We are still new, has enough time passed to have learned any lessons yet?
My brain goes immediately to Lora Hart (a RAW participant) whose submissions have a descriptions of what she learned, here is one example from her first Ring A Week submission:
1. It's best to have the correct materials.
2. 26g copper is not the best for a ring
3. People who use solder as an accent are most likely working with engraved depressions.
4. Solder really doesn't fill a gap no matter how much you use.
5. A Dremel engraver doesn't do the same thing as a real graver (not that I know how to use one of those)
6. Soldering steel is not as scary as I thought.
7. It's best to have the right tools.
8. Clean up is much more difficult than with metal clay (which I already knew)
I think we do really learn something with each piece we make, if we allow ourselves to see it.
Some things I've learned so far:
- It's way easier to weld a gap than to solder it
- A sketch and the 3-d object it's supposed to become can be two completely different things
- Sometimes pods look like poop
- You can make a triceratops head out of metal and comfortably wear it while bicycling
- It's fun to experiment with color and heat on metal
- The resin will eventually arrive
- You can fold metal just like you can fold paper (Erin Austin)
- Body parts are very inspirational
- You can get amazing colors and designs from polymer clay
- We keep working and thinking even when we're sick (or our families are sick) or on vacation
- Ice can be set into a ring like a stone
- Talons can be a cool inspiration
- Pirates are cool
Stephen King, Danse Macabre, p.85, Berkeley Books 1983.