Creating a new product for our range is an exciting venture. One filled with creativity and exuberance, but also filled with a lot of hit and misses to reaching the end goal of a sellable item. Now last week a friend of ours called Conan bumped into Steve at the shops and they got to talking, (to read the actual account go to http://wombatforge.blogspot.com ). Conan asked Steve if he was making, or planned to make, ear cuffs......now Steve's train of thought went a bit awry (naughty) for a few seconds until Conan explained what they were. With the fear gone of what Steve thought Conan wanted him to make, the excitement of starting a new project was created and the ball started rolling the next day with trying to make these ear cuffs out of stainless steel sheets.
Now because Steve didn't actually have any ear cuffs on hand to sample how big, narrow or wide they should be, there was a long process of trying to get it to the right shape and size. The first couple of cuffs were looking great but unfortunately did not sit quite right on the upper or side of the ear, they would slip off all the time. We looked at each other and decided that our ears were small and narrow compared to the average Jo Blow. So we were thrilled when Conan dropped in for a visit because here were a third pair of ears to sample the ear cuffs........until we saw how narrow and dainty his ears were! Sorry Conan but they are!
Anyway during Conan's visit the men got side tracked (as blokes tend to do) and ended up tinkering in the forge.........an hour or so later Conan walks out with a swirly hook that he had just made with Steve's guidance. Chuffed with himself, he had to quickly leave as he was already late in picking up the kids, but promised to return for another blacksmithing lesson. It was great having him here, the instigator of the ear cuff seeing the early stages of getting this new line created.
Once Conan left, Steve got back to tweaking and narrowing the opening of the ear cuff until he finally decided that he got it right and it was ready to try on. So I slid the cuff onto my ear and I must admit that it did feel better and more snug. The chances of it falling off was slim to none now.......but thanks to Steve's 'help' he decided that it should sit deeper onto the ear rim.......the chances of it coming off even if I wanted it to was now NONE! At first I thought it looked great, but I tried to slide it down a bit more and realised that it would not budge! I wasn't panicky about it because I thought if I couldn't get it off at least it looked good.........but then the throbbing started. I tried several times to slide it off with no success at all, so I decided to let some time pass before trying again or else it would just swell up too much. I went for a drive with the boys to the local shops and got back 20 minutes later to try again.
I was feeling cocky about it this time and just went to the mirror to slide the cuff off...........holly #%^*# that hurt like hell and it still did not budge!!! I now noticed a little red dot appearing inside my ear......my breathing started to quicken and my heart beat started to pace. Every time I tried to slide the cuff off a sharp pain would blind me.....the feeling of suffocation would enter my mind.
Yes I know I wasn't going to suffocate, but you can't tell me that trying to get your hands out of a very tight pair of washing gloves doesn't have you swirling around the kitchen floor like a dog with worms! Well that was the state that I was in now.......I was loosing it big time and the image of a huge pair of bolt cutters slicing my ear off wasn't helping! What also wasn't helping was my youngest son telling me how to tug, the dog getting up on hind legs to see what the commotion was all about and Steve trying to 'help' again by pushing the cuff even further onto my ear!!! By this point I'd banned him to go anywhere near my ear or else I was going to cause him some serious bodily throbbing of his own down the lower region! Every time I'd try to slide the cuff off the stinging pain would paralyse me. Then once again Steve would come with the suggestion of pulling the ear longways from top to bottom so as to narrow the width of my ear. I on the other hand was thinking of how to dispose of his body!.......But unfortunately I did see some reason to his unwanted suggestion. So I thought to myself that I'd delivered two big headed babies without drugs years ago, therefore this WILL BE a walk in the park in comparison. I told Steve to tug the top of my ear up as I'd pull the lobe of my ear down, and I decided that I would not care how much it was going to hurt, this damn cuff was coming off NOW!!!
Tug up....Pull down....Pull the cuff off as hard as I could sideways....OUCH OUCH #%^# OUCH......and finally it scraped off!!! Oh thank god I can breath again. I turned the cuff over to look at the width of the opening and thought how the hell did I get that on in the first place?
Well I'm happy to say that Steve went back into the forge with his modern day band of torture and cut a larger opening, and it now goes on and slides off without any pain.
The picture below shows the non painful cuffs in varying patterns.
When I decided to become a jeweller along side Steve I never thought that the jewelry making process could become such a painful and tear jerking task. I'm sure it won't be the last time either that I become the guinea pig of one of his creations, as we do plan to make bangles as well........best to get the butter ready for that one!
So when you do finally see a 'WOMBAT FORGE' cuff on sale at www.etsy.com/shop/RedHavenStudios please remember that pets and children were not harmed in the making of it......just a 41 year old mother was!
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