.....it is only a test.  

In the event of a water landing your hammers, anvils and hoards of precious metals can not be used as flotation devices despite how much they cost.

Why is this a test?

Hanuman has installed the WP-o-Matic for me, so what I publish here on The Adventurous Silversmith will appear also on my Ganoksin Blog. It might take 24 hours to appear bit it will save me time.

Hmm, WP-o-Matic... sounds like a Wallace & Gromit Invention to me. Any one have some Wensleydale Cheese?? 

Back in December, I picked up a large "rustic" ball stake off of ebay for about 40 bucks before shipping costs. It is almost 3" in diameter and brand new something like this would cost almost $200. 

 It looks like an old and possibly home made stake because the tang is long and round plus only the bottom of the tang is square to fit into the hardy hole of an anvil.   The stake is/was black and had quite a bit of surface grime plus it was very pitted and not even round. There is a flat spot on the top and other flat spots on the "ball".   

The first thing i did this morning was take it to the wire brush I have on my grinding motor.  Then I went at it with a very coarse criss-cross cut file. I wanted to get out pits and get rid of the flat spots.  That took over an hour. Then I moved onto another file that had a finer cut than the previous file. I  worked out the deeper groove and refined the shape further. I also rounded the area around the top flat spot some what - it's just not as big as before and it blends into the rest of the stake better.  

At this point my hands were black so I went and cleaned them up and went back to the garage and next took the stake to a white advantage wheel on the other spindle of my grinder. Using this wheel i was able to remove most of the remaining file marks, more pits and remove the slight ridges that were still there to the touch.  This process is slow and with not a lot of pressure because if the wheel grabs the stake I could end up with a tang in my face - that and taking too much off and just making it worse. 

We are now 3 hours into the process and I was finally ready to go back upstairs and work with the sand paper.  I think I used 2 sheets of the 280 and the 320 grit paper.  Then the 400 and 600 which gave a good finish but I decided to go at it with my very fine papers too. 

I am now done and my husband can't believe the difference.  In all, it took almost 5 hours to redress.

It is pretty good looking and it now looks like a funny dome stake vs. a ball stake. The picture below is of my hand after using the sand paper.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture but you can see the after pictures over on the Tools of the Craft page.

I received really good news this week. I was accepted at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft for the second session. 

I went to Metals Week in Idyllwild, California last year. It is organized by Deb, who we all know by now, is my teacher & mentor.  I had a wonderful time but afterwards I knew I had to find a class that allowed me to focus on Raising. 

When the new year rolled around, I started checking the websites of the other summer metals programs around the country. I checked them weekly, waiting for the day when they would post the programs for 2011.  

It was only the second week of January and Haystack posted their course offerings and I found not one but three courses that interested me: A course on raising & sinking, a course on flatware and another on fabrication of small hollowware.  Not only did I fill out the application that Saturday, with my first choice of  Metal Moves which is a two week session, my husband took it to FedEx on Monday and I had an acknowledgement of receipt two days later. 

Now I had to wait to be accepted. I would not be notified until mid-April. 

And while I waited I scoped out other programs on the off-chance I was not accepted.   There was a period of several weeks that I did not think about it at all because I was so busy at work.

Last week a reminder popped up on my computer informing me that I could email Haystack and ask if I was accepted.  I sent off an email before I went to bed with the hope I would have an email waiting for me in the morning.

YES I DID, and the subject line was "CONGRATS...."  To say I was ecstatic all day would be an understatement. 

So now I have to make my travel arrangements, schedule vacation time at work and count the days until I go.

I think she is trying to come out... 

Over the weekend I was talking to my trainer (at the gym for weights) and we were admiring each others earrings.   I was wearing my cross-forged drops and she was wearing what was circle with graduated forged drops that could slide back on the circles. 

So this weekend, I am going down to Debs to make another pair of cross-forged drops for Caroline and a pair of her earrings for me.

Yes, I do have all the tools and equipment and material at home but a think some creative camaraderie might help get the muse to actually open the door to the closet and show herself - that and moving the tool box away from the door, might help. 

Oh, and hopefully I will know if I was accepted to the summer program in just a few days.

I am waiting for inspiration because some how the craziness of  February has resulted in me loosing my muse, if I ever had one.  Is there such a thing as smithing block? This would in lieu of writers block because I am not a writer but a smith.

I use to find myself "seeing" vessels and other ideas in my head while I was taking my walk at lunch; while driving home. Now I don't have these ideas popping into my head.   

On Fridays, I was planning what I would be working on over the weekend. This isn't happening either.

So, for the time being I am rearranging my studio (again) and completing the last 4 hammers that still need to be redressed. 

I worry if the spark has been lost....

I am also waiting to hear if I was accepted into a summer program.  I applied to the Haystack Mountain School of Craft. I have 12 days to go.  

I am hoping the news of getting accepted will get me excited again.