Friday, 3 January 2014

January – Organization Time

December went by in a blur.  A few private shows, the holidays and mild illness ate up my month (darn colds and flues).  I feel like I am finally on the road to better days. 

In the spirit of better days, I have started some planning, cleaning and organization of my studio and work tables.  One of the things I tackled today was sorting and organizing the plastic bags that are so essential to a jewellery artisan’s work.  We use the bags to store all kinds of supplies; gemstones, glass and Lucite beads, wire, findings, and so on.

Plastic bags are indispensable for sterling silver, copper, brass and silver plated wire and components.  The bags protect all these metals from oxygen.  It’s the oxygen in the air that causes jewellery, and the raw metal parts, to tarnish faster.





It doesn’t look like there are a lot there but it took me almost an hour to sort, put them together by size and bundle inside larger bags.  It’s a great opportunity to determine what my inventory of plastic bags is, and to realize; I don’t need to get any right now, something I was seriously thinking I needed to do!

At the top of the picture peeking out is another item the bags get used for – individual packages of anti-tarnish cloths for sterling silver jewellery.