Field trips are fun

I told myself I wasn't going to do it. And I really meant it. This was only going to be a fact-finding trip and to pick up a few odds and ends. But I asked my questions about rectifiers and after I made it clear that, no, if the 10 amp only would work on say a bangle, then, no, a 10 amp really wouldn't do the job for me. Not at all. And lookee there the 25 amp only costs $10 more. All this and heaven too.

So I bought it.

And the Grobet booklet on plating which seems to be just about the only thing out there. (Maybe finding info on plating is like knowing the password to get into a speakeasy, once I know where to go and who to talk to, suddenly the doors will all open up.) I also picked up a steel anode and a fine silver one. Apparently I need to 'silver strike' first, using the steel anode and then switch to the fine silver anode to do my real plating.

I am so excited.

I also picked up the Fretz planishing double-faced planishing hammer with changeable heads. I realized that I needed that after buying the Fretz shell stake on the last field trip. It's the correct size to work with his mini stake and the changeable heads will not mar the surface of the stake. I'm one step closer to some serious anticlastic forming.

Class starts again on Wednesday. I'm so excited. I am sooooooooooooooooo excited. Class starts on Wednesday.

On the trip down I picked Pat's brain about various teachers with a mind toward's taking more classes. She highly recommends Newell, says that he pushes his students really hard but I won't mind that. It's just the stuff I've heard about some of his rather high-handed practices, taking stuff and ripping it up. Whoa, there, Sonny Jim, there's no call for that sort of behavior. She says that Robert Malinowski teaches painting. And that would be good, I very much like the man from the few days I was in his class (before I sprained my ankle and had to withdraw).

Did I mention that I'm excited.