Dental Work, Happy Hour, Rocking at the Rock Shop, and Making Chain Mail, (the Idiots Delight)

I simply can’t believe how fast time flies by! It’s been over a week since I have updated the blog and I guess it’s been because we have been so busy. The past week has seen us busily preparing for the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Show, feasting on Happy Hour ribs and brisket, getting caught up on my dental work, and making chain mail,(and yes the pattern is called the Idiots Delight which kind of tells you something).

So let’s get the bad news done first. Last fall I went outside to take a picture of the moon, poking its way through the smoke filled haze. As I was taking images with my mouth open I sneezed and of course my loose dental crown fell out. We spent the next two days looking for it as it fell into gravel, with no luck.

Knowing I now had to plan a trip to Mexico to replace the crown I was so overjoyed that I put it off until my tooth became worse. Deciding that it was time to visit a US dentist, Renita called and found one that had crowns for only 595. So we spent two days driving back and forth from here to Corpus Christi and I had a wonderful time with an extraction and a root canal. Suffice it to say it was more than 595……

The rest of the week was much more pleasant. Our happy hour group had a brisket and ribs cook off and so we all gathered on Friday and enjoyed the work of chefs Jim and Gerry. I of course was restricted to soft food so I concentrated on the desserts. Lois made her carrot cake, (which drew a marriage proposal from one of the men,) and Jane made her homemade and handpicked blackberry pie. They were both to die for!

Saturday we went to the rock shop and I sawed rocks as Renita ground a stunning charoite cabochon As we were working our friend and mentor Dick showed up and gave us his usual expert advice. He told me my beautiful blue chalcedony was dyed and he told Renita her cabochon was asymmetrical, he certainly doesn’t mince words! However at 88 years old he knows about ten times more than we do and so we both thanked him for his input.

Finally I have come up with a design for making chain mail. It’s actually from a silversmith book. I first made a mandrel to form the rings from a piece of straight round wire, then sawed and trimmed each ring, before joining them in a weave pattern called, the Idiots Delight. Now the book says it’s named that because you may feel like an idiot trying to figure it out and suffice it to say I definitely took a while to get it right.

Of course I made my first two in brass and copper and then ordered premade rings from our supplier for one in sterling silver and one in 14k gold filled wire. I really would like to make my own rings from gold and silver but my saw isn’t good enough to cut the rings without a lot of wasted metal. The purchased rings still required me to handle each one three times in preparation for the chaining.

Regardless, I love making the chain mail and the modified necklaces and Renita says I do tend to sit there and grin while making them, hmmmm. Clear skies.