern cooking sort of way.



First day of classes. The morning went well as we did several small projects that were fairly simple, but in the afternoon session, we had an earring project that had Jo in fits and she was ready to quit. I struggled with it a little bit but many of the concepts of wire wrapping are similar to other crafts and projects that I have done before, besides I’m just good. Jo finally got the hang of it but was not feeling good about her efforts.
Here is a picture of our class.



As you can see I am the only male in the class.

I have more to post but not enough time. see ya soon.
AV