Small bits of satisfaction

 As we get ready to return to Maleny, we have managed a few more minutes here and there of making and creating.  One of the things I enjoy about being here in the cottage is that I face limitations. Plenty of them in terms of space, materials, equipment and time.

With making jewellery, I don't have access to a roller which is a key part of what I do. It takes the round wire pebble forms and flattens them. I can try to hammer them flat; but I find that without a large hammer and a large anvil it just doesn't seem to create the best effect.

So I decided I would do lots pf preparation, and take the pieces back to Maleny and use the roller there.  In between times after soldering the forms, I usually 'pickle' them to get the heat marks off them.

Again back in Maleny I have a small crock pot with a pickling solution and I pop the pieces in and leave them in for about five minutes then collect them all nice and clean.

I had imagined I would take the forms back and pickle them there; yet one night as I lay awake I thought about googling non toxic pickle mixes to make. And lo and behold I had all the ingredients I needed, here in the kitchen.

Vinegar and salt. I laughed as the salt is our fabulous salt from Blackthorn Salt - have a look at the magnificent way they make salt and the beautiful building they do it in here - and not just plain old table salt. But needs must. Luckily the vinegar was distilled cleaning vinegar!

Again, I don't have a crockpot for regular and slow warming, but we do have a microwave, so it was pour in the vinegar, stir in the salt and then heat it for 30 seconds. Then drop the pieces in a few at a time to see what might happen.

Yay! They came out shiny and clean!

Hopefully lots of new jewellery waiting to be.

And is so often the case, you do something, buy something and then see it everywhere. And so it was when we popped in to the Clachan Cafe through he week and went to look at Barry's sculpture in place and on display, and sitting quietly in a window was this great old typewriter!

And a final few photos of the weather, and the water, and the rocks, and the fishing net drying poles before we go...