April 30, 2023.
A week ago today, I got home from a very fun and successful Greyhounds in Gettysburg (GIG). As I told many people who took my business cards during the event, my website is a mess. I hired a web programmer to set this up on my blog site, which I was already paying to host, along with my URL name that was tied to my now-deceased Zibbet shop. I got some items listed, and then discovered that many of my photographs from the old Zibbet site had gotten lost. Soon after that discovery, I was injured by my over-exuberant adolescent greyhound puppy, and was unable to sit upright comfortably at my computer for over 8 months.
I’m healed up enough now to sit upright for hours at a time. I found the file folder of Zibbet photos. I even just added a search bar so you can look for things by name, instead of having to scroll through every category to shop. I just need to do an inventory count on what came home with me from GIG, and then maybe I can finally get this thing working and get everything I have available listed for the first time ever.
I’ve made some executive decisions during my down time. As you may or may not know, several years ago we had a major basement sewage pipe flood that required the tiled concrete floor to be torn up. After the pipes were replaced, we had to empty the basement completely in order for the floor to be fixed and new flooring installed. The contents of my casting and fabrication shops were both hastily emptied into the garage.
While cleaning things to pack them, I discovered silica dust, a byproduct of the lost wax metal casting process, on everything. Silica dust is extremely dangerous if inhaled, and despite taking big precautions to keep everything as clean as I could while casting, it was all over the basement. Wearing a respirator while casting helps–right then. But if the dust is still in the basement later, it could be stirred up and inhaled when we’re doing something else. Lung silicosis can be fatal, and there is no treatment other than removing the silica-damaged lung(s). I decided I no longer want to cast metal in my home. If I ever get a chance to build a separate shop with great ventilation, I’d happily cast metal again–but I won’t cast metal in my basement.
I recently had to use a casting company to fill an order for a choir for whom I’ve made 10-year membership jewelry in the past. That was eye-opening, as it cost me way more per piece than I had expected, due to the cost of preparing each wax model for the casting process. The prep cost per piece would be the same for any metal I requested. On bronze pieces, that prep cost would be more than most of the pieces would sell for. I decided to no longer carry anything made of bronze except perhaps some keychains–that decision hasn’t been finalized yet. So most, if not all of the bronze will be going. Watch for clearance prices!
I’ve also decided to cut back the number of different styles of charms I carry, again due to that prep cost per piece. Things that aren’t regular sellers will be cut from the line. The cats, parrots, crosses, miscellaneous charms, some of the greyhounds, and most of the non-greyhound dogs will be going. They’ll be on clearance, price TBD. I will also eventually have the molds for these up for sale somewhere, either here or on eBay. I’m also going to be selling a huge number of unique charms and buttons, many of which are antiques, that I purchased to make molds that were used to make wax copies for casting. Watch this space–now that I’m able to work at the computer, with luck this will all happen fairly soon!