I've been spending less and less time at the torch this past winter partly because of FaceBook, FarmVille, etc but there's an underlying cause I have been trying to deny.
I have been slowly, over the last several years, been experiencing loss of strength in my hands and this winter the middle joint of my middle finger on my left hand swelled to nearly half again normal size and the pain has been just awful. I finally broke down and bought one of the paraffin spa things which I luckily found online at Target. I don't know that it helped much. I also started taking big doses of ibuprofen until I was reminded that the stuff erodes your cartilage faster than the arthritis. So I stopped that and began taking 500mg aspirin caplets. Since the cold weather has finally begun to ease back the pain has lessened but a couple of days ago it flared up again.
The good news, and there does seem to be some, is that by working, the pain generally lessens. I suspect it's close exposure to the heat thrown off by the torch. Also, even when the pain is bad, turning the mandrel isn't a big problem. Hanging onto it could be ... I'm waiting for the day I drop a hot bead onto my lap. Maybe I should get a leather apron, just in case.
All whining aside, I'm also finding that once I make myself sit down and fire up the torch I don't want to quit. I LOVE what I do even if it isn't "art." I'm happy to be able to do craft.
I would like to hear from my customers on a number of different things. What colors are you looking for? How many beads do you WANT in a set (I just arrived at 6 as an out-of-the-hat number. I really prefer doing odd numbered sets but ???)? What sizes? What shapes? So post a reply here and get an entry for the April bead giveaway. Fan my Facebook page and get an entry. Buy a set of beads from ebay or my Etsy shop and get an entry.
And now it's time to get off the computer and go clean all the beads I made yesterday ...
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