Most of this week I've felt a new calm strength. I went ahead and marked and drilled 1/8" holes in my 5/16" round bar that I've curved to make part of my piece. (This is the piece with the lovely working title of CM3 - well, really, with a working title of "Take Heart.") And I drilled the matching holes in the base perfectly. The thing that seems so strange and wonderful is that I did it all without any anxiety - a certain excitement, exhilaration, but no worry or doubt. "Calm strength" is the only way to express it.
I've been working on the other unsolved part of this piece (that is, the unsolved part that I know about. Something else may pop up later.) I have several solutions that look workable so it's just a matter of choosing the one that works best with the piece. It took some exploration at the hardware store and at www.mscdirect.com to find what I need - and I ended up ordering supplies from www.rings-things.com also, supplies I've wondered about for years! OK, now I'm going to find out which ideas work and which don't.
This is all very extreme for one sculpture, but I'm still working out ways to join the paper and iron. So everything I do for these early pieces is also for dozens more to come. I'm working with great zest and excitement again.
One thing on my list to do this week was to make space. You'd laugh if you saw the Nest (the little clean studio) now. When I made a hardware order this morning, I had my clipboard and notes and notebook perched on top of little boxes of screws and nuts that I'd unpacked the day before. I hadn't gotten to town to buy the little multi compartment boxes for them so they were just there on the table. The drawing board, needless to say, was covered with experiments on solving my joint problem. It says a lot about my state of mind that I dealt with all of this with calm humor.
This afternoon I did get the boxes, so tomorrow everything will get put away. The big Dick Blick order came today, a few days earlier than I expected, so it will be a challenge to put those things away. Maybe I'll just wait till I finish what I'm doing with this piece and start painting iron.
It dawned on me that my paint could be out of date by now. So I've decided to paint one or two of the little test pieces a day ahead of the rest of the paint jobs. If a layer doesn't apply or dry properly, I'll know in time. I can always get more at Grainger's in Gainesville if I have to.
Last week I really didn't like starting first thing in the blacksmithing studio. I had painting experiments I wanted to do, and I was scared about going on with the pieces in iron. Also, for one reason or another I'd start in the blacksmithing studio and never get to the clean studio. So I missed it. But gradually I got into the work with iron, and have been able this week to start with iron and then move into the clean studio later. Now I'm really happy that I'm doing it this way. By July and hot weather, I'm sure I'll be glad.
10:18:05 PM 
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