Head above the water

Originally Published 11-11-2012

This weekend is the first one I have had free -- relatively speaking -- since mid-May. It is amazing to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you have been in it for so long you forget what daylight is like. I am 2 objects away from done on the book, I've got most of my teacher proposals and paperwork in the can for 2013, and all of my Cool Tools & Hip Tips columns for this year and most of next year have been either written, filed or settled on. Can somebody say, "Whew?"

I haven't seen my friends or family except for absolute dire necessities for almost 9 months. No dance classes, no workshops, no gym, no vacation, no fun, no nothing but work for 24/7. Boy am I tired! But now that there is light streaming into the tunnel, I can finally reflect on what I have finished this year, and all I can say is I have no clue how I managed to get it all done.

So here is the scoop on the fruits of all this labor: The Jewelry Maker's Field Guide: Tools and Essential Techniques book is in the design/photography/editing phase and is scheduled to be out around this time next year. I will be filming my 6th Metalsmith Essentials DVD: Spirals, Tubes and Serpentine Forms in late April, and I am already scheduled to teach at workshops in Tucson, Arizona in February, and Pennsylvania in April and probably August. My Cool Tools & Hip Tipscolumns promise to get you involved creating content too in 2013, so stand by.

I will post more here as I know more, and thanks for hanging in there with me.

PS: You know, there is something to be said for a long weekend of bad junk food and crappy, tacky 1960s horror movies after a long, long, long hard period of seemingly endless work...